Tip Tuesday: Ball Position on Pitch Shots

Struggling with your pitch shots? Chances are it’s coming from your setup. Allen Terrell from the Dustin Johnson Golf School at TPC Myrtle Beach in Murrells Inlet, S.C. is here to show you how maintaining proper ball position is crucial to your success in executing this shot.

 

 

One of the biggest flaws we see with our clients here at the golf school related to pitching is our ball position. It sounds pretty simple, but it’s a huge influencer and can be very problematic if the ball position gets too far back for a player trying to hit a higher or mid-trajectory golf shot.

The problem is, when you play the ball too far back and you get too much shaft lean, for one you take the bounce off the club and expose the leading edge. Also, when the ball position is back and the handle is too far forward, it’s going to promote a lot more of a bowing of the lead wrist, and an inward path with a closed face, which is a very difficult position from which to strike a pitch solid.

So just practice trying to get your stock setup, out of the fairway cut we’re talking about, where the ball position is a little more neutral, there’s a little less shaft lean and it’s a little more neutral pointing at your belt buckle – maybe just to the left of it for a right-handed golfer.