Difference Between Pitching And Chipping

Golf Monthly created this content as part of a paid partnership with TaylorMade. The contents of this article are entirely independent and solely reflect the editorial opinion of Golf Monthly. 

Difference Between Pitching And Chipping

The difference between pitching and chipping is often misunderstood. To help you understand, we've enlisted the help of PGA pro Dan Grieve, who shares his expert advice in the video and article below.

Generally, chipping is when you want to get the ball on the ground as soon as possible and running towards the hole - so it spends more time on the ground than it does in the air.

Pitching is the opposite - where the ball spends more time in the air than it does on the ground. Importantly, however, they are both part of the short game family of shots. With a pitch, because of the additional speed created by your wrist hinge, you'll naturally spin the golf ball slightly more.

Chipping

For a shot where the pin is only about 15-20 yards away, you want to be chipping the ball, landing it on the front of the green and letting it run out. Use your standard chip and run action - there should be very little wrist action with the ball staying low and running towards the flag - as you'll be able to see if you watch the video with this article.

Such a technique limits you to around 20-25 yards, so anything longer and you will need to adopt more of a pitching technique, as expanded upon below.

Pitching

Learning how to hit a pitch shot is vital if you want to improve your scoring, and one of the keys is how you use your wrists. When pitching, much more wrist action is required to create the speed you need for the ball to travel a greater distance in the air. Don’t add too much wrist hinge, however, as that will lead to inconsistency.

Ideally, you want to create an angle of around 90 degrees between your arms and the club, as Dan demonstrates. That will allow you to generate speed while retaining control of strike and trajectory. 

Left side pivot

Chipping and pitching are both in the short game family and require you to keep a left-side pivot and rotate the body. As demonstrated in the video above, the key difference between the two is how you use your wrists - whether you leave them out of it, or bring a little more hinge in to get the ball to carry that little bit further.

Crucially, try to keep the other elements of the short game technique consistent and you should see better results whether you're pitching or chipping.