Category Archives: pitching

Practice Your Long Pitching Game on the Course

Yesterday I played nine holes from tees that are way too long for me. As a result, I hit long pitches into six of the nine greens.

Two of the other greens I got on by hitting a 7-iron bump-and-run.

That is a good shot to have when you are too far away to chip, but too close to pitch, and the lie is tight.

What about the ninth green? I hit that one with a drive and a 5-wood. It had to happen at least one time!

By the way, say you have a pitch that you know goes 65 yards and you laser the pin and find that it is 65 yards away.

Whatever you do, don’t hit that pitch! It will land and release about about four yards. Hit your 60-yard pitch instead.

Anyway, you can practice pitching at the range, but the real learning takes place on the course. What I did is how you get a lot of learning done with this shot.

The Pitching Swing

A little while ago, I was watching Johnny Miller’s tape, Secrets of Success. One of the segments is on how to hit short irons.

Miller says to break your wrists early on the backswing, earlier than with longer clubs.

I thought I would try this backswing with pitching clubs. You break the wrists almost as soon as the club starts back, and let the break release naturally as the club comes into the ball.

I get clean contact, nice ball flight, and a dead straight shot. Over and over.

This stroke is much better than trying to adapt a full swing backstroke to pitching.

This video shows the difference at 0:30.

Try it.

The Vertical Dimension of Impact

Impact is the big thing these days. We have all learned that the bottom of the swing should take place somewhere in front of the ball.

How deep the bottom of the swing should be is another discussion — do you take a divot, or do you sweep the ball off the grass?

There is more to that subject, though.

First, a story.

Last summer when I had a playing lesson in which one of the shots was hitting an 80-yard pitch into a tight pin.

I took three rehearsal swings, each one of which felt good to me. The pro stopped me before I hit the ball and said each swing had been to different depths, which would send the ball to different distances.

That’s because one of the brushed the top of the grass, one of them struck the ground with a heavy thump, and the third one thumped the grand lightly.

He said if I wanted to master this shot I had to learn how to come through the ball at the same depth every time. Here’s how I’m doing it.

I have a piece thick-pile carpet and practice swinging across it with a half swing, making the same sound each time the sole of the club brushes the carpet. That means the club swung down to the same depth.

Here’s a way you might go about feeling your swing so this happens.

As you stand over the ball, feel like your arms are hanging from your shoulders like a shirt would hang down on a coat hanger — no tension, very relaxed.

Now swing the club from the point where the coat hanger is suspended, on your spine at the spot level with the top of your shoulders. Just swing back and forth with that spot as the pivot, with a good rhythm and an easy tempo, and let your arms and hands follow.

Keep a relaxed feeling in your arms the entire time. All you want in them is enough muscle power to move the club and be in control of the clubhead — no more. Don’t try to control your stroke consistently with your arms. You can’t do it, and it all gets frustrating pretty quickly.

As you repeat your swings, key in on that consistent sound of the sole of the club brushing the carpet.

Admittedly, this is all fine tuning that you don’t need if you just want to get the ball around the course. If you want to get GOOD, though, start attending to this detail.

Not to mention, after a month or so you should have a new and effective pitching stroke that will bleed over into your full swing as well.

Calibrate Your Pitching Game

The shots from 50-100 yards are hard to get right. You’re close enough that you’ll get the ball on the green. What’s hard is hitting the ball next to the pin. That means hitting it the right distance.

You can do it if you calibrate your pitching game. You’ll need a laser rangefinder and a notebook. Go to the range when there aren’t a lot of people there, because you will be switching mats all the time.

The idea is to hit your wedges with two basic strokes and find out how far the ball goes with those strokes and each club.

One stroke takes your left arm back to parallel with the ground. That’s your full pitching stroke. The other stroke takes your left arm back halfway that far. That is the short stroke.

Get in front of a marker in the range that is roughly 60 yards away. Take out your sand wedge and pitch to it with the full stroke. Hit four or five balls with that same stroke and the same force.

If they all go too far or not far enough, keep moving to other mats until you find the one from where you pitch exactly to the marker. Then take out your rangefinder and find the distance to the marker. That’s how far you pitch your sand wedge with a full pitching stroke.

Now do the same exercise with the sand wedge and your short pitching swing. When you’re finished, you have two guaranteed pitching distances with your sand wedge. Write them down in your notebook.

Repeat both exercises with each of your other pitching clubs. I have five: 9-iron, PW, 52, 56, and 60.

When you’re finished, get a 3X5 card and write down these distances, in descending order by yards, with the club/swing combination alongside that gives you that distance. This card goes into your bag for when you play.

When I’m 78 yards from the hole, for example, I look on my card and see that the shot calls for a PW with the short stroke. And when I hit that shot, the ball stops within 10-12 feet. If it doesn’t, I mishit the shot.

Pitching close shouldn’t be guesswork. It’s easy when you know what you’re doing.