Jimbooo
Challenge Tour Pro
I've been reading Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible, and he advocates his "finesse" swing, with distance controlled by using the clock-face method.
I've been putting this in action for a few weeks now and I have to say my short-game has improved massively. With my laser-range finder I'm finding I can get the ball to fly pretty close to where I want it to land every time.
The problem is when the ball has landed... Pelz's finesse swing is very much a relaxed dead-hands swing with full-body-synchronisation - so there's no "power" as such, no coil on the backswing - everything is in sync. This is great when I have green to play with, but I see so many tour pros on TV pitching the ball up close to the pin and stopping the ball dead. Using Pelz's swing system, I find my ball rolls and rolls and more often than not, I end up way past the pin.
So my questions are:
1 - Is this generally the preferred way of pitching (or even distance wedges) - to get the ball land close to the pin and stop dead (I'm thinking I could control ball-flight distance better than roll distance using the clock-face method as a guide).
2 - To stop the ball dead do you still keep the same body-synchronised swing (putting the ball back in your stance and hitting with a steeper angle to pinch the ball off the turf), or is it better to use a more powerful swing (with coil, knee/hips initiating downswing, etc).
Making some swing changes, with a Pro V1 ball, and with a good lie I can usually stop the ball dead, but it feels like I'm having to swing through the ball with more pace and therefore need less of a backswing (which goes against everything Pelz advocates in his book). This means my clock-face system goes out of the window - or I need to learn 2 lots of clock-faces for my wedges, one for normal finesse swing and one for stopping the ball dead.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not following the clock-face system religiously, but I am using it as a guide, and it works really well for getting me the feel of the length of backswing needed in my practice strokes.
Any advice or opinions welcome
I've been putting this in action for a few weeks now and I have to say my short-game has improved massively. With my laser-range finder I'm finding I can get the ball to fly pretty close to where I want it to land every time.
The problem is when the ball has landed... Pelz's finesse swing is very much a relaxed dead-hands swing with full-body-synchronisation - so there's no "power" as such, no coil on the backswing - everything is in sync. This is great when I have green to play with, but I see so many tour pros on TV pitching the ball up close to the pin and stopping the ball dead. Using Pelz's swing system, I find my ball rolls and rolls and more often than not, I end up way past the pin.
So my questions are:
1 - Is this generally the preferred way of pitching (or even distance wedges) - to get the ball land close to the pin and stop dead (I'm thinking I could control ball-flight distance better than roll distance using the clock-face method as a guide).
2 - To stop the ball dead do you still keep the same body-synchronised swing (putting the ball back in your stance and hitting with a steeper angle to pinch the ball off the turf), or is it better to use a more powerful swing (with coil, knee/hips initiating downswing, etc).
Making some swing changes, with a Pro V1 ball, and with a good lie I can usually stop the ball dead, but it feels like I'm having to swing through the ball with more pace and therefore need less of a backswing (which goes against everything Pelz advocates in his book). This means my clock-face system goes out of the window - or I need to learn 2 lots of clock-faces for my wedges, one for normal finesse swing and one for stopping the ball dead.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not following the clock-face system religiously, but I am using it as a guide, and it works really well for getting me the feel of the length of backswing needed in my practice strokes.
Any advice or opinions welcome
