Leone’s Lessons: When faced with any chipping and/or pitching
situation, you need to pay attention to your grip pressure.
I notice with many amateurs that they tend to grip the club like
they’re gripping a baseball bat when hitting these types of shots.
The success of these shots requires feel and sensitivity of the
clubhead, so your grip pressure is the key.
When faced with any chipping and/or pitching situation, you need to pay attention to your grip pressure.
I notice with many amateurs that they tend to grip the club like they’re gripping a baseball bat when hitting these types of shots. The success of these shots requires feel and sensitivity of the clubhead, so your grip pressure is the key.
Next time you’re working on your chipping and pitching, try this drill:
Take a couple of practice strokes using two different grip pressures. On a scale of 1 to 10, with one being the lightest and 10 being the tightest, take a couple of strokes with a grip pressure of nine. Sense how ridged your arms, hands and wrist feel, as well as the lack of clubhead. Now, relax the hands and grip the club with a pressure of three. Instantly, you should sense the clubhead.
When you swing the club even with a short stroke, you’ll sense a bit of lag with the clubhead during the forward stroke. This allows the wrist to stay ahead of the clubhead, creating solid contact. After impact, your hands should remain slightly ahead of the clubhead. With the pitching stroke, you’ll feel the clubhead lag even more during the forward stroke.
Make a note; your wedges are the heaviest clubs in the bag, and the tendency is to hit behind the ball because the weight of the club overextends your arms a bit on the forward swing. To avoid this, choke down a little, allowing your arms to hang so the club is just barely touching the turf. On the forward swing, the club and the arms will extend slightly at impact.
The result? The club compresses the ball and ground at the same time for solid contact.
