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Chipping and Pitching are terrible. Where to start?


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I'm hitting the ball fairly well tee-to-(near) green, but my short game sucks. My tracking software has me in the top 40% in almost every phase of the game compared to similar handicappers, but in the bottom 5% for scrambling/short game. I'm losing 4-5 strokes every round from very easy chips/pitches just off the green. I've tried Monte's video and Dan's stuff, Sieckmann's book, etc. but I can't seem to implement any of them correctly. I think I have some fundamental setup issues or something that are causing my problems. I try to set up to the ball like a minishot, ball middle/forward and use the bounce, but I have a fair amount of misses fat, bladed and a high proportion of shanks too. I feel like I'm losing my balance towards the ball during the downswing, so I suspect a balance issue that's being exacerbated by an in-to-out swing plane issue. The worst is when I actually mentally seize up during the shot and just throw my hips and hand at the ball with a wide open clubface and shank it, usually on the short pitch shots. My Dad confirmed that I'm sucking the club back inside, but even when I try to push the hands straight back or out on the backswing, I tend to get quick and early extend/shank. It's gotten to the point where I dread missing the green now. I play almost all of my shots inside of 80 yards with my 58* with 12* bounce.

 

I basically want to start from scratch and relearn the entire short game. I'm definitely willing to put in the time and practice correctly, I just don't know how or where to start. Can anyone please recommend a book with drills they found helpful? Also, if anyone has a recommendation for a good short game instructor in the San Diego area, that would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks.

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I too have struggled with the short game. One of my biggest problems I have is decelerating through the stroke. I also tend to go to fast on my backswing. My instructor told me to slow down my backswing and push through the stroke. This has helped tremendously. Now I still chunk a few but I hit a solid shot much more often. Now direction and distance is another discussion. He also told me to make sure I have my weight on my front foot. In order to help me he put a alignment stick behind me at an angle so I could only go so far with the backswing and would have to accelerate through the stroke to fly the ball far enough to land it where needed.

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For what it's worth I had the same issue; in fact we could have made the same post. I bought all the aforementioned instructors videos and still could not get good results. Literally any pitch or chip would cost me 3 strokes minimum. About a month ago I came to the realization that I was so focused on the arm action described in the videos (right arm always moving, etc) that I completely neglected any pivot at all. I quit worrying about the arms and focused on the right knee pointing at the target after the shot and the last few weeks have been 100% better; no matter what technique I choose to use (monte, dan, or traditional ball back).

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Hit more greens.

 

But seriously, I am just getting over some short game problems. A simple straight-on chip was a nightmare for me, let alone anything that needed any finesse. What I found was that my timing was all over the place and then I watched Phil's short game video and it sort of just put the fundamentals back in my head.

 

I'm no expert by any means so you're better off probably disregarding this whole post but maybe you're just overthinking things?

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The sieckmann book has do's and don'ts. If you take video you should be able to find the faults and the fixes for it. But as Monte said, you put it up here, he will do it for you. It's one of the few short game resources I've found like that.

 

If you have a smartphone it probably has a slow motion feature which is useful for the golf swing to see the clubface when shaft is parallel to the ground.

[url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUz5cMht6OE"]I like to tee the ball up.. using man sized clubs.[/url]

[quote name='MonteScheinblum' timestamp='1496985379' post='15667418']
[quote name='mothman65' timestamp='1496984980' post='15667404']
Is Melbourne getting any closer to happening Momte?
[/quote]

Still need some more, but it's pretty likely I'll come. Just don't know when yet.
[/quote]

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Yeah definitely need a video. Nothing cathartic like seeing you shank a nice easy chip shot. LOL I'm kidding. It's also weird to hear that you are losing your balance on a chip shot. Something is seriously wrong and should be easy to make a big improvement on. Chip and pitches I'm mostly using body rotation and don't think about hands as much. See the Jason Day way. It's simpler and more consistent. The less timing involved the better. I used to feel like that's part of the feel, but after a while you get feel using your body as well. Look at most pro's chip. The club will stay in front of the body, maintaining that triangle. Pitch shots too. Just using the body to control the distance with a little more release into it for a better strike.

 

You want to zero out your clubpath a little to not be too inside out. Also for easier chips you can try it with a 9 iron or PW and do a little bump and run. Those are smaller movements and easier to execute. Don't fret too much over the ball on those shots. It'll just mess you up more. Accept that you have practiced those shots enough and bad shots will happen and you're OK with them.

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For what it's worth I had the same issue; in fact we could have made the same post. I bought all the aforementioned instructors videos and still could not get good results. Literally any pitch or chip would cost me 3 strokes minimum. About a month ago I came to the realization that I was so focused on the arm action described in the videos (right arm always moving, etc) that I completely neglected any pivot at all. I quit worrying about the arms and focused on the right knee pointing at the target after the shot and the last few weeks have been 100% better; no matter what technique I choose to use (monte, dan, or traditional ball back).

