Best Way to Practice Short Pitching in Golf – 20 Meters and Less

Having learnt to make friends with your sand wedge, let’s put it into practice. For shots of up to 20 metres maximum, use the putting grip. This helps to keep the wrist firm and the clubface looking upwards for maximum height.

The club is short. Hold it near the end with the putting grip. Grip firmly. At address, the ball should be just ahead of centre in your stance. The better the lie, the further forward you can play it. The clubshaft points to your navel, shoulders as level as possible. Keep the right foot straight ahead or slightly turned in. The essence of the shot is to use the arms, legs and shoulders and to immobilize the wrists. Keep the wrists passive in the backswing, bounce the club on the ground through impact, move through into a followthrough with the clubface looking upwards, back of the left wrist firm, head still and eyes focused on the spot where the ball was.

The putting grip should help you swing the clubface down in the backswing, face up in the throughswing. The backswing should take care of itself. In the throughswing, keep the back of the left wrist upwards, end of the club in contact with the inside of the left wrist and allow the left elbow to stay into the side of your body.

To learn the shot, practice from a slight upslope. The upslope helps to produce height to the shot and gives confidence. Stand with your feet a little closer than you would on a flat lie and feel the clubface working upwards beyond impact. Ideally learn from fluffy grass rather than a bare lie.

The feeling of the shot is to use the legs, arms and shoulders. At address the clubshaft points to your navel. It should point there all the way from start to finish. The grip shouldn’t point down to the ground in backswing or throughswing. Have a few practice swings, looking at the grip end of the club. Keep it pointing up towards you and within your vision.

As an exercise, hold the club into your navel, hands extended down the shaft, arms straight but clubhead obviously not reaching the ground. Practice swinging back and through with the top of the club into you. This gives the feeling of the legs and shoulders working and the wrists staying passive.

Don’t try to help the ball up with your wrists or the clubhead simply rises and catches the top of the ball. Keep the wrists firm and the left one leading. In short shots think of holding the club more firmly. The club is heavy and you need to grip tightly to keep it moving slowly enough. Don’t grip loosely with the idea of being delicate, or the clubhead travels too quickly.