Grip when pitching

[jomatty]

I’ve been working on tightening up my short game lately and came across this video.  It’s a grip I’ve never really considered for pitching, or anything other than putting or chips basically using a putting technique. 

Does anyone grip through their lifeline with the lead hand the way they describe in this video.  
I’ve been experimenting with it some and so far results are good.  The face is very stable and contact has been good.  Personally, I have had trouble hitting the low, hard shots with a lot of check using this technique, but the soft pitches with spin are very intuitive feeling and contact has been consistently good.  
If others are using this grip, how long a pitch shot will you play before reverting to a standard grip? I’ve had success out to around 50 yards, but longer than that starts to feel awkward.  FWIW I also weaken my trail hand a bit…

[SNIPERBBB]

Its a good grip when you want to hit a chip/pitch that comes out dead. When you need them to come out a bit hot, youll need to switch a more "normal" grip. Not really about distance.

[Jayjay_theweim_guy]

4 hours ago, SNIPERBBB said:

Its a good grip when you want to hit a chip/pitch that comes out dead.

Exactly this.  Near-zero wrist addition to speed.  You're not going to get the new hotness of the 'Mayo -10° AoA, gobs of spin loft,' low hot dart. 

 

You will a get a traditional "chip" that pops up, stays somewhat low, and runs a bit.  I find the run quite predictable, assuming a flat landing area and with some experience with the landing area's green speed and grain.  Very easy to meter carry distance with backswing length, just like my putting. Or swap clubs, choke down, open/close face a tad, etc... 

 

Also more consistent and tolerant of varying low point control in my case.  Which the Mayo method, for me, definitely is not.  But that's a still new technique for me.  Fun when it works though.

 

[wagolfer7]

Curious if anyone knows of any PGA players that change grips?  Out of all the Taylor Made videos and other videos with PGA players discussing chipping, I've never heard of them changing grips.  

 

I like to play around with setup to get different shots.  For the dead shot, get closer to the ball and stand the club up more vertical.  Gets the heel off the ground and you can get a nice soft shot with loft if needed.  This seems to get a real easy chip shot and gets the wrist out of it with setup.  

 

You can also get a real soft grip pressure for real touchy shots.  

 

You can change trajectory and steepness to with setup.  Not sure if you've gone done this route yet, but you can get a ton of different shots with just changing setup as opposed to a whole new grip.  Not saying the grip route is bad, just something I've never messed with or seen with elite players yet.  

[SNIPERBBB]

1 hour ago, wagolfer7 said:

Curious if anyone knows of any PGA players that change grips?  Out of all the Taylor Made videos and other videos with PGA players discussing chipping, I've never heard of them changing grips.  

 

I like to play around with setup to get different shots.  For the dead shot, get closer to the ball and stand the club up more vertical.  Gets the heel off the ground and you can get a nice soft shot with loft if needed.  This seems to get a real easy chip shot and gets the wrist out of it with setup.  

 

You can also get a real soft grip pressure for real touchy shots.  

 

You can change trajectory and steepness to with setup.  Not sure if you've gone done this route yet, but you can get a ton of different shots with just changing setup as opposed to a whole new grip.  Not saying the grip route is bad, just something I've never messed with or seen with elite players yet.  

Tiger changed grips for short game. It was an overlap grip as I recall because that's what I use when the glove comes off for my short game shots. 

[jomatty]

18 hours ago, wagolfer7 said:

Curious if anyone knows of any PGA players that change grips?  Out of all the Taylor Made videos and other videos with PGA players discussing chipping, I've never heard of them changing grips.  

 

I like to play around with setup to get different shots.  For the dead shot, get closer to the ball and stand the club up more vertical.  Gets the heel off the ground and you can get a nice soft shot with loft if needed.  This seems to get a real easy chip shot and gets the wrist out of it with setup.  

 

You can also get a real soft grip pressure for real touchy shots.  

 

You can change trajectory and steepness to with setup.  Not sure if you've gone done this route yet, but you can get a ton of different shots with just changing setup as opposed to a whole new grip.  Not saying the grip route is bad, just something I've never messed with or seen with elite players yet.  

Yes, my stock chipping and pitching technique I simply changes ball position to change trajectory.  Ranging from the ball being inside my lead foot all the way to behind my back foot.  Handle always in the middle of my body.  Slightly weaker grip. This cover over 90% of my chipping and pitching needs.  For a little while I was experimenting with maintaining a cupped lead wrist, which worked quite well. but I decided it was not the way I wanted to go forward so have stopped using that as a stock shot.  
I had never considered pitching with a putter type grip but have definitely enjoyed the consistent run out I get with this grip.  Creating too much spin when I am not trying to is probably my biggest regular error.  I’m a 2 cap and short game is a strength, so I get around OK, but I do tend to hit have basic shots check too hard more often than I would like.  This grip seems to help with that but it is still too early to say for sure.  In general I do t like making more deviations from a stock set up and grip than necessary, which is why I ditched maintaining the cupped wrist, but this seems to have potential.  Time will tell.

[Doodlebug87]

I'm on the bandwagon with these guys at the moment and it's changed my mindset completely. I've never had such a stable ball flight. Long game is going to take a long time to bleed in, but anything less than 100 yards and the model elite golf propose is having me hit absolute darts.

 

Ref this specific video, I have been working on it and can see the benefit for a high soft one, but will need some getting used to. The Mayo model is too tempting for everything except specialist shots like being short sided.

[skraly]

I use this type of grip for chipping.  This follows Ray Floyd’s maxim that chipping is just putting with loft.  For anything requiring some loft and spin I use a more normal grip.  For more specialty shots like a lob or sand shot, I use Pete Cowan’s butterfly grip.