How to Improve Pitching in Golf

Shaving strokes from your score often comes down to mastering the shot that lands the ball softly on the green from 30 to 80 yards out - the pitch shot. It’s the ultimate gap-filler, the shot that turns a mishit approach into a tap-in par. This guide will walk you through the essential components of great pitching, from building a stable foundation in your setup to developing a reliable system for distance control, helping you turn this tough shot into one of your biggest strengths.

First, What Is a Pitch Shot? (And Why it Matters)

Before we go further, let's clear up a common point of confusion. A pitch shot is different from a chip shot. While they are cousins in the short game family, they serve different purposes.

• A chip shot is a low-flying shot with minimal air time and maximum roll. You play it when you are just off the green with plenty of putting surface to work with. Think "low and run."
• A pitch shot is the opposite. It’s a higher-flying shot with more air time and minimal roll upon landing. You need it when you have to carry an obstacle (like a bunker or rough) or when you have very little green between you and the hole. Think "high and soft."

Mastering the pitch shot is how you save par from just about anywhere inside 100 yards. When you find yourself in that awkward "in-between" distance - too far to chip, too close for a full swing - a reliable pitch is your best friend. It gives you the confidence to attack pins and the ability to recover from wayward approach shots, drastically reducing the number of bogeys on your scorecard.

The Pitching Setup: Your Repeatable Starting Point

Consistency in your short game begins before you even start the swing. A repeatable, balanced setup puts you in the perfect position to deliver the club correctly to the back of the ball every time. Let’s build it from the ground up.

Stance, Feet, and Ball Position

Success starts with your foundation. For a pitch shot, you want to be stable, but not locked into the ground like you would for a full swing with a driver.

Start by setting your feet slightly closer together than shoulder-width. Think about the width of your hips as a good benchmark. This narrower stance helps encourage your body to rotate freely instead of swaying back and forth. Next, flare your lead foot (the left foot for a right-handed golfer) out toward the target by about 20-30 degrees. This simple adjustment does a wonderful thing: it pre-clears your lead hip, making it much easier to turn your body through the shot.

Finally, position the golf ball squarely in the center of your stance. Placing it here sets you up to strike the ball at the low point of your swing arc, which is essential for that pure, ball-then-turf contact we all want.

Weight and Hand Position

Once your feet and ball are set, your weight distribution is next. Instead of a 50/50 balance like a full swing, favor your lead side slightly. Aim for a 60/40 pressure split, with a little more weight felt in your lead foot. This tiny weight-forward lean promotes a downward angle of attack, helping you hit down on the ball and avoid the thin or "skulled" shot.

With your hands, slide them down the grip an inch or two. "Choking down" like this gives you a greater sense of control and shortens the swing radius, which is perfect for these less-than-full shots. Your hands should be positioned slightly ahead of the golf ball, creating a straight line from your lead shoulder, down your arm, and to the clubhead. This setup promotes a clean, descending strike.

Posture and Arm Hang

Maintain an athletic posture by bending from your hips, not your waist. Your back should be relatively straight, and you should feel balanced and ready for action. Let your arms hang naturally and comfortably from your shoulders. There should be no tension in your arms, wrists, or hands. Tension is a speed killer and a consistency destroyer in the short game, so a relaxed grip and relaxed arms are a must.

The Motion: How to Hit a Crisp Pitch Shot

With a solid setup established, the motion becomes much simpler. The goal of a good pitching motion is to use the rotation of your body as the engine, letting your arms and the club come along for the ride. This is the secret to consistency.

Use Your Body, Not Just Your Arms

The single biggest mistake amateur golfers make in pitching is trying to control the shot with just their arms and hands. This leads to an inconsistent swing path, poor contact, and a loss of distance control.

Instead, think of your pitch shot as a miniature version of your full swing. The power and control come from the rotation of your chest and torso. When you turn your body, you create a connected motion where the big muscles lead the small ones. It's much easier to repeat a body turn than a complicated series of arm and wrist movements.

The "One-Piece" Takeaway

To ensure your body leads the swing, focus on a "one-piece" takeaway. This means your shoulders, arms, hands, and the clubhead all start moving away from the ball together. Imagine a triangle formed by your shoulders and arms at address. Your goal during the backswing is to maintain that triangle as you turn your chest away from the target. There’s a natural softening of the wrists at the top, but you should not be actively or sharply "hinging" your wrists early in the takeaway.

