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The PITCH shot
and the
FULL SWING

PITCH:

Unlike the putts and chip shots, in which we keep our legs still and just swing our arms, we do the pitch shots in the opposite manner—after taking the club back, we hold our arms still and swing the club with our lower body back to the ball, swinging our weight around the front leg.

We learn two types of pitch shots in this lesson. The first, (which the author of Golf Fore Beginners also calls a "chip shot") can be used for either pitching or chipping. It’s called the bump and run. We use it when we can land the ball in the fairway or on the green and let it bounce and roll toward the hole. For the “bump and run” we keep the club face below our hips at the finish so the ball will fly low and roll well.

The high pitch shot flies high and lands near the hole without rolling so much. We do it just like the bump and run, except that we hinge our wrists to make the letter “L” when we finish the back swing, and we make another letter “L” at the finish of the forward swing, raising our arms until our hands are as high as the chin.

FULL SWING :

We put the heel pad on the top of the club, then put our fingers around the club. Then we put the life line of the bottom hand over the top thumb. If done correctly, we notice that we have at least nine fingers on the club, the crease between the thumb and forefinger of both hands point in parallel lines toward the back shoulder, and the thumbs cross (the top thumb on the inside of the club’s center, and the bottom thumb on the other side of center.) The weight of the club should be in the fingers, not the palms--as when we pick up a brief case.

For the full swing we do everything we did when we learned the high pitch shot, except that after making the letter “L” on the back swing, we turn the front shoulder under the chin. Just like all the pitch shots, we hold our arms still and swing forward with the legs. However, when the club nears the ball, we can also swing the arms.

After finishing the high pitch shot position our back shoulder is under the chin; we then just keep turning around the front leg until our chin (still on the shoulder) faces the target. By then we fold our elbows and bring the club around the back. We swing all our weight onto the outside of the front heel, so the back shoe comes up onto the toe, and the shoe laces of the back foot point to the target. The belt buckle points farther around, past the target. We hold the finishing position until the ball falls to the ground or at least for three seconds.