Practice pitching on mat?

I wonder if it is advisable to practice pitching on mat. Usually there is this thick rough around the green and also not sure if the bounce behave or feels the same on the course.

Hope can get some advise from forumers here.

you know the saying ' No fish, prawn also can'.....

its relative...if you have the chance to do it on real grass...thats ideal...if not mat will be the only way out.

For mat,,,,I focus on technique and contact and direction...distance wise...is iffy...to me.

I always practise on mat to gain confidence. If you are in thick rough, you will need such practise even more. If u ask me, tight lies are even harder. I ever hear a couple in a range beside me saying that I m wasting balls.

Duval and Duffader, thanks for your input.

For chipping, do you place the ball further back from the target (closer to right feet) ? I tend to top the ball when I do that.

Dunno if I am right, but usually I use PW or SW to chip. Due to the loft angle, the ball should be more to your right.

Bros out there, am I right? Here to learn too.

Different people different strokes, I tend to stand open, ball ard center or slightly front and I bend quite abit. Like to go shallow on the ball clipping the ball clean to get max contact to get the spin needed. But then again, u can also take a PW or 9 iron and hit it like a putting stroke. Just that I like to fly my ball more than bump n run, this way, obstacles or not, I wont be intimidated. The mat is a goos place to practise pitching and chipping.

As Duval mentioned, nothing beats practicing from the real thing, but most times we have to make do with with range mats. Mats mask mistakes because of their rubbery nature. You can still hit the mat some distance (duff) behind the ball and get acceptable results when chipping as the club rebounds off the range mat into the ball. Hit behind the ball on grass and the club just stops dead, and that is what really happens when you chip off grass. It's not strange to experience decent chips off range mats, and then for the same chipping technique to translate into duffs and tops when playing a round. Of course, there are numerous other reasons, best left out of the equation at this point.

As for placing the ball closer to the right foot, that is the correct recommended method to encourage ball first contact with a descending swing. You're topping when you do it because of incorrect set up and or technique.

Best to have a coach take a look. It might sound complicated but to get you started, here is a checklist for your chipping setup positon.

The hands should be in front of the clubhead, shaft leaning towards the left thigh, weight more on your left, head over the ball, hands hanging just underneath the shoulders.

Keep your wrists firm as you chip through the ball. If on your followthrough, the grip of your club points to your right thigh or behind you, your wrists have flipped through impact. Done correctly, the grip end of your club should point to the outside of your left hip on the followthrough, and the back of your left wrist should be relatively straight.

Hope this helps.

Quote :

wilden wrote:

Duval and Duffader, thanks for your input.

For chipping, do you place the ball further back from the target (closer to right feet) ? I tend to top the ball when I do that.

I do have that problem of topping the ball....once in a long long while.....better let the better short game player help you.

wilden wrote:

For chipping, do you place the ball further back from the target (closer to right feet) ? I tend to top the ball when I do that.

I think Birdman has explained all the basic. I was taught to chipped in different ball height base on the actual situation near the green. Ball position toward the right feet, middle and slightly toward your left feet .. give you a different ball height and reaction when the ball landed ..

Slicer51 wrote:

I think Birdman has explained all the basic. I was taught to chipped in different ball height base on the actual situation near the green. Ball position toward the right feet, middle and slightly toward your left feet .. give you a different ball height and reaction when the ball landed ..

Bro Slicer51, I think wilden not ready for advance technique yet lah. You seasoned player, he move ball back towards right foot still top leh..

Give him time to get the basics right first.

Also important to hold lower on your grip. I tend to move it down till almost holding to the shaft itself.

Stance wise, try to close your legs with minimum space in between.

Not an expert, just my 2ct worth.

Birdman wrote:

Slicer51 wrote:

I think Birdman has explained all the basic. I was taught to chipped in different ball height base on the actual situation near the green. Ball position toward the right feet, middle and slightly toward your left feet .. give you a different ball height and reaction when the ball landed ..

Bro Slicer51, I think wilden not ready for advance technique yet lah. You seasoned player, he move ball back towards right foot still top leh..

Give him time to get the basics right first.

Sorry Bro Birdman. I did not realized there. Just sharing in discussion. Did not want to confuse anyone as I am just confused myself

Wow, good explanation from birdman. Thanks bro. Really need to practice to get it right. Sometimes, I control so much until I forget to follow through.