Turning Through to the Finish

If the backswing is a body turn away from the target, the downswing and follow-through are a body turn toward the target. From the top of your backswing, simply unwind your body. Let your chest and belt buckle rotate through impact until they are facing the target at the finish.

This commitment to a full turn is what guarantees you accelerate through the ball. One of the most destructive tendencies is "decelerating," or slowing the club down right before impact out of fear of hitting it too far. By focusing on a "chest-to-target" finish, you build acceleration into your motion naturally.

Distance Control: Your Personal Clock System

One of the biggest challenges in pitching is hitting the ball the right distance. How do you hit a pitch 40 yards instead of 60 yards? The answer isn't to swing harder or softer - that kills tempo and consistency. The secret is to keep your tempo the same and simply adjust the length of your backswing.

The simplest way to do this is with the "clock system." Think of your swing as the hands of a clock.

• A 7:30 Backswing: Your left arm stops when it's parallel to the ground at the 7:30 position on the clock face. This is your "knee-to-knee" or shortest pitch swing. Ideal for shots in the 25-40 yard range.
• A 9:00 Backswing: Your arm stops at the 9:00 position, typically when your hands reach about hip height. This is your "stock" pitch shot, your reliable middle ground, often good for 40-60 yards.
• A 10:30 Backswing: Your left arm travels to the 10:30 position, getting closer to a full shoulder turn. This is your longest pitch for shots in the 60-80 yard range, right before you’d transition to a full wedge swing.

The key here is practice. Go to the range or a short game area and hit balls with these three different backswing lengths. Note how far the ball carries with your favorite pitching wedge (usually a sand wedge or gap wedge). Once you learn your personal yardages for the 7:30, 9:00, and 10:30 swings, you'll feel incredible confidence standing over any pitch shot on the course.

Three Common Pitching Mistakes (And How to Fix Them)

Understanding the proper techniqueis one thing, executing it another. Here are three common faults and simple fixes.

Mistake #1: The "Scoop" or "Flip"

This is the attempt to "help" the ball into the air by flipping your wrists at impact. This fault usually results in thin ("skulled") or fat shots. Remember, the club has loft built in for a reason! Your job is to hit down for the ball to go up.

The Fix: Focus on keeping your chest over the ball as you turn through. A great drill is to stick an alignment stick in the ground just outside your lead foot. Practice hitting pitch shots where your hands "win the race" against the clubhead, finishing past the alignment stick before the clubhead gets there.

Mistake #2: All Arms, No Body

As we discussed, this is when the swing is driven by the arms instead of body rotation. It leads to very poor contact and zero distance control.

The Fix: The famous headcover drill. Tuck a large headcover under your lead arm (left armpit for righties). Hit pitch shots focusing on keeping the headcover pinched there throughout the swing. If your arms get disconnected from your body, it will fall. This forces you to use your torso turn as the engine of the swing.

Mistake #3: Decelerating at Impact

This happens out of fear. You take a big backswing and then slam on the brakes just before impact, worried you'll hit it over the green. It almost always leads to a chunked, fat shot.

The Fix: Commit to your finish. Your only swing thought should be, "Finish with my chest facing the target." This makes it virtually impossible to slow down. If the ball goes too far, it's not a tempo problem, it's a backswing length problem. Trust a shorter backswing and a committed follow-through.

Final Thoughts

Great pitching doesn’t have to be complicated. It boils down to a few core fundamentals: a balanced setup, a body-powered swing, and a simple system for managing your distances. By focusing on rotating through the shot and maintaining your tempo, you'll deliver the club consistently and turn a weak point in your game into a scoring weapon.

Perfecting these mechanics takes practice, and having an expert in your corner can accelerate your progress. With Caddie AI, you have a 24/7 golf coach right in your pocket. if you find yourself with a difficult pitch from a bare lie or deep rough on the course, you can take a picture of it and we will analyze the situation to give you a smart recommendation on how to play the shot. We can also answer any golf question you have, anytime, to help you better understand the fundamentals of your game. Our goal is to take the guesswork out of golf, giving you clear, supportive guidance so you can step up to every shot with confidence.