Chipping and Pitching Tips

Chipping and pitching. For most golfers who shoot between 80 and 90, approximately 45 to 52 shots are spent either within 75 yards of the green or on the green. For those averaging even higher scoring ranges, even more shots are used within 75 yards of the hole. So what you may say. Well, any golfer can improve his scoring average, handicap and enjoyment of the game by working on his short game. That’s chipping and putting. Heard that before? Probably.

While it’s still cold and most of us are off the golf course take a few moments and find a video or two that deal with such subjects as sand shots, chip shots around the green, short iron shots into the green and oh yes, putting, short distances and longer distances.

If you are in a location where the weather is not too bad one thing you can do is just practice hitting short wedge shots, maybe 20 to 50 yards on a high school practice field (many high school fields are now made of artificial grass) or a municipal field. This will help keep your golfing muscles, primarily shoulder, wrist and arms somewhat flexible until the spring. Once the golfing season begins with respect to chipping and pitching tips, golfers should do the following:

Set goals for yourself on the different parts of your game, particularly those you had trouble with during the previous golfing season.

Get up early enough to spend some time on the practice range hitting wedges to specific targets, chipping on the practice green and putting on the practice green. You should allocate at least an hour to this if your personal schedule permits.

Have a friend, family member or playing partner look at all the aspects of your short game when you are playing your round and again while on the range. For example, during the round, you should have someone watch to see if your feet are in proper alignment with the flag stick, how far back you bring the club when hitting short iron or chip shots, what your eyes and head are doing when hitting chips and short irons and again, when putting whether long putts or short putts.

While playing the round you should have someone make observations about your short game and these observations should be written down on a pad. For example, on putts, you may break your wrists, thereby pulling or pushing putts. A playing partner can easily see this kind of mistake and help you change your putting style, if not during the round, then on the practice green.

Keep track of how many greens you hit in regulation, how many putts you take on each green, the approximate length of the first putt, whether your putts or your short iron shots or chips are always on one side of the hole, (i.e. always left or always right).

If it is possible when you are practicing or during an actual round have one of your playing partners or a friend take cell phone pictures of your stance on chips, putts, short irons shots so you can actually see what you look like as opposed to what you think you look like. For example, you may think you are bending your knees at address on short chips and iron shots but in actuality you are stiff legged. Another example is on putts, if a photo can be taken during the actual putting stroke, you may find out that you are lifting your head or moving your eyes and not really keeping still until some time after the putt has been hit.

On your short irons shots, when divots are taken, see the direction of the divot and the depth of the divot. Studying these results will help you correct possible swing errors before they become ingrained.

Maintain a good mental attitude even if shots are struck poorly or off course or do not achieve the intended result.

Do you allow the playing skills or attitudes of your playing partners affect your own pattern of play, mental attitude or concentration. Concentrate on your game. Remember chipping and pitching tips if followed during the golf season will bring big rewards.

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