Weekend players often try to help the ball in the air when hitting a pitch. They think that “scooping” the ball is the right way to get the ball to the hole. Instead, the helping motion causes you to hit the ball fat or thin, costing you strokes. The drill below breaks you of this bad habit:
On the range picture an imaginary iron bar in your mind’s eye about 10 feet in front of you perpendicular to the target line. Set the bar about three feet off the ground and see how many half-swing pitching wedges you can keep under it. (You can also buy two long dowels and stick them in the ground on either side of you and in front of you at 45-degree angle to form a triangular gate, with the apex of the triangle about three feet high in front of you. Now practice hitting balls through the gate.)
This drill teaches you to hit the ball first then the turf—the key to generating distance, loft, and spin for your pitches.