Creating Spin On Golf Chip And Pitch Shots (Video) - by Pete Styles
Creating Spin On Golf Chip And Pitch Shots (Video) - by Pete Styles

So if you’re starting to try and spin the ball and get the ball to stop on the green and spin the ball back the next question that would often be asked by golfers is when does this work and when does it not work and really there is a window of opportunity in that game of golf where spin the ball the most.

If we’re too far from the green we’re going to be using two longer golf club and that’s not going to have enough chance to spin, a 4-iron or a 3, it’s not really going to backspin on the green. But when we get too near to the green the window of opportunity closes again because if we’re just greenside pitch and run and chip and run, again, it’s difficult to really get the ball spinning. So you need a bit of space, you need a bit of distance, you need to be able to hit the ball relatively firmly to activate the spin on the back of the ball and I might suggest really from sort of 40 yards to 120-130 yards, that’s really your best chance of spinning the ball, from sort of full pitching wedge down to sort of three-quarter lob wedge. Anything less than that you’re probably not hitting the ball hard enough, so when you have these little greenside pitch and runs the ball is really isn’t going to check up and that’s not just for you, that’s for most golfers, baring someone like Phil Mickelson. You very rarely see anybody have the confidence to spin the ball from close range. But if we look to maybe a 30 to 50-yard pitch we’ve got a chance to just get a little bit of check on the ball, but understand it’s not going to start spinning back at this distance and if we were to play this, we play in a similar fashion to the previous wedge shots. We play with a nice clean grooves, relatively new club, premium soft golf ball, ball in the center of the stance, body weight left, hands ahead, sticking down. Now, we can use a nice bit of wrist hinge, a good strike down and really having some confidence to hit down quite hard at the front side of the golf ball, so we’re not trying to lean back and scoop the ball in the air, but we’re trying to focus on hitting after the golf ball, so we get a real good nip down and you should have the golf club disappearing into the turf afterwards. We don’t want to be leaning back and trying to hit the turf before. It’s going to be hitting the turf afterwards and trying to take a nice little piece of divot or turf after the ball and if we can have the hands ahead, the ball central, lean left, hit down. Now, the harder you hit with the more loft you get more spin. So if you’re taking a 7-iron and you hit a little dolly, sort of bump and run, it’s not going to spin at all. You take your lob wedge, you hit it quite aggressively, that’s going to start seeing a little bit of spin imparted on the back of the golf ball. The best thing I could suggest with all of these techniques now is take that out into the practice ground and just try them out, but ideally hitting from grass on to a real green. It’s a bit difficult or different when you’re hitting from a driving range mat or as I am here hitting from gross, but actually onto a field it won’t react in the same fashion as if you’re hitting actually onto a decent chipping green or potting green. So practice that if you can from a real grass surface onto a real green and just see how you can start spinning your chip and pitch shots. 2016-04-22

So if you’re starting to try and spin the ball and get the ball to stop on the green and spin the ball back the next question that would often be asked by golfers is when does this work and when does it not work and really there is a window of opportunity in that game of golf where spin the ball the most.

If we’re too far from the green we’re going to be using two longer golf club and that’s not going to have enough chance to spin, a 4-iron or a 3, it’s not really going to backspin on the green. But when we get too near to the green the window of opportunity closes again because if we’re just greenside pitch and run and chip and run, again, it’s difficult to really get the ball spinning. So you need a bit of space, you need a bit of distance, you need to be able to hit the ball relatively firmly to activate the spin on the back of the ball and I might suggest really from sort of 40 yards to 120-130 yards, that’s really your best chance of spinning the ball, from sort of full pitching wedge down to sort of three-quarter lob wedge. Anything less than that you’re probably not hitting the ball hard enough, so when you have these little greenside pitch and runs the ball is really isn’t going to check up and that’s not just for you, that’s for most golfers, baring someone like Phil Mickelson. You very rarely see anybody have the confidence to spin the ball from close range.

But if we look to maybe a 30 to 50-yard pitch we’ve got a chance to just get a little bit of check on the ball, but understand it’s not going to start spinning back at this distance and if we were to play this, we play in a similar fashion to the previous wedge shots. We play with a nice clean grooves, relatively new club, premium soft golf ball, ball in the center of the stance, body weight left, hands ahead, sticking down.

Now, we can use a nice bit of wrist hinge, a good strike down and really having some confidence to hit down quite hard at the front side of the golf ball, so we’re not trying to lean back and scoop the ball in the air, but we’re trying to focus on hitting after the golf ball, so we get a real good nip down and you should have the golf club disappearing into the turf afterwards. We don’t want to be leaning back and trying to hit the turf before. It’s going to be hitting the turf afterwards and trying to take a nice little piece of divot or turf after the ball and if we can have the hands ahead, the ball central, lean left, hit down.

Now, the harder you hit with the more loft you get more spin. So if you’re taking a 7-iron and you hit a little dolly, sort of bump and run, it’s not going to spin at all. You take your lob wedge, you hit it quite aggressively, that’s going to start seeing a little bit of spin imparted on the back of the golf ball. The best thing I could suggest with all of these techniques now is take that out into the practice ground and just try them out, but ideally hitting from grass on to a real green. It’s a bit difficult or different when you’re hitting from a driving range mat or as I am here hitting from gross, but actually onto a field it won’t react in the same fashion as if you’re hitting actually onto a decent chipping green or potting green. So practice that if you can from a real grass surface onto a real green and just see how you can start spinning your chip and pitch shots.