GWD_MAY_16

INSTRUCTION PITCHING
‘Whatever knee flex
is comfortable for
you at address,
try to maintain
that all the way
to the finish.’
wee bit of room to work with. Using the same swing
you just used with a lob wedge in your hands, you can
hit the ball lower and produce a little bit more run just
by switching to your gap wedge.
What is the longest club you’d use to hit a pitch?
I only use my wedges, mostly the lobber or the
gapper. Maybe the pitching wedge, but only if I saw
the shot running as much as flying. Which isn’t
that often.
And what about hitting from a less than ideal lie?
The key is making solid contact, or as solid as you can
given the quality of the lie. Most times, I just move the
ball back to the point where I can hit the ball before
the ground. That is absolutely key. You want that
steeper swing. Hit down through impact. The ball will
also come out lower and run more. Not much you can
do about that from a poor lie.
How much “bounce” do you like on your wedges?
I’ve got eight on my lobber. I used to use four. But
I changed when I went to play in America. More
BELOW:
Donaldson’s pitch
that won Europe
the Ryder Cup at
Gleneagles.
bounce makes it easier to get out of bunkers. But it is
harder to chip off tight lies when there is a lot of
bounce on the club. Use the shots you tend to hit to
tell you how much bounce you need. If you tend to get
too steep and dig into the turf too much, get a club
with more bounce.
What about pitching from the rough?
Two things: hit harder, and allow for more run on
the ball. Otherwise, leave everything else as close to
what is normal as you can. If you do need to hit an
exceptionally high shot, open the face and maybe
your stance a little. Then make your normal swing.
Okay, what are the most common mistakes you see?
I gave a guy a pitching lesson during a Pro-Am
recently. The flex in his knees was changing during
his swing. So he couldn’t hit the ball consistently.
Knee flex is a key component in pitching. Whatever
flex is comfortable for you at address, try to maintain
that all the way to the finish. If it changes, so will your
height and so will the angle at which the club comes
into the ball. So you’ll either hit it thin or fat.
JAMIE DONALDSON’S THREE GOLDEN RULES FOR PITCHING
ZONE IN ON A SMALL TARGET
WHY THE LEFT ARM IS CRUCIAL
STEADY HEAD FOR CONSISTENCY
1 Pick out a specific target, where
2 Left arm straight – but not stiff –
3 Maintain your height. In other
you want the ball to land. Experiment to
see how hard you need to hit the ball to
produce a variety of distances. Once you
have a sound technique, that’s all you
should be thinking about over the ball.
and no more than horizontal on the
backswing. More than that and you are
tempting deceleration; less than that and
smooth acceleration through impact is
more diffcult.
words, keep your head still. If your head
doesn’t move up or down, the rest of
your body won’t either, which will make
solid, consistent contact much more
easy to achieve.
82 Golf World May 2016