Isn’t it mind-boggling how a little shot can cause so much frustration and kill your self-confidence? Ever wondered how golfers can easily shoot past up to 500 yards but the minimal thought of keeping it within 75 yards range leaves them in a stream of nervousness?
If you have faced the same, you do not need to worry anymore. This complete guide will help you to determine your benchmark to start hitting 30 to 75 yards golf shots like a pro.
Working on the Foundation
Before you begin, it’s necessary to be able to understand these shots better. These shots can often be called pitch shot or in particular, low-flighted, high-spinning pitch shot. If you can control your distance well from 30 up to 75 yards, you should be giving yourself plenty of opportunities to score well.
For many people, shots like these can be somewhat ambiguous. Often club golfers are seen to be struggling with their shots because it is neither a chip (too far to play a chip) nor a full distance golf swing either (not far enough for a full swing).
You can use pitching, gap, sand or even a lob wedge for these shots. But before you get into the actual action and play the shot, it is essential to know how far each of your clubs goes when you make a full swing.
The set up for a pitch is very similar to a chip. Like any shot in golf, there are some things you should consider in the setup first to give yourself the best chance of success.
Ball Position Under the Sternum
Try to keep the ball position fairly centered between your two heels or slightly behind your stance. This will give you a slower pace swing and allow the base of your swing to be between your two heels.
Open Stance with an Open Toe Line
Your stance needs to be fairly narrow. You have to have your left foot drawn slightly back. But you must remember not to allow your shoulders to go too much to the left. It is only your toe line that you want to open, not your shoulders. By setting your left foot back, you will get the chance to turn and keep the rotation of the body going through the shot.
Weight Should be 60% on the Front Foot
You have your body weigh marginally left footed and very forward by making sure that your hands are leaning forwards as well. It is imperative for you to not move your weight around but keep your weight planted on the left foot throughout the swing. This will give you a slight angle of attack on the way down ensuring proper stability.
Once you have the setup under control, you need to focus on a couple of key things;
Using the Bounce
Consider using the bounce on the club. Use the back edge of the club i.e. the back edge of your sand wedge sole to hit the ground before the front edge does.
Do Not Pull the Handle
Avoid too much of handle pulling where the handle gets too much in front of the head. This will give you a lot of front edges and take all the bounce of it.
Length Equals Distance
What you’ve got to remember is the length and the pace of your swing. This will determine how far the golf ball travels through the air.
For instance, on a shorter shot, it will be required to take a shorter swing, whereas a longer shot would need a longer swing (back and through). However, always make sure to maintain the length of the swing to be equal on both sides of your body.
Form an L Shape
In your backswing turn your chest and form an L shape with your arm. As you do so, remember to hinge your wrists and extend your leading arm along the process. This will help you accelerate the club and your body constantly through the same shape (L shape) on the other side.
All the same, you must avoid slowing down your body at any point. If your body slows down your hands, your arms will overtake and provide very random strikes starting from top shots and even fat shots.
Accordingly, it is important to know how far the shot is and how far it is going to go through the air. These types of shots are all about trying to get the ball land on a particular distance.
With one club you will get three very accurate distances that the golf ball travels through the air. Let us look at some in-swing thoughts to help you achieve the correct distance every single time.
Match Your Setup with Your Length of Shots
If you stand as if you are going to hit a standard 7-iron in your 30-75 yards, you will most likely thin it and not be able to commit to the shot. This is why you need to match your setup with your length of shots. To do this, you need to;
- Have most of the weight on your lead side
- Give yourself enough chance for a good downward hit on the golf ball
- Avoid keeping your hands excessively forward
- Keep your shoulders parallel to the ball’s target line
Backswings and Through Swings
Often the backswings can get a little bit too long involving a lot of assumptions whether or not you are going to hit the ball too far or too short to get that yardage. For 30 to 75 yards shot you can consider doing the following;
- Your yard distance should be arm parallel to the ground with your wedge (for instance, your 50 yards need to be arm parallel with your wedge of about 58 degrees or so)
- Keep your arm in a parallel position both on the way back and on the way through
- Match your backswings and through swings with a fluid tempo
- Brush your club towards the ground instead of digging or scooping up in the air to create a smooth, brushing action into impact
- Make your club feel lighter. You can do this by dropping behind your clubhead a little as there is gravity in the head
Pitch Solutions for Cleaner and Better Strike
If you have control on your swing, you can achieve an everlasting balance on every club you use and even on every pitch with the 30-75 yard range. It will help you strike the ball a lot cleaner and better. Here are some other things that you need to consider.
Use Your Body
A lot of golfers would just be swinging their arms leaving the body quite static. This denies you to flick, lets you hit fat or thin and lose distance along the process by adding too much height. Use your body rotation by properly turning your body along with the core.
Measure Accuracy and Distance Control
This will help you to create a much cleaner strike and generate relatively shallow shots as well as lots of power and spin.
Eliminating Arm Actions and Bad Strikes
Whatever wedge you carry, by limiting your arm activity you can do wonders from 30 to 75 yards easily.
Keep Your Arms Tucked Into Your Body
Try to feel that your arms and your armpits are tucked inwards well into your body as if something were underneath your armpits.
Using a towel or a head cover underneath your armpits could be a great option if it gets too difficult for you to feel it. The purpose of this step is for the arms to do everything the body is doing. For instance, if you rotate your body back, the arms have to go back with it.
Work on Your Divot
The divots you take need to come through as shallow ones instead of steep ones. You can ensure this by avoiding loads of lateral body rotation.
