High Lofted Pitches

Video Transcript

To hit this shot up and over the bunker and have this ball stop the ball has to be a high trajectory shot. To be able to hit this shot here are some of the things that are important to understand. With your set up the ball needs to be more forward in your stance, not back, because back is going to hit it lower. So the ball is more forward in your stance. Now in the golf swing, we are standing to the side of the ball, and since we are standing to the side of the ball the club has to swing around our body on both sides of the ball. Around to the back and then around to the front. What a lot of players will try to do is they will try to swing the club up so much on the backswing and then try to scoop underneath the ball. That is not going to be consistent for you day in and day out. In hitting the shots I have a flail here to show you how the golf club needs to work. We need to transfer the energy from the handle to the clubhead. So when I am swing the club, you can see how the flail releases and it swings around my body. This is the same type of motion that I want to have in my golf swing, whether it is my pitch shots or my full swing shots. Here is what this shot is going to look like. It is around me to the back and then around me to the front. By having the handle feel like it is going to stop the clubhead swings past me and gives me the speed necessary to launch the ball up in to the air. Let’s take a look at it with a shot. My weight is a little bit forward. Ball got up nice and high and I have a chance to save par. Give this shot a try; I know it will help your pitching around the green tremendously.

Laird Small
Pebble Beach Golf Academy
1700 17-Mile Drive
Pebble Beach, CA 93953
Tel: 831-622-8650

Laird Small is Director of The Pebble Beach Golf Academy and is listed as one of Golf Magazine's Top 100 Teachers and Golf Digest's #23 instructor in the world.

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