My name is Bobby Eldridge with the PurePoint Golf Academy. Today, I wanted to talk about pitch shots and more specifically, pitching the golf ball with loft. The most common golf instruction problem I’ve seen is when a golfer tops the ball over the green when pitching.

Well, I have a great golf instruction tip for you today. Are you ready? The reason that you struggle when you pitch is because the golf club swings down in the downswing, and just before it gets to the golf ball, it starts to swing back up and you wind up hitting the middle of the golf ball.

When you pitch the golf ball, the goal is to hit down on the ball and to have the ball crawl up the face of the golf club and go onto the green. The only way to make this happen is for the leading edge of the club to hit the bottom of the golf ball. The reason that many golfers skull the ball over the green is because they focus on the follow through being high and as a result, hit the ball on the upswing. In short, they don’t hit down on the ball, but rather hit up on the ball.

Imagine the golfer with the high follow through. As they come down, they start to swing back up again. Can you imagine how high the club face is at follow through? This is the incorrect way to hit a pitch shot. I’ve been in golf instruction for a long time and this is one of the most common problems I see.

The correct way is to put a little extra weight on your left leg, or the front leg, lean over on top of it, and with your arms, swing the club head down and let the golf ball go up. It will crawl right on up the club face. The key is to follow through low to the ground, not high.

In the downswing make sure, with your weight on your left side, that you swing your arms down and get the leading edge to swing into the ground. And then, the golf ball will crawl all the way up the face and take off for the target.

So remember, ball in the middle of your stance, weight on your left leg, swing your arms up and down. We like to keep golf instruction simple.

For better impact and for a little more loft when you're pitching, get the feeling that you're swinging the club face down into the ground.