The Difference between Chipping and Pitching

Friday, December 27, 2013

1. Distance

Chipping: A Chip shot is usually used near the green. Anywhere from a yard to 30 yards off the green.

Pitching: A pitch shot is usually used from more than 30 yard or so from the green.

 

2. Weight Shift

Chipping: No weight shift is needed in general. You put your weight on your front foot at address and keep it there throughout the swing.

Pitching: Depending on the shot, you need to shift your weight to your right side.

 

3. Clubs used for the shot

Chipping: You can use just about any club you like. Sand wedge, 9 iron, 6 iron, utility clubs or fairway woods.

Pitching: Basically, you use lofted clubs to hit the shot.

 

4. Getting over something

Chipping: You won't use this shot to get over water or bunker.

Pitching: You use pitching shot to get over water or any other hazard.

 

5. Type of swing

Chipping: You use short type of swing. The shaft won't reach parallel with the ground when hitting this shot unless you are hitting special type of chipping shots.

Pitching: You use bigger swing than chipping shots. Depending on the shot, you might grip down and swing up to the top like any other shots you hit with irons.

 

Tips to Control Trajectory with your Pitching

Davis Love Jr. was well known as a father of Davis Love III. But Love Jr. was also a great player who played well in majors. Davis Love Kt. told Jim Flick who is also a famous teacher that one of the secrets to great pitching is to control trajectory of the shots. To control trajectory, he was altering grip pressure. To hit it low, he was gripping the club little tighter. To hit it high and soft, he was gripping the club softly. By gripping little tighter than normal, you can prevent your hands to release early. This will decrease your loft of your club and left you hit it low. If you want to pitch it high and soft, grip the club softer than normal to let your hands release through impact. This should help you ass loft as the club slides through the ball. When chipping, use clubs with less loft such as 8 iron to chip it low. To hit it higher, simply use more lofted clubs. Position your ball off the right toe to chip it low. To hit it hiherm you should play the ball in the center of your stance.

 

Reference:http://www.golfsamurai.net/short-game/difference-between-chipping-pitching.htm

 

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How to Hit a Chip Shot: 8 Ways to Set Up and 6 Ways to Hit it

8 Ways to Set Up

 

1. Take a narrow stance

When chipping, you don't tansfer your weight. A narrow stance will help you keep your weight on your front during the whole swing.

 

2. Keep 80% (most) of your weight on your front foot

By keeping your weight on your front foot during the swing, you can avoid too much lower body movement that can cause fat and top shots.

 

3. Set your hands slightly ahead of the ball

This will let you hit it on the descending blow.

 

4. Set your ball in the center or slightly back of center

Position your ball in the center or slightly back of center to promote downward blow.

 

5. Lean a little toward the target

Tiger Woods set up like this. Leaning toward the target will help you hit the ball on the downward blow. He uses the putting grip instead of using interlocking grip for a chip shot. Using the putter grip (reverse overlapping grip) will help you limit too much hand action during that swing that will lead to fat or top shots.

 

6. Use light grip pressure

Try to hold the grip softly and avoid tension in your hands and arms. If you grip it tightly, you'll use too much hands during the siwng. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the tightest, Tiger Woods uses 4. Try to keep the grip pressure constant during the siwng.

 

7. Open the stance line a bit

Lots of pros use open stance for chipping because the open stance will let them see the line better and help them swing through the shot. You don't have to use open stance if that makes things complicated for you. But you can definitely give it a try.

 

8.Grip down on the Club

Grip your club down close to the shaft. By gripping down on the club, you will be able to control your clubhead much easier. This will help you avoid fat shot and topped shots as well.

 

6 Important Keys to Hit Shot

 

1. Not much weight shift

For chipping, you don't need a lot of weight shift. For constant, you might want to keep your weight on your left foot and keep it there throughout the swing.

 

2. Control shots with your shoulders not your hands

You don't want to use too much hands and arms in this shot. Try to swing the club to initiate the stroke with your shoulders just like your putter.

 

3. Hit  down on the back of the ball

Tiger's key to chipping is to hit down on the back of the ball. Lots of golfers try to scoop the ball but hit fat and top shots instead. To get the ball but hit fat and top shots instead. To get the ball in the air, you need to trust the loft of the club and hit down on it. Try to focus on the back of the ball for constance contact with the ball. Try not to look up. You might want to feel like you are pressing the ball against the turf.

