Why You Need This: In this video, you'll learn how to chip and pitch off hardpan.

Hardpan can be a really difficult lie to hit from, so you'll get some great tips to make sure the ball comes out clean...

And avoid chunking your shots.

Here's a review of the 5 steps to hitting great shots from hardpan...

Step 1: Club Selection

I see players often choose a 56 degree or even a 60 degree wedge for their hardpan shots.

Don't do that!

It's really easy to chunk the shot or hit it thin because those clubs have a sharp leading edge.

Instead, choose a 9 or an 8 iron for shots from the hardpan.

Step 2: Ball Position

Make sure the ball is in the middle of your stance.

This will make it easier to brush it off the turf.

If you place the ball towards the back of your stance, the club comes in at a steep angle and makes it difficult to brush the ball with a clean stroke.

Step 3: Grip

Choke down on the club about an inch or so to add stability to your stroke.

You can use your normal grip or even your putting grip because this shot is more of a "dead hand" shot.

Step 4: Arms, Shoulders, and Hands Stay Together

You shouldn't rely much on hand action for hardpan shots.

Too much hand action will cause you to flip through and may cause you to chunk the ball or hit it thin.

Your arms, shoulders, and hands move through the shot in one piece.

Watch this video now to see these 4 steps in action...

So you can discover how to chip and pitch off hardpan!

Golf Pros Featured:

Instructors Featured: Clay Ballard    Robin Rosado    

Video Duration: 2:54

Video Transcription:

Clay: Hey guys, welcome back. I’m joined with Robin Rosado, he’s one of our Top Speed Golf Certified Instructors. We’ve got a really difficult lie here.

We’re on some hardpan, so what are the steps we need to go through so we can hit it nice and clean, we don’t start chunking them, or flipping them, or doing any kind of that stuff.

Robin: Definitely. Our first step you want to do is our club selection, what we want to use for a club. I see a lot of people what they do on this hardpan, is they’ll still take like a 56, what they’re going to normally chip with, and their 60.

Next thing you know is some of these guys, unless you’re really, really, really good, they’ll kind of chunk it, maybe they’ll thin it over. The reason being, let’s take a 9 iron or a pitching wedge, a little less-lofted club.

The reason why is those wedges have a really sharp leading edge in to it, so that bring that kind of chunk. Then if you start chunking it, then you get a little scared, and then you can come up on the ball, flip it, and then blade it over the green.

Definitely don’t want that. So or first step is our club selection. I think we have a 9 iron here, and ten our next step we want to do is transition and go on in to our ball position where we want to have it in our stance. Let’s put it right in the middle of our stance there. Good.

The reason being is why we have it in the middle of the stance, so you can just brush it off the turf. This is a really hardpan, just like if you’re at home, or sitting on the carpet.

You don’t want it too far back in your stance like you would maybe your normally chip this, is you bring that in the longer club and you stick it in the ground like that.

Clay: Going to be a little too steep.

Robin: Exactly, too steep in the ball, stub in. We’ve got the club, now we’ve got ball position, and now let’s talk about our grip. We’re going to choke down on the club just a little bit, let’s say about an inch from normal there. We’ll have a little bit more stability there.

The grip part is up to you. If you want to take your normal grip, how you normally will for chipping, or how you normally hit a full shot, or a putting stroke.

The reason why is this shot is pretty dead hands, less wrist, more arm to shoulders into it, so if you want to take that putting stroke or your regular grip to get that feeling of brushing it, once piece together.

So now we’ve chosen our club, we’ve got our 9 iron, 8 iron, pitching wedge. Now we’ve done our ball position, middle of our stance so we can brush it.

We’ve done our grip, choked down a little bit. Putting stroke or normal grip. Now our final step, I’m going to have you hit it there.

As you notice our final step is that Clay still went through the shot, still used his body into it. I see a lot of people who just kind of use their hands, and they kind of stub it in there, or they’ll flip it a little bit like we were talking about earlier.

Clay: I want to feel like my chest rotates all the way on through. My chest stops, and I’m going to start to flip it with my hands.

Robin: Exactly. To review our steps is club selection, ball position, our grip, choke down a little, take that putting stroke or regular grip, and next is to keep going through with the shot, getting that chest and that buckle out at your target.

Clay: Thanks Robin, that’s going to get you some nice clean contact, get the club coming in level with the ground, you guys are going to hit those good, clean shots. We’ll see you soon.