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Ok i seem to have this problem with topping the ball or whacking it right in the center and killing it way too hard. I can not seem to hit my PW and get it up in the air on the shorter little pitches and it has been killin my scores, i think if i could just hit my PW a littel bit better i could break 90 with no problem.

Once in awhile i make good contact and it just pops up nicely and goes just how i want it but most of the time i hit the ball with the bottom lip of the club and it shoots off liek a rocket and it drives me nuts other times i hit the top of the ball and it goes 2 feet, any advice on getting good contact with my short pitches?

the only advice i can offer (i'm not a pro by any means) is that rememebr to drive the club down thru the ball. don't try to lift the ball in the air. let the loft of the club do its job. also, your swing plane might be to shallow to be hitting the ball on the top half or you might simply be "coming out of the shot" by raising up to early.

Me:

1. Make sure to make a descending blow and hit the ball first then the turf.
2. At impact drive my right hand and hip through the ball. (for righties)

Just swing easy. A PW is meant to go high, soft, and a relatively short distance.

The bottom of a club is designed to LIFT the club off the ground after impact . There's more to it than that but
Safest shot is to punch down on the back of the ball "ball back in the stance + hands in front of the ball"
It isnt so much the loft of the club that makes a ball fly high with wedges as the spin the club imparts of the ball
The swing is slower = more control
Believe it or not you'll even feel confident using your SW for the same shot .Even a 60 deg wedge with blunt leading edge
Maybe even give thought to using a balata covered ball "any of the Strata range,Titliest ProV or Apex tour" and remember a headwind is your friend -Talewind your enemy
On shorter shots try locking your wrists thru the entire shot "pushing the hands ahead of the ball thru the follow thru"
Let me know how you get on as I'm sure you will find the results pretty desirable

when you set-up with your pw, is it square, closed, or open?

Assuming your not asking me ?
I'll answer anyways .If anything its "shutdown"
Square .
The higher softer landing shot you want is harder and more riskier to play "openface" and you want a 60 or SW
Dont get cute - just get on !

well i went and played another 18 last nite and i used some advice from a fellow employee who is a scratch player and he said try using your 7 iron tonite for pitching and it worked really nicely for me, more roll and less height and i was able to get it up and down a few times last nite but i did use my PW a few times after using the 7 and i hit it exactly the same way and it was not as good. I am putting the ball back in my stance further now so i am hitting it much better with my stance slightly open with a square club face. It seems whn i use my 7 iron i am getting it much closer than my PW, i swing all the way thru but i always leave it short.....ok note to self "practice pitching"

One thing I am actually rather consistent in is pitching. Open your stance up, so that you'd almost feel like your chest is pointing towards the target, at about a 35-45 degree angle. Align the ball with the inside of your back shoe. When you swing, make sure and swing like a pendulum. Keep your arms locked. You should be pointing the butt of the club away from you, i.e. just in front of you. A good indicator of your swing is that after you complete your follow-through, the butt of the club should still be pointing away from you. If it isn't, you are getting wristy, which will ALWAYS mess up your pitches, regardless of whether your other movements are 100% perfect.

Just thought I could chip in, pun intended.

Hi robertg,

This is pretty good advice, especially 'swinging like a pendulum'. The biggest problem with chipping is the tendency to want to 'hit' or guide the ball where we want it to go. We must swing through the ball position without any 'hitting' at all. A lot of great players use only the arms to swing the ball making sure that the hands are ahead of the club head and the left wrist remains firm through the ball. It is important to find the bottom of your swing and use that position consistently when you address the ball. You can find this swing centre by swinging without the ball and seeing the position at the bottom of the swing and noting it relative to your feet. The actual rhythm of the swing should be identical on all distances and you should see what your rhythm is by swinging without the ball and developing a way of repeating it. Some use a phrase. Pelz suggest saa.wish swish. (the back swing is a little slower) but every distance has the same rhythm.

ok all great advice, yeah i went out in the yard and hit about 30 balls at a bucket from about 10-15 yarda away and made a few but most of them were close, the pendelum thing and the saa...wish thingy worked really well.......now if i can just hit ti the same way at my outing tomorrow!!!

[quote=jayt0625]ok all great advice, yeah i went out in the yard and hit about 30 balls at a bucket from about 10-15 yarda away and made a few but most of them were close, the pendelum thing and the saa...wish thingy worked really well.......now if i can just hit ti the same way at my outing tomorrow!!![/QUOTE]


Yes it is not always so simple to transfer skills from practice to game. The major reason is the increase in 'tension' and 'trying' under new conditions, both of which reduce the awareness of the swing that is essential for fluidity.
My key thoughts for all short shots is balance, relaxation, rhythm and 'fluidity'.

Increasing the level of difficulty cn illustrate the difference between a relaxed swing and a tense one.

Try this: Have a few practice swings without the ball and sense what is happening with balance, relaxation, rhythm and fluidity. Rate the degree of 'perfection' of these factors from 1-10 where 10 is perfect. Keep doing it until you feel you have at least a rating of 8, consistently. Don't 'try' to get an 8, just keep doing it until you feel that you are swinging at 8+

Now do the same with a ball. Immediately there is a new level of tension because an object is in front of the swing and it becomes important to regain the awareness/feel of balance, relaxation, etc. that one had in the practice swing. Don't try to 'fix' anything. Simply note the rating relative to the previous 8+. YOur first few are bound to be more like 4/5 or less. Just keep doing it until you feel you are 8+

Then hit towards a target with the idea of lobbing in the target. The level of tension increases again and you will probably be rating it back at 4/5 or less again. ......Do you see the sequence. This progression will better enable transfer of skills to the game, simply by gradually increasing the level of difficulty and finding the ideal level of feel. Hope this is useful to someone and makes good sense. It works for me!

ok well i am definately on my way with my PW and now my LW, seem to be hitting them both extremely well compared to even a few weeks ago......it sounds funny but i make the noise see....wish wehn i swing and it seems to help me with my tempo and pendulum like motion, a guy who was on the tee next to my green was watching me and i pitched it up and of course made me "see...wish" sound and voila 18" from the cup, the guy came over an asked me "what did you say before you hit the ball?" i explained it to him and when i saw him at the 19th he said he had used it and it had worked for him as well..........

GREAT! If you want to find out more about the reason why 'see..wish' works read Tim Galwey's "The Inner Game of Golf". He used back-hit as his swing cue, trying to say 'back' the moment the club head reached the end of the swing and 'hit' the very moment the club made contact with the ball.

I use 1, and 2. 1 is when the club reaches the end of the backswing, 'and' is for the swing through the ball and 2 is for the finish. (I do not like the term 'hit' in relation to a golf ball because it should never be hit!)

Pelz suggests sssaawish, swish, similar to your key. The author of Quantum golf suggests the term 'super-fluid' because he wanted to emphasise smoooth fluidity in the swing. Whatever turns you on.

The theory is that it provides rhythm and also occupies the conscious mind so that it does not 'interfere' with the swing by attempting to 'hit the ball'.

It is also great to see it is catching! The more relaxed and fluid your swing, the more the ball will do what it is supposed to. GREAT STUFF!

my swing key is s-h-a-n-k.
lol