This is a simple one is it not. Okay so how can I visualize pitching shots onto the green? Well very simply, the simple way of going about it is going out onto the golf course, hopefully no one’s behind you, put two or three balls in your pocket and visualize actually just getting up all into your hand and thinking right at the ball, the flag is near the front of the green what would I need to do here with my arm? And then reproduce that sort of action to actually throw the ball where you need to do. So if the ball is very, very close you are just going to stand here obviously and the swing would be very short in the arm. If it’s much further then obviously you will lengthen.

So what you’ve got to do is look at what your face with a distance, look at what the landing area is like. Do we need to go up in the air, do we need to go low, it is all about pitching. Now golf pitching can go with a pitching wedge, we can play a 9 iron, we can even play a sand wedge, any of those clubs can play the pitching shot. So from that position what we always do you’ve got yourself around the green, you’ve stood there, you just put your body in the normal position if you are throwing the ball under arm and then from there you’ve actually got the feel of the length of the swing and the tempo.

Now just imagine here’s my action now of throwing a ball under arm. You can imagine the distance that we’ll get, let’s put the club in the hand and do the same thing. So the ball’s gone up in the air, the ball landing nice and soft. Now obviously there are different sort of factors do we want the ball to land and to release, do you want the ball to go up and stop. Here’s a very, very simple technique, if you wanted to actually throw the ball up in the air, imagine somebody was standing on the other side of that fence panel up here and the only way you are going to get that ball to them will be to stand and to let go very late. By letting go very late the ball will go very high and the ball would land very soft.

If we had a six foot fence panel there but there was a gap at the bottom but no gap at the top, we would stand here and we would let go very early and the ball would go low and the ball would roll. So if was going to play a ball up into the air I would set myself up with the ball forward and from that as I swing the club back and through I’m hitting it on the up. So it’s just like throwing the ball under arm, it’s going high it’s going to land nice and soft. If we reverse it both the back foot all of a sudden I remember that short swing because there’s a fence panel there. If I do the same thing ball back this time the club goes through much much lower at a completely different golf shot. So there visualize the shot that you are faced with, what is between you and the target and there’s only two ways of playing a golf shot, one is up in the air and landing it soft and one is low and letting it release. There hopefully you’ve got the tips to go out there put it into practice and reap the benefits.