Best Way to Shorten the Pitch in Golf

Practice playing a long pitch with whatever length you feel comfortable. With a pitching wedge you may achieve 40 or 80 metres. First learn to make a good contact. You then have to adjust the swing to hit different lengths of shots. The difficulty is to make shorter shots than you feel comfortable with.

The typical club golfer’s action of playing a shorter shot is to make a long backswing and decelerate. Correctly the backswing must be-short enough to allow you to accelerate.

To shorten your shot from your most comfortable distance, grip down the club a few centimetres, reduce the length of the backswing and accelerate firmly through the ball into a punchy finish.

Try to throw a golf ball with an underarm throw 30 or 40 metres. It is a long way. That is how a pitch shot should feel. The backswing must be short enough to allow you the feeling of accelerating and hitting really hard through impact.

When you want to play a shorter shot still, grip the club really firmly and concentrate on the clubface. Learn to swing the clubface through into a face-up position. This means that the back of the left hand stays on top and the left wrist stays really firm. Have two or three practice swings, watching the face of the club and learning to hold it up. This is how professionals get backspin onto their shots. Instead of the club swinging toe-up, which keeps the ball moving forwards and perhaps running, ‘pros’ usually swing into a face-up position, which gives the ball more backspin and bite when landing.

To shorten your shot even more, use your sand wedge. Grip firmly and eventually change down to your putting grip for added control. The shorter the shot you want, the firmer and tighter the grip should be.

Expert tips

Practice different lengths of shots. Play to three different targets, perhaps 20, 40 and 60 metres away, and get the feeling of the different shots. The key is to cut that backswing down, grip tightly enough and always accelerate through the ball with a ball divot contact. Let the head move left but the eyes stay focused on the spot where the ball was.