Video:Playing Pitch Shots From Uneven Lies

Transcript:Playing Pitch Shots From Uneven Lies

This is Todd Kolb with About.com. We're going to talk about pitching from uneven lies.

When to Play an Uphill Pitch Shot From Uneven Lies

When our golf ball comes to rest in a situation where I have an uphill pitch shot, first thing I need to be aware of is that the uphill, the angle of the slope is going to actually add loft to the shot. So in this particular situation I would normally use my sand wedge to hit this shot but because the ball's on an uphill lie, I'm going to go ahead and use my pitching wedge.

Change Your Stance for Uphill Pitch Shots From Uneven Lies

Now, because the golf ball is on an uphill lie the one thing I want to do a little different here is I do want to move the ball back in my stance that will help me bring the ball flight down just a little bit. Other than that my setup with my feet and those type of things is going to be the same. So the ball is sitting on an uphill lie, it's going to add a little bit of loft to the shot, I'm going to accommodate for that by number one grabbing maybe a less lofted club, and number two moving the ball back in the stance a little bit and those two things will help negate the angle of the uphill slope.

Strategy for Pitch Shots From Uneven Lies Below Your Feet

When your golf ball comes into a situation where the ball is below your feet, there's a couple things you need to be aware of. The most important thing is the direction the ball is going to travel after it comes off the face. So, if the ball is below your feet like in a situation like this the ball will tend to come out and roll a little bit to the right.

Strategy for Pitch Shots From Uneven Lies Above Your Feet

On the flip side, if the ball is above your feet for a right handed golfer the ball will tend to come off the club face and work a little bit to the left. So there isn't really any other adjustments that I'm going to make in my set up per se, other than the fact that I need to be aware that the ball is going to travel a little bit to the left or to the right based on the lie and I need to factor that into my equation when I go about picking out my target.

Playing Downhill Pitch Shots From Uneven Lies

When the ball comes to rest in a situation where we have what we call a downhill lie we need to be aware of a couple things for this particular situation and the first thing and the most important, is that the downhill lie is actually going to take some loft off the golf club. So in this particular shot I would normally use my gap wedge which is a 54 for me but because the ball is on the downhill slope I'm going to use my lob wedge because I have more loft to work with and that's going to help me out a little bit.

Be Aware of Set Up When Playing Pitch Shots From Uneven Lies

The next thing we need to be aware of is the set up position. On a downhill type of shot, what I want to do is I want to try to kind of match my shoulders a little bit to the slope line so I can swing along the slope line. So I'm going to go ahead and actually even bend my left knee a little bit, my front knee a little bit and kind of sit down and try to swing this golf club along the slope line. If I swing it along the slope line then that will help my contact and also help negate some of that slope.

Position the Ball Properly for Pitch Shots From Uneven Lies

The next thing I want to do is I want to make sure that I position the ball so it's equal to my chin. So as I set in here, I've got the ball a little bit here, so I can swing down along the slope line. So be aware if the ball is on a downhill slope, grab a little bit more lofted club, try to swing down the slope line to match the angle of the slope and those couple things will help that ball come out just the way you want it to.