Sand and Pitches

Question
Hello,

I am getting steadily butter, but the area of my game that kill me are bunkers and short pitches, wedges, chips, anything in that area.  So I guess my short game. :-)  Anyway, in the bunkers, you are supposed to take like a dollar bill out from under the ball.  But what I do is, I can barely get the ball out because when I am done, I have hit about a foot behind it.  No control.  So I exaggerate the movement and try to hold my wrist cock longer, and I hit it way thin.  All my irons are taken with a descending blow, the only things I hit fat are my sand shots.  Ideas?

Pitching, like 20 30 yard shots, I always hit them off the toe, and they are somewhat thin.  Chipping, I do allright with, but I get some tight lies sometimes with it, almost no grass, or even dirt to play off of.  How do I play that kind of shot without hitting it thin?  I play it like a normal chip, and it comes off way to low and I can't get it too stop.  I shoot high 80's low 90's, and these are holding me back.  Help?

Answer
Hey there, thank you for asking.

In short, bunkers:

1. Adjust the length of your backswing according to the shot.  It is rare to have a lot of 20-30+ yard bunker shots (if not, there is something more wrong with your iron game!), so dont take a full backswing despite what the pros do.

2. Go out to a practice bunker with the above thought in mind, and hit 200 bunker shots.  Do it again a few days later.  And again next week.  If you still dont get better, then we need to talk again.

Pitching:

1. Doing ANY mistake "always" is a pretty bad thing right?  Ideally, we want to make mistakes 50/50 to maximize the correct way.  If it is "always" off the toe, have you tried standing closer?  adjusting your grip?  choking up?

Chipping:

1. Put a ball down on a board at eye level, and set the club like at address next to it.  This will help you see that even if you lift the club face up a few millimeters, your shot wont be thin, it will still hit on the face.  Now do some things from that position to see what exactly does the club have to do to hit a ball thin, ie, off the bottom edge of the club face.  Pretty extreme isnt it?  So its simple, keep the face of the club on the ball and dont make any sudden or violent changes in the chipping motion.

2.  If you do the above and hit the ball on the face, the ball will pop up a little and roll and check up a little.  If you are using a range ball, it iwll check for a brief moment and roll a ways depending on how long the shot is.  If you flush it and using a new Pro V or a nice soft TM or Bridgestone ball, then it will check once or twice and release just a foot or two depending on conditions.  Equipment does make a difference.

If you would like any more help in detail, first please read an extensive FAQ collection I have already composed at

http://answerway.com/faqshow.php?category=307&faquid=Dathaeus&catnam=Golf

And if you have ANY more questions, please ask me at

http://answerway.com/profile.php?expid=Dathaeus

with the "Ask Me a Direct Question" link... thank you.

Good luck!