 

4. Accelerate through impact

Too much players decelerate with chipping. You want to accelerate your clubhead through impact for better contact. If you hit lots of fat shots, make sure you keeo your hands ahead of the ball at address and at impact. And don't forget to accelerate your clubhead.

 

5. Keep the angle of your right hand

Try not to change the angle of your right hand that you have at address throughout the swing. If you use too much wrist action, you tend to hit it fat or top it. Make sure your hands are slightly ahead of the ball at address.

 

6. Keep you hands ahead of or even with the clubhead

Try to keep your hands ahead of or even with the clubhead all the way through. If the clubhead passes your hads, that means you used your hands too much. This will lead to fat and topped shots.

 

The Drill for Consistent Chipping

Grab a towel and put it under your ampits. Hit shots with your towel under your armpits and try not to let it fall. This drill will help you use your shoulders and avoid too much hand action during the swing.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/short-game/how-to-hit-chip-shot.htm

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Use Different Clubs for Chipping

When chipping, lots of players just grab their sand wedge and hit it. But if you use different clubs depending on the situation, it will make chipping so much easier. I usually use sand wedge, pitching wedge, 9 iron, 8 iron, 6 iron and 4 iron. Some golfers are surprised to see me use 4 iron for chipping.

 

Why do I change clubs?

It is much easier to control distance if you roll the ball to the hole. It's much harder to hit it up in the air and control distance. To prove it, try to roll the ball with your hand toward the hole. And then throw the ball up in the air and try to stop it near the hole. You will find it much easier to roll the ball. So you want the ball to start rolling on the green as soon as possible. In other words, use the club that let you do just that. If you are just off the green and don't have any rough between the ball and the green, use less lofted club and get the ball running as soon as possible.  

 

But if  you have some rough between the ball and the green, you might want to use the lofted club to get over the rough and start rolling once it hits the green.

 

Avoid using too much Back Spin

Tiger Woods said he tries to limit back spin on chipping. He certainly has lots of skills to hit variety of chipping shots. But even for him, it's hard to control spin. It's much easier to roll the ball to the hole instead of trying to stop it with back spin.

 

The Choice between Chipping and Putting

Tiger Woods once said that if you have short grass and no obstacles between the ball and the green, you should putt instead of chip. Some famous teacher said "bad putt is better than good chip."

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/short-game/use-different-club-chipping.htm

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Chipping from Thick Rough

Chipping is harder out of the rough. One of the keys to hitting this shot is to make sure you accelerate your clubhead through the grass. I think most players who decelerate their clubhead are not so sure how hard they should hit the ball. That makes them to decelerate. So take 2 or 3 practice swing before chipping and listen to the sound that the practice swing makes as it goes through the rough. Once you think you get the feeling, try to recreate that sound when you hit the shots.

 

From Deep Grass, Use Ernie's Technique

If your ball ended up in deep grass near the green, you might want to hit it like a bunker shot depending on the shot. Ernie Els said he opens the clubface, grips down on couple of inches and hits behind the ball like a bunker shot from deep rough. Unless the ball is touching the ground, this will be a good technique to use. You might need to practice before using it on the course, but when you are in a really deep rough and not sure you can make good contact with the ball, go ahead and hit it like a bunker shot. Michelle Wie also said she uses this technique. This will help you get out of the deep rough.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/short-game/chipping-from-rough.htm

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How to Hit a Low, Running Chip Shot

When you have plenty of green to work with, you should use low, running chip shot to roll the ball to the hole. There are many ways to hit this type of shots. Here is the technique that Michelle Wie uses. Whit this low-runner, she tries to keep her hands out of the shot. She uses putting grip and position the ball off the back foot. When you set up to hit this shot, make sure you keep your hands slightly ahead than normal. This will deloft the club and let you hit it low. The easier way to hit it low is to use less lofted club like 8 iron and hit it like a normal chipping shot. Either technique is fine as long as it suits your game.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/short-game/low-running-chip.htm

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How to Fix Fat and Top shot When Chipping

Hitting it fat or topping it when chipping is a common problem for average players. To fix this problem, I recommend you to set up differently than normal. With this technique, we are going to hit the ball with the toe side of your clubface. When you strike the ball toward the toe of the clubface, the ball will come off nice and soft. It also prevents topping it or hitting it fat.

 

Here is how you set up to hit the shot.

