Pete Finch – PGA Teaching Pro
How can I pitch from tight lies around the green? Now this is one of the most difficult situations you’ll find when it’s faced around the green you’ve not quite made the putting surface, you’ve got to pitch it on but you’ve got a very tight lie underneath the ball. So it’s not quite setup, it’s not a welcoming shot because you can’t quite slide the club underneath as you normally would, lift it up softly and get it landing. So it’s a tricky shot to play, but you can adapt your setup and adapt your technique to make sure you get a nice contact and a lot of control over the shot. Now the first thing you need to do is make sure you’ve got a club which isn’t using a lot of bounce. Now the bounce angle on the bottom of the club is the difference between the bottom edge and the leading edge. Now if you have a club with a lot of bounce it may contact the ground just before the ball on a tight lie and cause a thin shot.
So whatever the club you’re using you need to try and reduce the bounce. Now the easiest way to do that is not open the club face is to keep it square or even slightly close it that will reduce the bounce on the wedge and make it a lot easier to nip the ball off a tight lie. As well as that so keeping the club face square or slightly closing the club face, we need to make sure the ball position is just back of center or weight is slightly forward and the club shaft is leaning a little towards the target. Now with normal kind of shots from around the green when it’s a bit soft you can actually be a little more aggressive into the ball and take almost a little bit of a divot. With this shot off a tight lie you need to nip it right off the surface and not dig down into the ground. The more and more you try and dig down the more chance it has of bouncing up into the ball and causing a thin shot. So we’ve reduced the bounce slightly on the club, we’ve got the ball set just back of center; we’ve got our weight a little forward and our hands ahead. And what we want to be doing is keeping the wrists really out of the shot, just making it more of a shoulder turn back and through and just nipping it clean off the surface. And that will allow you to get a lot more control over those shots. The one thing you don’t want to be doing off these tight lies is really getting lots of wrist tension and digging down into the ground. That will cause the club to bounce up and cause a thin shot. The second thing you don’t want to be doing is try to play a flop shot because again that will lead to the same problems. So off this tight lie reduce the bounce, try and nip it off the surface, and really try and get some control as the ball lands on the green. 2014-05-23How can I pitch from tight lies around the green? Now this is one of the most difficult situations you’ll find when it’s faced around the green you’ve not quite made the putting surface, you’ve got to pitch it on but you’ve got a very tight lie underneath the ball. So it’s not quite setup, it’s not a welcoming shot because you can’t quite slide the club underneath as you normally would, lift it up softly and get it landing. So it’s a tricky shot to play, but you can adapt your setup and adapt your technique to make sure you get a nice contact and a lot of control over the shot. Now the first thing you need to do is make sure you’ve got a club which isn’t using a lot of bounce. Now the bounce angle on the bottom of the club is the difference between the bottom edge and the leading edge. Now if you have a club with a lot of bounce it may contact the ground just before the ball on a tight lie and cause a thin shot.
So whatever the club you’re using you need to try and reduce the bounce. Now the easiest way to do that is not open the club face is to keep it square or even slightly close it that will reduce the bounce on the wedge and make it a lot easier to nip the ball off a tight lie. As well as that so keeping the club face square or slightly closing the club face, we need to make sure the ball position is just back of center or weight is slightly forward and the club shaft is leaning a little towards the target.
Now with normal kind of shots from around the green when it’s a bit soft you can actually be a little more aggressive into the ball and take almost a little bit of a divot. With this shot off a tight lie you need to nip it right off the surface and not dig down into the ground. The more and more you try and dig down the more chance it has of bouncing up into the ball and causing a thin shot. So we’ve reduced the bounce slightly on the club, we’ve got the ball set just back of center; we’ve got our weight a little forward and our hands ahead. And what we want to be doing is keeping the wrists really out of the shot, just making it more of a shoulder turn back and through and just nipping it clean off the surface. And that will allow you to get a lot more control over those shots.
The one thing you don’t want to be doing off these tight lies is really getting lots of wrist tension and digging down into the ground. That will cause the club to bounce up and cause a thin shot. The second thing you don’t want to be doing is try to play a flop shot because again that will lead to the same problems. So off this tight lie reduce the bounce, try and nip it off the surface, and really try and get some control as the ball lands on the green.
