Controlling
your Pitch Shot Distances
Hitting pitch shots with
your wedges should be one of the easiest
shots to hit in golf. The clubs are relatively
short, the clubhead is quite large, and
there is plenty of loft on the face. Many
golfers, however, struggle quite a bit
with pitch shots, most notably the partial
shots. And one of the biggest
problems with these partial pitch shots
is distance control.
To better control the distance
of your pitch shots in the 30 to 90 yard
range you should use a clock system. The
clock system gets its name from how far
back you swing your left arm (right handed
golfers) during the backswing. If you
swing your left
arm back until it is parallel to the ground,
it is pointing at 9 o'clock. A little
farther back and it's at 10 o'clock. Get
a feel for how far you hit your wedges
when you swing your arm back to 8, then
9, 10, and 11. There should be 5 to 10
yard
gaps at each interval. The key is to always
accelerate into the golf ball on the downswing
when using these partial swings. This
will also help you make more consistent
contact and help to
avoid the dreaded fat and thin shots.
If you carry a pitching
wedge, sand wedge, and maybe even a lob
wedge, this system will give you the ability
to play pitch shots from any distance
with confidence. Up until the last year
or so,
the biggest weakness in Tiger Woods' game
was his wedge play. His father had tried
to get him to use a clock system since
he was very young, but Tiger refused and
did it his own way. Over the last year,
his coach Butch Harmon convinced him to
use this sort of clock system with his
wedge play, and now what was once a weakness
is actually a strong part of his game.
If this type of wedge technique works
for him, I think it can work for you too.
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