1. Use pitching wedge or 9 iron
2. Use putter grip and grip down on the shaft
3. Stand closer to the ball so that the heel of the club is little off the ground
4. Position your ball in the center of stance
5. Use putting stroke
6. Hit ball toward the toe of the clubface

By using putter grip, you can avoid too much and action. Using putter grip will let you stand little close to the ball and make the shaft more vertical so that the heel of the club will be off the ground. This will help you prevent fat shots or top shots. When you practice this shot, you will find it easier to make a clean contact with the ball. You can only use this technique when there are no obstacles between the ball and the green.

 

Try Fred Couples's Drill

There is a drill that was used by Fred Couples. Whit this drill, you hit your chip shots with your right hand only. Fred Couples said this drill will teach you rhythm and temppo that are necessary for good chipping. The club should feel heavy if you hold it with one hand. So it's a good drill to learn the body movement through the swing. When you practice this drill, focus on starting the swing with your shoulders. If you feel like you have too much technical tips and information about chipping, forget about them and practice the shots with your right hand only. It will keep things simple.

 

Keep Your Chest Moving

When players start to fear chip shots around the greens, they tend to use more arms and hands in order to avoid top shots and fat shots. But this will only make things worth. If you check tour players, most of them use their body when chipping. They turn their body back anf through during the chip shots. To avoid using too much arms and hands, try to focus on your chest and keep it moving throughoout the swing. On the backswing, try to turn your chest to the right. On the downswing, turn your chest to the left. Instead of trying to left the club with your hands and arms, try to turn back and through and use less hands. You will hit  more crisp chip shots this way.

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/short-game/how-to-fix-fat-top-shot.htm

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Shanking Chip Shots and How to Cure it

Shanks are caused by hitting the ball on the hosel of the club. Some golfers think they are hitting it off the toe because the ball will go straight to the right but that's really rare case. A lot of times, fixing your set up will cure the shanks with chip shots.

 

The Cause

Golfers who shank the ball are often times slicers. So they may shank the iron shot as well as chipping. If you think your chip shots, your hands are further away your body than they were at address. So what causes your hands and arms to move further away? There are lots of reasons but one of them is the position of your shoulders. If your shoulders are aligned left of the target, you tend to swing from outside in. But if you chip like that, you will hit it left or pull the chip shots. So you start to guide the ball toward the target by swinging the club toward the pin or target. When you do that, your hands get away from your body. You are going to hit shanks. If you try to avoid hitting it on the hosel, you might hit it fat or top it.

 

How to Cure it

So to fix your shanks, you need to first align your shoulders correctly. Your shoulder alignment often determines the swing path. If it's aligned left, you will swing outside in. If it's aligned right, you tend to swing from inside out. So lots of teachers will tell you to check your shoulder alignment. It's hard to check shoulder alignment every time on the course. Golfers with a weak grip are usually aligning their their shoulders to the left. Golfers with stronger grip tend to align their shoulders right. So fixing your grip is the easy way to fix shoulder alignment.

 

How to Hold Your Grip

When you hold your grip for chipping, make sure to lower your right shoulder first and grip it. If you grip the club with your both shoulders level with the ground, you can easily the club too weak. Just like regular shots, check the knuckles of your left hand at address. Make sure you can see 3 knuckles on your left hand.

 

Stance

Lots of pros have open stance when chipping. But if you shank, try to take square stance. Your feet should be parallel to your target line.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/short-game/shanking-chip-shot.htm

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How to Stop Topping your Chip Shots

There are basically two causes for topping chip shots. One is your address. Second cause is trying to scoop the ball in the air. Even the good players do this once in a while. But if you try to lift the ball in the air, you'll end up topping the shots. Because the ball is on the ground, you can hit up on the ball like a driver. To get the ball airborne, you need to trust the loft of your club and hit it with slight descending blow.

 

Cure it with Descending Blow

If you can hit it with a descending blow, you can fix topping the ball.

 

To do this, do the following:

1. Your hands should be ahead of the ball at address
2. Place the ball in the middle or slightly back of center of your stance
3. Put most of your weight on your foot and keep it there during the swing
4. Focus on the back of the ball
5. Accelerate through impact

All these will help you hit crisp chip shots. Try to keep the angle of your right wrist during the swing. If your right wrist breaks down, you will top it or hit it fat.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/short-game/how-to-stop-topping.htm

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7 Ways to Get Backspin on Your Chip Shots

To hit chip shots with lots of backspin, you need to set up like below.

