How to pitch from a bare lie

How to make solid contact when playing a pitch shot from a bare lie

Finding a decent strike off a bare lie is all about creating the perfect angle of attack. Too steep and you present your wedge’s sharper, leading edge to the ground, and with a very clean lie any contact before the ball results in a duff.

But too shallow and the back edge of the sole skips off the hard ground, causing a bladed thin. Use this steep-to-shallow technique that eliminates the bounce thin, while letting you use the forgiving nature of sole bounce to skid the club under the ball. Here’s how the shot works.

Key to remember

Commit to the shot: Add loft

A bare lie is unforgiving, and any hesitancy in your action will be punished. Opening the face to weaken the loft is a neat way to help ensure you stay aggressive and purposeful through impact.

Hitting a pitch from a bare lie: How to feel a steep to shallow swing

Set-up: Pre-set a level attack

Play the ball just forward of centre in your stance. This places it at the base of the swing’s arc, promoting a level attack. Widen your stance a touch to create a slightly shallower base to the swing’s arc and avoid shaft lean.

Backswing: Add some subtle steepness

Let chest rotation lead the club’s motion back; avoid lateral movement or weight shift. Let your wrists cock naturally to give your action an appropriate radius, while adding a little steepness that stops your attack getting too shallow.

Impact: Upright shaft

The perfect attack for this lie sees a subtle release of the club into the back of the ball. A great way to picture this is to return the club to the upright attitude you created at address.

Dead heat strike

You can also think of hands and clubhead, in a race to impact, arriving in a dead heat. These thoughts promote a slight shallowing through impact, ideal for making solid contact