Improving your short game: How to choose between a chip and a pitch?
Mark Nicolas explains how to choose between a bump-and-run and a pitch shot depending on the game situation.
Video transcript:
Hello and welcome to Golftechnic!
I just hit a really bad shot. I missed the green over there and I missed the sand trap.
I'm on the other side of the bunker, with a very difficult approach shot.
This will give me the opportunity to talk to you about the different approaches I can take and see what best suits the situation based on the difficulty of execution and the specific circumstances.
What I already know is that in this situation, I need a ball that flies.
For a ball to fly, I need a club that comes down. So, the club will rise at the tee, then it will come down, it will strike the ball, and then it will touch the grass after the ball, roughly over here, and then it will stop somewhere on the other side.
As long as my club is doing this, I'll have a ball that takes off and has what's called backspin, which will help it stabilize.
So, if I'm a little worried about hitting the sand trap and I don't have an extraordinary need to get into the hole but simply to stay on the green, I'll position myself like this: I approach perpendicular to the line of play with my right foot and my club, so my right foot is just behind where the ball is.
I step forward, I place my left foot, I step forward with my left foot, I open my left foot.
I slide my whole body to the left, for a right-handed golfer.
My right knee is directly in front of the ball, my left knee is completely to the left.
My fly is well in front of the ball, my hands are in front of my fly, and I'm going to make a short approach shot, which we'll call a "chip."
The ball rises, lands on the green, rolls four or five meters, and so I have about three or four meters to the hole.
This is what we'll call an easy situation; it's not necessarily obvious, but at least I've gotten rid of the problem.
So obviously, it's not par yet, but at least I'll be able to get out of this.
There's my "chip." I'm a little bit behind the green, but I've already managed to eliminate the main problem.
Now, I'm going to hit a higher shot. Look at how I'm going to position myself.
Now, I'm going to have to be very careful because I have a major problem.
The thing is, if I stop hitting the ball on the downswing, I'm going to either hit a thin shot or a topspin.
So you always have to be careful when you want a high shot.
I'm going to stay in the same position as before, that is, my right foot immediately to the right of the ball, with the handle, my left foot to the left, but I'm not moving it forward, I'm just opening it up.
I'm coming very slightly forward with my hips; you can see the crotch to the left of the ball, on the target side.
From there, I'm going to add a little more swing height on both sides with a rather slow, gentle speed.
The shot is more delicate; we'll call it a "Pitch."
The ball has much more height, it bounces, and it stops within two meters.
It's now only one and a half meters from the flag.
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