Butch Harmon on Pitching Uphill

A short one today. Butch Harmon has a new article and video at golfdigest.com on how to play a pitch shot off a severely uphill lie. First, here's the video:


And here's a photo taken just after the moment of truth:



Of course, you know the key thing is to set your shoulders to match the slope. You want to be swinging UP the slope, not INTO it. You know this because you hear it over and over on TV, right?

Butch also suggests that you move the ball a bit forward in your stance and use a less-lofted iron, like a 9-iron instead of a sand (or lob) wedge. He also reminds you not to quit on the shot. Since the ball is going to go almost straight up in the air, you've got to make a longer followthrough to create enough speed to get the ball to fly far enough.

I want to add one thing to this, something that you can see in the video that will make it easier to get all of this right. Compare the incorrect setup around the :09 mark with the correct setup around the :29 mark. See how his head is over the ball in the first setup but behind the ball in the second setup? If you get your head just behind the ball at setup, you'll automatically put the ball slightly forward in your stance.

Butch always makes things so clear. Watch the video as many times as necessary to make sure you understand what he's doing.