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How to properly use chip and pitch clubs: A guide V2.0

Thu, Aug 3 2023 5:05 PM (335 replies)
  • prousy
    12 Posts
    Fri, Jun 11 2010 8:01 AM

    To Iconian.

    Hi mate. Thanks for the detailed and easy to follow chipping tips. Can you or anyone who reads this please give me some advanced tips on putting. I have trouble figuring out how much break to give a putt.

    Cheers,

    Prousy from Australia

  • WGTadmin
    1,166 Posts
    Fri, Jun 11 2010 9:57 AM

    Prousy,

    You can find some putting tips here.  And a video tutorial here.

  • chipshotcharlie
    538 Posts
    Fri, Jun 11 2010 5:28 PM

    Practice it`s the only way,some players just move the aim while other miss the ding on the high side of the pin. I like a combination of the two but i can`t stress enough the importance of practice.

    CSC 

  • zagraniczniak
    1,984 Posts
    Wed, Jun 30 2010 3:35 AM

    Iconian,

    Thank you for your wonderful guide to the short game.

    Personally I had been hitting from the greenside bunkers with percentages of full wedge shots, with some success. For example, 40% of a 75-yard wedge would pretty reliably go about 20 yards.

    You emboldened me to try pitching from the sand - so far so good.

    But wouldn't a high lip on the bunker prevent pitching from the bunker?

  • RRWyattEarp
    3 Posts
    Fri, Jul 2 2010 11:50 AM

    Any tips for getting out of the 40-50 % bunkers on Oakmount, any way to hit the ball longer the 60 yards ?

  • TracyMax
    2,361 Posts
    Mon, Jul 12 2010 3:21 PM

    wow you put a lot work into that! I'm having lots of trouble with the deep grass on Bethpage. have not tried a "punch"shot  but I will. B eing new to the game and golf what are the designations like 40/50, etc? how does that effect shot choice?

     

    thanks,

    TracyMax

  • overthetop2
    192 Posts
    Thu, Jul 15 2010 12:33 AM

    I'm still a bit confused how a 14 yard pitch shot can go 22 yards... ??? granted it was from the fairway but still...

  • zagraniczniak
    1,984 Posts
    Thu, Jul 15 2010 12:46 AM

    Overthetop:

    Amen. This discrepancy initially put me off the pitch entirely because it just seemed unreliable. The wonderful guide published here has brought me back around on that. Nonetheless, it seems that the official guidelines for the pitch shot are misleading, because the stated yardage is defined as an average from the fairway, with zero elevation, etc. In the case of the pitch shot, it just ain't so.

  • iconian
    599 Posts
    Sun, Jul 25 2010 11:24 AM

    zagraniczniak:

    Iconian,

    Thank you for your wonderful guide to the short game.

    Personally I had been hitting from the greenside bunkers with percentages of full wedge shots, with some success. For example, 40% of a 75-yard wedge would pretty reliably go about 20 yards.

    You emboldened me to try pitching from the sand - so far so good.

    But wouldn't a high lip on the bunker prevent pitching from the bunker?

     

     i do not recommend that. not only you have to be really precise in those shots but when you hit clubs less than 50%, chances for mishits, deviations, and other unwanted behavior increase exponetially. if it works for you, then sure, but writing a guide based on such behavior, in my view, is unwise

    RRWyattEarp:

    Any tips for getting out of the 40-50 % bunkers on Oakmount, any way to hit the ball longer the 60 yards ?

    not much helps...use wedge to get out. that's it!

     

    TracyMax:

    wow you put a lot work into that! I'm having lots of trouble with the deep grass on Bethpage. have not tried a "punch"shot  but I will. B eing new to the game and golf what are the designations like 40/50, etc? how does that effect shot choice?

     

    thanks,

    TracyMax

     

     

    generally punch from 40/50 is -10 to -15 yards, depending on elevation, wind, distance

    zagraniczniak:

    Overthetop:

    Amen. This discrepancy initially put me off the pitch entirely because it just seemed unreliable. The wonderful guide published here has brought me back around on that. Nonetheless, it seems that the official guidelines for the pitch shot are misleading, because the stated yardage is defined as an average from the fairway, with zero elevation, etc. In the case of the pitch shot, it just ain't so.

     

    to both fo you, pitch is rated at 30/40 grass, not green, so with 20/25 it'll go +2 , fairway +4, 40/50 -2  yards

    add wind/elevation and it's not suprised that 13 went 22...

  • CharlemagneRH
    1,054 Posts
    Tue, Aug 3 2010 12:33 AM

    One thing I think missing from your guide is that a flop shot is pretty much mandatory if the lip of a bunker is going to be an issue.  Flop shots have the highest trajectories, as far as I can tell.  Of course, you're sacrificing the ability to hit the ball more than 40 yards or so, and the shot is extremely imprecise, but if you think it's the only thing that's going to get you out of the bunker, then you have to use it.

    The only thing that I've caught onto in my short time here that I consider to be somewhat secret info is that if you have a club that hits, say, 24 yards nominal on a chip shot, it will actually hit more like 28 yards if you hit with full power.  If you hit with 50% power, though, it will go about 11 yards, and if you hit with 33% power, it won't go 8 yards, but more like 5 instead.

    The same goes for hitting my wedges 50% power or so on a "full"-type swing.  If I need to hit the ball 40 yards, and my wedge is rated 77, I'm going to hit it more like 45.

    A common mistake people make, which you, of course, mentioned in your guide, is only paying attention to the up or down arrow marker on the hole, without taking into consideration the slope of the green.  It's not just a chipping and pitching thing, though.  Even on 100-230 yard approach shots, I look at that stuff.  If it's 3 ft up 5 yrds before the hole, and it's 2 ft up 5 yrds past the hole, I know, then, that the green is sloping down, away from me, and that the ball is going to roll far, so I'll hit it maybe 2 or 3 yards short... even up to 8 yards short on Oakmont #1.  If you keep rolling 10-25 yards past the hole on your 50-200 yard GIR shot because you don't pay attention to it, you will pretty much never birdie.  Screwing up distance is the worst thing that you can do.  It doesn't matter how much I mess up my aim click, I will never be more than 5 ft away from the hole after a 100-ft putt, and I will never be more than 10 yrds from the hole after a 100 yrd approach shot.  There is no "getting lucky" with 20 yards past the hole on a 100 yard approach, or 20 ft past the hole on a 100 ft putt.

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