In this lesson we will discuss the fundamentals of how to address the golf ball when pitching. Setting up to the golf ball is so very important with all aspects of the game as it sets the scene for you to make an efficient motion in your swing allowing you to create a lot more consistency in your ball striking. A common theme I see for amateurs who struggle with their short game is poor and complex set up, which ultimately results in them fighting to hit good, consistent shots before they’ve even started their swing. There are many dynamic features involved in the set up that affect different aspects of the swing and influence some of the core positions of address, hence why it is so important to take due time and care when addressing the ball. The set up I’m about to discuss will be a familiar look and carry similar fundamentals, for all shots around the green which will help minimize complexity and keep your all round short game much simpler.

So lets get started….

Club Set-Up

Most players will carry 3-4 wedges in their bag, commonly a Lob Wedge (62º-58º), Sand Wedge (58º-54º), Gap wedge (54º-50º) and Pitching Wedge (50º-46º). I recommend having at least 3 wedges in the bag, this will give you a good variety of club and shot options for when you face different shot scenarios on the course. It’s important to keep your wedge gaps consistent as this will make controlling distances easier, something we will discuss in a later lesson. An important wedge characteristic which is commonly emphasized is the bounce of the club, and plays a major role in minimizing poorly executed shots. I won’t go into detail of the bounce in this article but you can read more about my thoughts and recommendations here.

Stance

First and foremost we’re going to talk about stance. I always like to see feet shoulder with, or just a little wider than shoulder width. I’m not an advocate of feet together as it provides a weak base which often encourages too much leg movement. Also a narrow stance makes it hard to define a clear ball position. I like to see feet aligned square to, or even slightly closed to target. This is probably contradictory to many methods of teaching however, there is good reasoning behind it. Firstly, this will help control and simplify the club path through the ball in swing, leading to more consistent ball striking. Opening the stance will encourage the club path to cut across the ball which will create a lot of inconsistency when we focus on distance control. Secondly a slightly closed stance will help provide a platform to allow more weight to be transferred on our front foot at address. Opening the stance will always draw weight towards the back foot, creating an unbalanced and unstable position. Not only aligning the stance left or right of target affect our weight distrubution but it drastically changes our ball position. This is something I don’t find other professionals and instructors mention. Ball position is relative to the stance line. Not the target line. As referenced to in the images by opening your stance around a static point the ball position will move significantly further back in relation to your body a feet line. After all our target could be a flag, a tree, a pathway and therefore the only constant we can base our ball position on is our body. We will go into this in much more detail later but it’s certainly something to be aware of in your game. This brings us onto ball position….

Ball Position

Having the ball position forward (Figure 4) in the stance will help the natural loft of the club face be present to the ball as well as the bounce of the club play a more active role from set up, as opposed to trying to manipulate the club face mid-swing to help influence its use. Too often I see amateurs play wedge shots way back in their stance to encourage a ‘steeper angle of attack’ and ‘help strike down on the ball’. This will show too much of the leading edge to the ball as well as de-lofting the club face. Due to these factors amateurs will often find that leading edge catching and digging into the ground, causing a heavy/fat strike. If you’re someone who fears playing out of a soft lie or bare ground, putting the ball further back in your stance with the hope of just making contact with the ball first will likely set you up for a poorly executed shot. Another problem with this is, is that it’s very common for our subconscious and instinct to take over mid-swing, in order to correct the ensuing overly steep strike, by trying to add loft back to the club and shallow out the angle of attack. This will result in the hands and wrists getting over active and/or the body coming up and out of the shot to avoid heavy contact with the ground. This will often result skulling the ball through the green. These two outcomes are always results we dread when playing approach shots around the green.

Upper Body & Weight Distribution

So we have our lower half in a good position allowing the natural characteristics of the club face to be present to the ball. Now to set the upper body to compliment the lower half and get us in a position to give us more consistency and confidence over the ball. If we set up with even weight distribution we find that our sternum will be slightly behind the ball. If we stayed in this position it will cause problems as our sternum is a direct reference point to where the bottom of our swing arc will be. As we can see this would cause the club to ‘bottom out’ behind the ball. A scenario we want to prevent. To accommodate this we are going move our sternum over the ball (Figure 5). I always encourage my students to feel as if they are leaning against a wall with their shoulder, keeping their head/nose over the sternum. This will create a straight line down the lead shoulder, hip, knee and foot. Too often I work with students who leave a lesson in a good position and happy with their progress to find them a few days later having just shift their hips forward and not moving their sternum over the ball. This un-balance at set up can be detrimental so it is very important to follow a pre shot routine to ensure that you are in a fundamentally sound position for all shots. This adjustment will shift our weight distribution so that we have about 60-65% of our weight on our lead leg (Figure 6). Now, not only will this new position give a different feel at set up but will now create positive changes in the swing without making in-swing adjustments. As you can see the sternum is now over the ball which means our club will ‘bottom out’ directly under the golf ball, along with this the shift in weight and ‘lean’ towards the target will also create a steeper angle of attack. Remember this steeper angle of attack is not produced by sacrificing the natural characteristics of the club face. We are still utilizing the natural loft of the club and the bounce due to the improved positions we’ve made with our lower body.

Get into the routine of addressing the ball like we have discussed in this lesson and you will start finding a lot more confidence and consistency around within 100 yards. Click the button below to find the next lesson where we will discuss the basics to striking the ball and controlling our swing.