Pitching How to get more tap-ins
If you're confident that you can save par most of the time when you miss a green, it takes a lot of pressure--and strokes--off the rest of your game. Here's how to pitch the ball tight and save your round.
My Pitching Keys
Play It Straight: Open your stance, put more weight on your left foot and play the ball just forward of center in relation to your heels. My clubshaft is nearly vertical. If you have the shaft leaning sharply forward, you have the ball too far back in your stance. This reduces the club's loft and makes you more prone to scooping.
Get On Your Big Toe: The pitch shot is more of an arms swing going back and a body rotation coming through. To get the feel for this motion, place a ball just under the heel of your right shoe so you're up on your big toe. Then hit some pitch shots. Your weight will start left and finish left, which helps in two ways: 1.) The club goes back steeper, a sharper angle of attack, and 2.) The face remains open through impact, creating a high, soft ball flight.
Swing Left: As you swing forward, rotate your legs, hips and chest through so that your body points left of the target at the finish. Really accelerate onto your left side. The handle of the club should finish by your left hip pocket and the clubface should match the angle of your spine. If so, the face is open and square to your body.
How to get ready to rumble
Start Strong, Finish Strong
Unlike most Tour pros, I conclude my warm-up on the driving range, not the putting green. To finish up my prep, I start by hitting the shots I'll need on the 16th, 17th and 18th holes--from the drive to the approach shot--then the first three holes of the course in reverse order: 3rd, 2nd, 1st. This way, the first hole is fresh in my mind when I head to the tee. I visualize each fairway, and then go through my normal pre-shot routine (picking out a target, visualizing the shot shape) before hitting each shot. You'll often hear guys say how they didn't get things kick-started until the fourth or fifth hole. This routine, developed by my mental coach Jim Fannin, puts me in a full scoring mode from the beginning. Also, by playing holes 16, 17 and 18 on the range, I'm confident that I can finish strong. There are few surprises, because in my mind's eye I've already played these holes.
