1 Simple Tip To Improve Your Pitching Contact

Today I have for you some great short game advice from Jeff Richmond who is the Director of Instruction at ConsistentGolf.com. The advice he shares below may seem contrary to the short game advice you’ve been given in the past but listen to what he says and then give it a try.

1 Simple Tip To Improve Your Pitching Contact by Jeff Richmond

Everyone knows how important the short game is, but here’s some stats that may surprise you…

From 30 yards pros get up and down about 46% of the time. Whereas a 10 handicap golfer only gets up and down around 11% of the time, and a 30 handicapper only gets up and down about 3% of the time.

Ouch!

So the moral of the story boys and girls, is… improve your short game and your scores will drop!

But one of the biggest factors that prevents this has to do with contact on the short shots.

Because if you fat or thin your short game shots, then the ball is going to either go too far or too short, leaving you a long putt or, heaven forbid… another chip!

So today I want to give you one simple tip that will help you improve the percentage of contact on your short shots.

What I’m about to share with you is completely contrary to what you’ve heard about the short game.

You see, the common advice with the short game is to put most of the weight on your left side (for right handers) at address and hit down on the ball.

Think about it… that’s ok for a professional or the golfer who practices a lot, because by doing this your contact has to be very precise. If you’re making a short stroke and hitting sharply down on the ball and your contact point is slightly off, then you’ll stub the club in the ground causing a fat shot, or you’ll hit the ball above the middle causing a thin shot.

So for most golfers I’m teaching, I suggest that when they setup to a chip or short pitch, they keep the weight fairly even at address and the ball in the middle of the stance.

Once setup like this, then I get them to make a much shallower backswing and follow-through. So it’s much more of a sweeping motion than an up and down motion.

Imagine a shallow U rather than a sharp V action.

This is a lot different than what is commonly taught, but for most golfers who I teach this, it gives better consistency and a much higher margin for error. Because the club is moving much lower to the ground, you can miss hit the ball and it’s still possible to get a good result.

You’ll hit less fats and thins with this approach.

So if your short game is a problem area for you, try this and let me know how you get on.

Hope it helps you.

That tip was from Jeff Richmond and if you would like even more help with your short game to make it so it’s like a professional, click the link below to find out more about Jeff’s great step-by-step Short Game Improvement program.