Things get worse when you go to the green and your ball drop on a slope, then problem come. You will need to do a few practises by swinging your club a few time to get the chipping feel when you are on flat ground. Takes a lot of experiences to judge the strength to use and reading of the green slope gradient to decide where to land the ball so that the rolling goes towards the hole.

I guess this difficulty makes golfing interesting ... It's both club swinging skill and course mgmt skill.

One more thing...just to addon.......for all the practises on range, its at the actual course that brings out the creativity and exposure to all kind of lies....so , do try to clock decent number of games...

Slicer51 wrote:

Sorry Bro Birdman. I did not realized there. Just sharing in discussion. Did not want to confuse anyone as I am just confused myself

No worries bro, we're all here to share. Good to know what different ball positions do for understanding. Just best to get one basic chip going right first before moving on to experimenting with technique and feel.

You not confused la, just being modest.

duffader wrote:

I always practise on mat to gain confidence. If you are in thick rough, you will need such practise even more. If u ask me, tight lies are even harder. I ever hear a couple in a range beside me saying that I m wasting balls.

Then you should tell the couple that 5 cents chips like these goes a long way in winning $50/ hole games with your bar kar kakis like me....

alvin7379 wrote:

duffader wrote:

I always practise on mat to gain confidence. If you are in thick rough, you will need such practise even more. If u ask me, tight lies are even harder. I ever hear a couple in a range beside me saying that I m wasting balls.

Then you should tell the couple that 5 cents chips like these goes a long way in winning $50/ hole games with your bar kar kakis like me....

Please loh.... you bar kar meh??? just dun assume victory too early in a hole... especially when your opponent ball in the bunker....

Anyway, remember to pay zx your losses today hor....

Antgolfer wrote:

Wow, good explanation from birdman. Thanks bro. Really need to practice to get it right. Sometimes, I control so much until I forget to follow through.

Things get worse when you go to the green and your ball drop on a slope, then problem come. You will need to do a few practises by swinging your club a few time to get the chipping feel when you are on flat ground. Takes a lot of experiences to judge the strength to use and reading of the green slope gradient to decide where to land the ball so that the rolling goes towards the hole.

I guess this difficulty makes golfing interesting ... It's both club swinging skill and course mgmt skill.

Trying to control doesn't help chipping, it should be a rhythmic swing through motion and not a stabbing motion at the ball. Swing through and the ball just gets in the way. A spasmodic jab at the ball with the hands is what causes inconsistent distances and contact even though you think it's the same swing each time.

Ball on slope, most importantly understand how to setup, then what club to use to best get you close to the hole. Upslope or downslope, shoulders always level to the slope, even though you feel like you are going to fall over. Just widen your stance for stability.

You forgot to mention the skill of visualisation, a huge part of chipping and the short game, in fact, all the way up to full swing.

Thanks for the advice. Will try it out later if possible.

Birdman wrote:

Slicer51 wrote:

Sorry Bro Birdman. I did not realized there. Just sharing in discussion. Did not want to confuse anyone as I am just confused myself

No worries bro, we're all here to share. Good to know what different ball positions do for understanding. Just best to get one basic chip going right first before moving on to experimenting with technique and feel.

You not confused la, just being modest.

Bro, you being modest too. You knew different ball position gave a different feedback all along

However, I do need your input on some problem in my driver .. Please look out for my post under " I won slicer51 ". Feel to comment. Thx

Quote :

[quote="Slicer51
However, I do need your input on some problem in my driver .. Please look out for my post under " I won slicer51 ". Feel to comment. Thx

[/quote]




eh....bro, with this type of post header, who dare to comment lah

It states ' I WON '.....leh

Pak,

You are right .. I better start a new post then .. Thanks

Something else to add which nobody has mentioned so far..

I think one of the most common problems are that people try to scoop the ball instead of focusing on ball-first contact. You gotta trust that the loft on those wedges will do what they're supposed to do, ie. lift the ball high and land soft. When you try and scoop the ball up, tendency is to hit a fat shot. And after doing that a few times, you'll adjust your stance to stand a little higher, then you end up with a low flyer. Seen this happen to my flight mates many many times lol

I haven't come across an open-to-public practice facility in Sg that can duplicate lies I can find on the golf course.

If u know of a place, please share w me. I am now only confined to practicing from mats and the way I tackle such shots was thru playing more on the course.

Never a waste of balls or money to practice on the mat.
Better than nothing.

Another alternative is to play a couple more chipping shots while out on course if there's no flight behind you, chasing.