How to Control the Distance
Distance control for both front and back is as effective as the position of your body. You need to be able to accurately measure your distance with every wedge shot on every short iron you have in your bag.
You also want to spend a little bit of time measuring your distance control. This will help you map out your distances. You can do this at either a driving range in a flat surface area which is off grass and of course, where there is no wind.
Otherwise, you could consider using a launch monitor. This will provide you with some incredibly accurate outcomes and help you measure exactly how far the ball is going to carry.
However, you can make it easier for yourself by following these methods mentioned below;
Make a Chart
When looking for how to measure your distance, you can always do a chart. This could be done in your scorecard too or any piece of paper. Whichever suits you best.
Your chart should contain;
- List of all the wedges you are carrying with you
- Record of your full swings
- Swing lengths to know how you can change your swing lengths and then do different distance controls
Clock Face Theory
This theory might not work for everyone but it has shown to help many professional golfers. Clock faces are usually more straightforward than other theories. Here’s what you need to do if you are following this theory;
- Pick your first and second clock number (for instance, 11 o’clock to 1 o’clock)
- Work on relation to your left arm by picturing to be in a 6 o’clock position
- Swing and rotate your way back to the first clock number you picked (make sure to turn your body too)
- From that point rotate and turn your body through without using your arms
- Finish with your right arm and point more to your second clock number
- However far you swing back and go on one side, you must remember to accelerate through to similar position. This will help to match it on the other side by aiming for your second number.
If you are looking to cover up a shorter yard distance, make sure to change your clock timings. For example, if you were to hit within a 30-75 yard shot, you can consider picking by checking out the following;
- 10 to 2 o’clock for 75 yards
- 9 to 3 o’clock for 60 yards
- 8 to 4 o’clock for 45 yards
Use all your clubs for all the clock timings to have a complete chart. Once you start keeping the record of these, you can put the figures on your chart. Soon by heart, you will be able to identify which wedges would provide which swing rotation and under what amount of distance.
This way, when you are on a golf course next time, you can use your measuring device (a rangefinder or a watch) to check your chart and know instantly what to do.
However, if this does not work for you, consider trying out on other theories like a percentage theory (referring your distances as percentages, for instance, swinging at 90%) or a fraction theory (labeling your swings infractions).
Control Your Heights
To be able to control the height of a pitch is a massively valuable tool when you are out on a golf course hitting pitch shots up to 75 yards.
Controlling the height can be used for many different reasons; either when the golf course conditions are windy or when you got to get over or under something or for your landings.
Pick the club that you are most confident with for your shots so that you can shape it differently by hitting the ball higher or lower.
When you hit the ball higher or lower, you must keep in mind the two aspects of height with a pitch.
Speed
Plays a vital role in it. If you hit the ball fast, you will be able to add height and velocity. The ball will stay up in the air and produce great spin or if you reduce the speed, it will help you to hit the ball lower.
Dynamic Loft
Loft is the other main factor of height. Your moment of contact will ensure how much loft is in your golf club. You can turn your 54 degrees into a 7-iron or a 90-degree wedge depending on how you approach the ball. How many shafts you have in your club can massively dictate the height of the ball or the lowness of the shot.
Nevertheless, if you want no height involved, lean the shaft forward and hit the ball softer. This will reduce both the velocity and speed. Additionally, it will make the ball come lower but fortunately will pitch about the same distance.
Things You Can Do to Get Started
Let’s look at the list below which contains all the things that you should definitely do to get things started.
Get Your Arms in Action
As you make a backswing, try syncing up your hips, shoulders and arms. On these shorter swings, you want everything moving together much more than you want in full swing shot. The incorrect way to do this would pick up the club with just your arms and rotate your chest too much.
Make Swings with Your Right Arm
Keeping your right elbow completely straight, make some swings with your right arm only. Your wrist does not have to be locked. Let the club swing under its momentum. You can practice some swings in your house too but remember to allow your body to feel like there is some flow to this.
Let the energy of your swing build the momentum in the club head gradually.
Let the Pivot of Your Body Do All the Work
When you go out to the course, grab your golf ball and concentrate on the idea of soft wrists. This will allow the pivot of your body to be in full control.
Knee-High Swing
Decelerating can lead you to an absolute disaster. When you lose pace, you get loose with your backswing by taking it too far back. As you slow down, your club would want to whip past. In addition, before you know it, you are way back with your swing.
To avoid decelerating and start accelerating you should only take the hands back to a knee-high position and avoid your clubface to try to overtake your hands.
You need to get exaggerated by going way short and pick up the pace through to force yourself to make a good swing. Practice doing five or ten of these to kick out your habit of long backswings.
Use a Low Ball Flight
Play the ball with quite a low flight trajectory.
Keep a High Spin Rate
If there is a lot of spin on the ball, it is bound to stop earlier than expected. This is useful because if you have a lot of spin on the ball, it will not roll a whole lot when it lands on the green.
Shallow Your Angle of Attack
Take tiny divot. If it is very shallow at the bottom of the swing, you will be able to create a very broad base to the golf swing.
Wrapping Up
A lot of people struggle with these shots because it is a shot many golfers feel they can’t commit to. Many are scared to hit too far while others are scared to hit it way in front of them. If you are among these golfers, this article is your go-to guide to boost your in-swing thoughts.
If you be consistent and keep practicing the methods mentioned above, you will easily be able to hit with any pitch to any wedge shot within a 30 to 75-yards range.
Apart from that, you also will be able to achieve control on your distance, have a lot of spin on your golf ball and attain the correct distance in every single time.
