hey guys ive been playing with various sets of irons all 3-6* flat for about 5 years now. I stand at about 5ft 8in.
id say im a decent iron and full wedge player but i struggle with the shorter shots from 100yds in and around the green
the flat lies are great on my full swings coming in under plane at the 430 line with nice spine tilt but with the small swings i seem to always dig the toe…
thought this might be a good discussion, any thoughts??
thats a good question.
I am 6"3 and play irons that are bent three degrees flat from standard. I have had trouble chipping and pitching like you coming in from the 4:30. my fault is the chunk and hiting slicers… A big question for you and for everybody is what type of ball flight are you getting cause thats the first place to start. I just read a great quote from NRG! Lag posted his swing a while back and it was really good.
Sitting on the Toilet
by NRG » Tue Oct 27, 2009 12:37 am
Just wanted to share something i learned when i first started messing around with golf club lie angles. Even though i had been playing the game for 25 years, i had not realized this.
When you choke down the shaft on a golf club and stand closer to the ball, you are effectively flattening the lie on the club. When you flatten the lie on a golf club, you are effectively aiming it to the right, even if it appears to be pointing at the target. This is especially relevant with wedges. Because lie angle/face direction is more affected when more loft is involved.
For this reason, i carry 2 upright wedges, for hitting shots when standing closer to the ball.
I was discussing this with a friend, talking about how you should bend your knees more when pitching, to return the club to its designed lie angle and he said
“Remember Seve? When he was pitching, he looked like he was sitting on the toilet”
NRG Posts: 637Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2009 2:19 pm
thanks for the response man. i guess i can try bending at the knees more, or maybe increase the lie angle just a tad bit with the wedges.
hmm i definitely need to think about this. the 2 wedge thing could work too…
This is a great topic to resurface as I’m running into similar issues. The logic behind gripping up resulting in flatter playing lies makes sense to me and wasn’t something I considered. I guess this also plays into the fact that when we open the face, we are also flattening the lie.
I am 5’10" and play 6 degrees flat. I play with a open club face when taking the club back, like you would do on a full swing. When chipping, my body is pretty open and i bend my knees pretty good. I roll the face open and maintain that position and pivot my body or shoulders into the ball (Flat shoulder turn/pivot, and not teeter totting). Also being sure that i am keeping my knees quiet and still. On my chip finish…my club face is still facing the sky and the left arm is still pact into my body. The hands for the most part are usually waist high at the finish too on chips and a little higher on pitch shots. No forward shaft lean. Also it helps to maintain a bent right elbow as well. I rarely chunk it with this method.
Ball flight is a little higher though. My friends think i’m weird when i roll open the face on my chips. But i tried the conventional method (pendulum forward shaft lean or straight back and straight forward) and i am not very efficient with it as i tend to chunk or skull it.
Also once you get good…you can get a little draw spin on your chips to help roll it better.
As for the 100 yard shots…i struggle getting my PW there. My ball flight is way to high! I am still working on that. But for short pitch shots and chips, i do okay for the most part with this method.
Sounds like a good pivot rotaional pitch/chip! …I have been working on my chipping/Pitching lately and have achieved great success with 3" flat (I am 6"3). I had been troubled with hitting the fat shot for what seems like forever until I made a couple of adjustments.
Adjustment 1 - placing the ball WAY ON MY BACK FOOT while having an open stance.
adjustment 2 - Getting rid of DEAD HANDS. Hitting with the hands while keeping a bent right arm.
The further you are back from the flag the more it turns to a full swing minus ball postion and stance.