Akshay Bhatia’s one of my favorite young players, with the 22-year-old really breaking out over the past two seasons and thrusting himself as a fresh new face on the PGA Tour.
With a combined eight T10 finishes (including two PGA Tour victories), Bhatia’s instantly become a fan favorite thanks to his charisma and unlimited golf talents, which makes it fun to watch him anytime he tees it up.
Given his skills, I figured it’d be wise to steal some short-game advice, with Bhatia recently sharing some tips for hitting a low, spinny pitch shot on Callaway Golf’s YouTube channel — which you can check out below.
Akshay Bhatia shares his tips for a 30-yard pitch shot
As any golfer knows, 30-yard pitch shots can be … a challenge. Not only do you need to choose the right club for this type of shot, but you need to understand some basic fundamentals in order to execute it to perfection.
Should you botch up either the club choice or the execution, you risk adding unnecessary strokes to your scorecard. Adding more pressure to the situation is the distance, with players often debating which shot type works best from 30 yards out.
But Bhatia’s here to help, and he says the first step for hitting a low-flighted, spinny pitch shot is simply reading the lie and understanding the situation.
“A lot of people want to know how to spin [a 30-yard pitch shot],” he says. “All in all, we need to have the right situation to hit this shot.”
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This means having the golf ball either in the fairway or on the first cut, with the majority of it being visible rather than being buried in the rough.
After analyzing the lie, Bhatia says it’s time to go execute the shot, explaining his setup.
“I like opening the face, I [play the ball] a little farther back in my stance, and I drive forward with my body and keep the handle forward,” Bhatia explains. “You’re not trying to add any sort of loft into the shot.”
Bhatia then talks about the angle of attack, which he describes as having “a little cut motion” coming through impact.
“It doesn’t need to be too cutty, but cutty enough to where you can kind of hit the low, driving spinner,” he adds.
So when you’re looking to upgrade your short game and want to experiment with some creativity using a wedge, start by using some of Bhatia’s suggestions above. While it’ll take awhile to get comfortable with, in the end, you’ll be able to master those tricky 30-yard pitch shots in order to give yourself an advantage on the putting surface.
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