Nick Clearwater on Short Game Trajectory (Video)

GOLFTEC's Nick Clearwater has a tip on a way to hit excessive pitches and coffee chips. I'm going to add a tip to his guidelines.

Notice that Nick creates excessive or low trajectories with ball position and a aggregate of elbow and wrist bend.

• To hit a high pitch, move the ball slightly forward and, at impact, keep your trailing elbow bent and let your wrist bend forward (bow your wrist).
• To hit a low chip, move the ball slightly backward and, at impact, keep your trailing elbow straight and don't let your wrist bend forward (cup your wrist).

If that seems a bit complicated, think about where the clubhead finishes. In both shots, your hands finish at about waist high. But...

• when you hit a high pitch, the clubhead finishes up near your shoulders.
• when you hit a low chip, the clubhead finishes down near your knees.

In each case, the clubface has not turned behind you.

• With the high pitch, the clubface points up toward the sky.
• With the low chip, the clubface points toward the target.

Use the high pitch when you don't have much green to work with, and use the low chip when you have plenty of room to run the ball up to the hole.

It's now not very tough to visualize these shots. And as soon as you could do this, you will discover that both pictures are fairly smooth to execute.