Pitching Lessons

MisterMizzy · August 9, 2007

All,

I have been playing golf for about a year now and regularly shoot 80, 81, 82. I am a relatively long hitter, as most of my rounds are at a 7500 yard course close to my house. While I do make some long game mistakes (to be expected), I think the area where I really need to turn 3 shots to 2 is from 100 yards and in. I've NEVER practiced my short game, just always kind of relied on feel to get the ball to the hole. That being said, I am going to make it a point to shift the focus of my practice time to my short game. Today I went out and tried using the clock method for my pitching, but it seems almost impossible for me to make the "7 o' clock" swing. It also seems that at times my different wedges went about the same distance with the same swing (could have been getting wristy, but who knows). Can anyone give me some good practice tips for pitching maybe without focusing so much on mechanics, as I think they are pretty sound already.

Thanks in advance.

SkiHound · August 10, 2007

If your mechanics are sound my only real suggestion would be to find a pitch-n-putt and play wedges of every conceivable length and from every lie you can find. Another good practice drill, though not always doable at practice ranges, is to set targets out at different distances and hit pitch shots to the targets. You can vary the distances in different practice sessions. Strategically I'd say there are two general approaches. One is the Pelz method in which you try to dial in swings of different lengths and then use multiple wedges with different lofts. I'm sure this works well for some but I always found myself paralysis by analysis using this method. I'd think about which wedge and which swing and I'd forget about the target and make a very mechanical swing. A second approach is to basically learn to hit a single wedge lots of different distances. FWIW, I think Stan Utley's "The Art of the Short Game" is pretty helpful if you're adopting the later approach. I think of Utley as sort of the aniti-Pelz.

villa · August 10, 2007

Another vote for pitch and putt courses. Granted they're normally not very well maintained and some of the guys that play them have never heard of the word etiquette but if you want to learn how to get up and down from 100 yards or so, they're perfect. If i'm struggling with that part of my game then i'll often not play my normal course for a couple of weeks.

Some guys might say differently but I think this part of the game is all about feel. You know how to play the game and how to strike a ball properly so it's just about learning to 'feel the distance' in your hands. A couple of guys I play with will tell you that the clock method is the best thing ever but there's a real risk of trying to hit the right swing instead of hitting the right shot (if that makes sense?).

I also see that you're using 56* & 60* wedges which is quite rare nowadays. They're both very lofted wedges and the distances you hit them both won't vary massively. There's certainly too big a gap between your PW (48*?) and your SW. I'm not a big fan of the 4 wedge setup but it might be worth adding a 52* gap wedge or changing (or bending) your SW to 54*.

Hope some of this helps.

spk74 · August 10, 2007

I read Pelz's book a while back and applied it pretty thoroughly. In the few years since I've relaxed it and really took two main things away from it:

1.) you need to come up with your own feel for it (he says that over and over again). Even if you follow his methods exactly, the technique and feel for your short game need to fit you...and you can't learn that from a book. It will take some time, and as those above have suggested, a par-3 course is a great way to develop that feel.

2.) buy a laser range finder. as he points out in his book, yardages are readily available all over the course until you get to within 100 yards. sure on your best days you can just look at the flag and feel the shot without a specific number. but I've found that knowing the exact distance to the flag on each shot helps my short game (and the rest of my game too). when I get up to the green I can see exactly how far my ball flew and how it reacted with the green. VALUABLE INFORMATION.

larrybud · August 10, 2007

All,

I have been playing golf for about a year now and regularly shoot 80, 81, 82. I am a relatively long hitter, as most of my rounds are at a 7500 yard course close to my house. While I do make some long game mistakes (to be expected), I think the area where I really need to turn 3 shots to 2 is from 100 yards and in. I've NEVER practiced my short game, just always kind of relied on feel to get the ball to the hole. That being said, I am going to make it a point to shift the focus of my practice time to my short game. Today I went out and tried using the clock method for my pitching, but it seems almost impossible for me to make the "7 o' clock" swing. It also seems that at times my different wedges went about the same distance with the same swing (could have been getting wristy, but who knows). Can anyone give me some good practice tips for pitching maybe without focusing so much on mechanics, as I think they are pretty sound already.

Thanks in advance.

The first thing to understand about distance control with wedges is that you MUST make consistent contact with the ball to ever hit the ball a consistent distance with the same swing. This goes for 60 yard shots, or chips around the green.

To accomplish that, your setup must be sound. I think the Pelz book is invaluable in describing not only how to do it, but why.

Once you go about hitting the ball consistently, only then can you develop a system to know what kind of shot to hit, whether it's by "feel" or swing length (it's ALL by swing length, but "feel" as opposed to an objective measure).

I find the Pelz method works great, and once I started doing it and became confident that it works, it worked even better. The only time I found "paralysis by analysis" was chipping around the green, and I stick to one club for 90% of the shots.

mikpga · August 10, 2007

Non mechanical/position thoughts for pitching.

With your feet together, just allow the arms to swing back and through. Experiment with hinging wrists. Be relaxed and focus on swinging the arms and keeping the body out of it.

MisterMizzy · August 10, 2007

Thanks for the replies guys. I do think that I need to steer clear of the over mechanical stuff. As for my wedges, I need to update my signature. I now have a 52 degree in there to close up the gap between my pitching and sandy. I've been thinking about having my gap bent to 51, sand bent to 55 and lob bent to 59. I really think it would be most beneficial to use the short game area at my course, but they have all the greens ripped up right now for renovation. For now I'm stuck hitting wedges to specific spots on the range.