- Hello, Adam Bazalgette here,
founder of Scratch Golf Academy,
PGA Teacher Of The Year.
Today's subject: pitching tips.
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So, pitching tips, what are we gonna look at there?
Two basic pitches, the same pitch really,
but off two different types of lies
that you'll face very commonly.
There's some adjustments you need to be aware of,
we'll look at those.
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Two lies you'll commonly find around the greens,
talking a little pitch shot.
One, kind of fluffy, rough,
might be sitting down a bit,
we're not talking deep rough.
The other, what I would call a tight lie,
that is to say it's on the fair,
where it's not a bad lie,
but there's no cushion under the ball.
They have to be handled a little bit differently.
Let's have a close up look at both of them,
see what nuances you can change in your stroke
and your set up, perhaps, to make a difference.
Okay, so here we are.
Now typically, when we're in some light rough
around the green,
we're gonna want a fairly high, soft shot.
Usually you're getting over a bunker,
or at least trying to stop it off the green,
and this kind of a lie is perfect.
Let me show you up close why,
the, we'll look at the stroke.
So that's about where the sweet spot of the gold club is,
this is a 58 degree sand wedge.
Now listen, with this much cushion under the ball,
even though the ball is sitting down a bit,
there's space, you don't need a lot of shaft lean
to hit it solidly.
You can just slide it right under the ball
and hit it solidly.
I'm not suggesting you scoop it or get your hands active,
but use the loft, don't de-loft it,
it's not necessary to hit this ball properly.
Okay, so ball position optional,
I go middle, maybe a little forward of middle
if you're looking for an especially high shot,
that's personal choice.
Type of swing you're looking for though,
is a fairly long, fairly soft tempo swing.
Why would that be important?
The harder you swing, if you have a good golf swing,
The more you load the shaft and lag the club.
You don't want a lag here.
We want to let the club release,
so, less energy if you like,
allows the weight of the club to just
slide past my hands,
allows the club to release a bit more, adding loft.
So here we go, pretty soft grip,
ball just a little forward,
and kind of a high finish there,
which would be indicative of letting the loft work for you
underneath that cushion lie.
So this is my 58 degree sand wedge,
and you can see where I've highlighted
the sweet spot with a dot.
You've gotta get that, if not on it, pretty close to it.
You might hit slightly below it.
Any kind of scooping, or club head passing hands
in this situation will be disastrous.
Okay, so here we go.
What I don't recommend is playing the ball way back
and leaning the shaft a lot.
The problem with that,
the club will tend to stick in the ground,
you'll use that front edge too much,
it's not necessary to do that.
If you have that kind of a tendency,
you hit this much behind it,
you literally have no margin for error,
the ball's just gonna go a yard or two.
You have to be able to use the bottom of the club
and get a little bit of skid,
but you can still do that
and stay nice and firm and compact there.
So, I'm going to try to play it about in the middle,
try to use the bottom of the club,
shorter, firmer swing,
just bump it off there with a nice,
short, firm follow through,
kind of control the shaft there at the bottom.
Not that difficult if you practice it a bit.
Well I hope that helps you
with these two basic gold pitching tips,
and that you can handle those lies a little bit better.
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full courses, including short game courses,
back at that site, I hope you'll check it out.
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