Pete Styles – PGA Teaching Pro
Now that we have understood that to hit this 40 to 50 yard pitch shot, we don’t need a full swing. We can change our full swing; we can change the amount of power that we use in that full swing, right from the setup. So the setup should indicate that this is not a full hit. We don’t want to stance to the golf ball in this position like we are going to drive the ball. We have got to make sure the stance looks and feels different because we are going to produce a less powerful swing and less powerful shot.
The first thing is we narrow the stance down. If shoulder width is going to be full power, here we are going to go for hip width or maybe even slightly narrower. Basically speaking, the narrower the stance, the shorter the shot you are going to hit. The next thing we can come to is the grip, gripping towards the top of the club is quite powerful but it doesn’t necessarily provide bags and bags of control. If we grip lower down the club and we hold it nearer towards the hand, sorry nearer towards the shaft, less of the handle, this bit is going to produce less power and holding lower down should provide a lot more control. So it’s down the grip, don’t hold the handle that should then feel like we have a little bit more control. Just turning from side on the next thing you can see from down this angle, is actually I am probably going to stand open, so my target line would be the red flag out in the direction over here. My feet are probably going to stand narrow and slightly open. The purpose of this open stance is not open so that I can open the club face, that’s a different reason for opening the stance opening the club face. The openness of this stance is purely because my left leg, my lead leg is almost going to be in the way. So when I play a full swing, my hips will turn, my lead leg gets out of the way allows the club to come through nicely. In a chip or a pitch shot I might feel like I am square, leaning left in a narrower stance, my left leg is not going to move out the way quite similar to, it almost feels like it’s blocking it’s in the way of the handle. But actually drawing that left toe back and then swinging through gives me a lot more room, a lot more freedom to bring the club through on the right line. So draw that left leg back, open that stance, that’s going to feel like you in a better position to chip and pitch the ball for that 40 to 50 yard pitch shot. 2016-09-30 Pete Styles – PGA Teaching Pro
Now that we have understood that to hit this 40 to 50 yard pitch shot, we don’t need a full swing. We can change our full swing; we can change the amount of power that we use in that full swing, right from the setup. So the setup should indicate that this is not a full hit. We don’t want to stance to the golf ball in this position like we are going to drive the ball. We have got to make sure the stance looks and feels different because we are going to produce a less powerful swing and less powerful shot.
The first thing is we narrow the stance down. If shoulder width is going to be full power, here we are going to go for hip width or maybe even slightly narrower. Basically speaking, the narrower the stance, the shorter the shot you are going to hit. The next thing we can come to is the grip, gripping towards the top of the club is quite powerful but it doesn’t necessarily provide bags and bags of control. If we grip lower down the club and we hold it nearer towards the hand, sorry nearer towards the shaft, less of the handle, this bit is going to produce less power and holding lower down should provide a lot more control. So it’s down the grip, don’t hold the handle that should then feel like we have a little bit more control.
Just turning from side on the next thing you can see from down this angle, is actually I am probably going to stand open, so my target line would be the red flag out in the direction over here. My feet are probably going to stand narrow and slightly open. The purpose of this open stance is not open so that I can open the club face, that’s a different reason for opening the stance opening the club face. The openness of this stance is purely because my left leg, my lead leg is almost going to be in the way. So when I play a full swing, my hips will turn, my lead leg gets out of the way allows the club to come through nicely. In a chip or a pitch shot I might feel like I am square, leaning left in a narrower stance, my left leg is not going to move out the way quite similar to, it almost feels like it’s blocking it’s in the way of the handle. But actually drawing that left toe back and then swinging through gives me a lot more room, a lot more freedom to bring the club through on the right line. So draw that left leg back, open that stance, that’s going to feel like you in a better position to chip and pitch the ball for that 40 to 50 yard pitch shot.