1. Use softer ball. This is necessary to get lots of backspin
2. Use more lofted club. More loft means more spin. For chip shots, you might want to use your sand wedge.
3. Position your ball off your right fott
4. Put more weight on your left foot
5. Positions your hands ahead of the ball so that the shaft is leaning slightly toward the target
6. Accelerate through impact
7. Hit it on the descending blow

One of the most famous teachers in the history of golf, Harvey Penick said you need to position your hands forward so that the bounce of your sand wedge will not touch the ground. At impact, your hands should be ahead of your clubhead or the ball. You don't need to turn the face over for this shot. Make sure your hands win the race. For crisp shot with backspin,  you must accelerate your clubhead through impact.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/short-game/7-ways-to-add-backspin.htm

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How to Cure Fat Chip Shots

Hitting fat chip shots will not only cause you 1 stroke but also damages your confidence. Next time you are in the same kind of situation, you start to think you might hit it fat again. When you start doubting like that, you tend to decelerate through impact causing you to hit it fat. So golfers who hit fat chip shots will repeat the same mistake over and over.

 

How to stop it

The secret to good chip shots are in your set up. If you set up correctly, you reduce your chances of hitting it fat. If you look at good short game players, they hit their chip shots before the clubhead reaches the lowest point of its arc. In other words, they are hitting it with a slight descending blow. If you hit it on the descending blow, you can hit it well with any types of lies. If the ball is teed up, you can hit it on the lowest point of your swing. But if the ball is sitting down even a little bit, the grass will come between the ball and the clubface. That's why you need to hit it on a descending blow to hit the crisp chip shots constantly.

 

To hit it on a descending blow with your chip shots, you need to make sure that the shaft is leaning toward the target at address. Your hands should be ahead of the ball, also. Put more weight on your front foot and keep it there throughout the swing. Rick Smith who is a famous teacher said that you should put 70% of your weight on your front foot during the swing. This should help you stop hitting fat chip shots.

 

Ball Position

Also, you need to check your ball position. Playing the ball forward of center on regular chip shot will cause fat shots. Try to play the ball in the center or slightly back of center of stance for chipping.

 

Simple Drills

To fix fat shots, you have to make sure you accelerate through the shot. The tendency is to decelerate. Here are simple drills to fix that problem. Set up to hit a chip shot. Next, look at the hole and keep your eyes on the hole throughout the swing. You don't have to look at the ball with this drill. This is a good drill for controlling distance as well. So when you take practice swings, you might want to keep looking at the hole while you take practice swings. Another drill that's helpful is to hit chip shot from a bunker.

 

Put the ball in the sand and press down just a little bit. To hit it clean from this lie, you need to hit it on descending blow. The clubhead won't slide through the sand so that you will know instantly if you hit behind the ball. When you practice from a good lie, the clubhead will slide through the grass even if you hit it behind the ball. So you won't know if you are hitting it clean or not from a good lie.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/short-game/cure-fat-chip-shot.htm

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Hitting Chip Shots from a Tight Lie

Hitting chip shots from a tight lie is difficult shot. If you hit behind it, the clubhead will either dig into the ground causing you to hit it fat or bounce back causing top shots. On the regular lie with some grass underneath the ball, the clubhead will slide a little even if you hit it a bit behind the ball. But from a tight lie, that won't happen so often. So you need to make sure you catch the ball first. It becomes even more important to hit it on the descending blow from this lie.

 

There are some important tips when hitting this shot.

1. Make sure you accelerate through impact
2. Keep your hands forward at impact
3. Try not to lift the ball up in the air. Keep your clubhead low to the ground after impact
4. Grip down on a club for more control
5. Play the ball slightly back of center

If the situation allows you, use less lofted club such as 9 iron or 8 iron and roll the ball toward the hole. Phil Mickelson said when he hits it from a tight lie, he tries to keep his hands ahead of the clubhead throughout the swing. This will also help you hit it with a descending blow. So you might want to try that. By gripping down on a club, you need to stand closer to the ball. That means your club shaft will be more vertical than usual. So grip down and stand closer to the ball. And try to feel like you are hitting it toward the toe of the clubface. This will help you catch the ball clean.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/short-game/chip-shot-tight-lie.htm

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