Short Game
Learn The Secret To Great Pitching
For better pitching consistency, your hands, arms and body have to work as a unit. One of my teaching pals, Tommy Marino, came up with a simple way to practice this action. Slip your arms through a wire clothes hanger up to your elbows (above). Mimic a few swings without a club, and feel the arms and body moving in unison. Now grab your wedge and make some half swings without a ball. Keep the hanger resting against your stomach from start to finish. Notice how it reminds you to pivot your body back and through while you swing the club. The hanger eliminates the fault of an armsy swing with no body rotation.
Work up to where you can hit shots while wearing the hanger. All you have to do to control distance is vary the amount you swing the club back and pivot your body through. For a medium-length pitch, take it back until the shaft points at the sky (you'll need some wrist hinge) and pivot through until the shaft is pointing at your target.
Grayson Zacker is at the Jim McLean Golf School in Miami.