Similar to the above ...

 

The most important thing in a golf shot is to keep the left hip rotating through impact :Tomasello

 

http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/topic/822771-the-single-most-important-thing-about-any-shot-in-golf-is-to-always-keep-the-left-hip-rotating-through-impact/

 

Learn to get the lower body pivoting a bit because if you are all arms ... you are just stabbing at the ball.

To keep the left hip rotating ... I feel my front knee extend (straighten) until well after impact.

Many Hands make Light Work. Many Eyes make Accurate Work. gWRX - the Greatest golf forum on the Internets :).

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A picture (in this case video) is worth a thousand words.

 

For me when I got better at short game stuff, the difference maker was committing to the shot and being more aggressive. I always "babied" the shot, meaning I took a long, but slow backswing and a slow and long downswing. I got much better when I shortened everything up but increased the actual speed and tempo of the swing.

 

 

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A picture (in this case video) is worth a thousand words.

 

For me when I got better at short game stuff, the difference maker was committing to the shot and being more aggressive. I always "babied" the shot, meaning I took a long, but slow backswing and a slow and long downswing. I got much better when I shortened everything up but increased the actual speed and tempo of the swing.

 

Great point.

Hard to have that confidence if you just skulled the first shot over the green !

:golfer:

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In browsing a recent Golf Mag I saw an article about a "new" chipping and pitching technique using the sidesaddle method. It is just using a very open set up. After an extremely poor chipping exhibition a few weeks ago I started toying with it and the results have been good.

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A picture (in this case video) is worth a thousand words.

 

For me when I got better at short game stuff, the difference maker was committing to the shot and being more aggressive. I always "babied" the shot, meaning I took a long, but slow backswing and a slow and long downswing. I got much better when I shortened everything up but increased the actual speed and tempo of the swing.

 

Great point.

Hard to have that confidence if you just skulled the first shot over the green !

:golfer:

That's why golf is hard! The hardest short shot (besides obvious awkward lies) for me is when I'm in some rough about 5 feet off the green and the pin is fairly close. To have the confidence to still give it a decent amount of force so it gets out of the rough, but be soft enough to not thin it and send it flying past the pin is incredibly tough.

 

 

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A picture (in this case video) is worth a thousand words.

 

For me when I got better at short game stuff, the difference maker was committing to the shot and being more aggressive. I always "babied" the shot, meaning I took a long, but slow backswing and a slow and long downswing. I got much better when I shortened everything up but increased the actual speed and tempo of the swing.

 

This is pretty much what my instructor was/is trying to get me to do. I still have a tendency to take it too easy since it is such a short shot I always feel like I am going to hit it too far. But when I commit I usually hit it solid. It may not be quite the right distance but that just is practice and feel.

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In browsing a recent Golf Digest I saw an article about a "new" chipping and pitching technique using the sidesaddle method. It is just using a very open set up. After an extremely poor chipping exhibition a few weeks ago I started toying with it and the results have been good.

 

Yeah, it was in the recent Golf magazine. My Dad had me try it. It worked for a couple of holes but then I started yipping and digging it again. Did eliminate the shanks though.

 

Thanks to everyone for their contributions. I'll try to sneak away from work at lunch and take a video.

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A lot of guys like Seve and Trevino would set up pretty open for these shots, and open up the club face (create more spin, get better control). However I find that unless I am striking the ball particularly well that day, this type of technique can produce a lot of thin or fat shots due to the margin of error being a bit smaller. I generally prefer a neutral to a touch open because I can utilize my bounce a bit more. When you set up open.. you need to expose more bounce which if you are having a little yipp action... Thin city might be your next stop. It's certainly happened to me.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've made a decent bit of progress the past week or so due to two keys. The first was to keep the lower body quiet. I have to feel like my legs are frozen as stone. For some reason, this also helps relieve tension in my arms and I'm able to use them much more fluidly and allow the clubhead/shaft to catch up to the hands at impact.

 

The second thing I was missing from the Sieckmann finesse shot was the freeing of the right elbow and upper right arm in the backswing. I had been keeping it too much in front of me or tied to my hip instead of letting it work back and around my torso. Now my thoughts are just sweep it back with the Sieckmann right arm motion and then keep the right arm/humerus moving through and past impact like Monte preaches. When I do these two things I hit nice soft pitches and chips. I don't think about pivot at all. Exact same approach is working great out of bunkers too.

 

It's not pressure proof yet, but once it's there I can see my scores really coming down with the way I've been driving the ball. Well, after I dial in my distance wedges and irons. :)

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You're likely missing something youre unaware of. We need to see it.

 

The guy who made the video you watched wants to see video of your swing. My suggestion is to not pay attention to the other advice and post some video.

 

Because until then everyone is just guessing.

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