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18 September 2026 · 10 min read

Chipping or pitching: the difference, the right club and the distance ladder you calibrate in a simulator

A chip rolls, a pitch flies, and the choice decides the next putt. What sets the two shots apart, which club fits which lie and what the technique looks like in five sentences. Then the distance ladder for 30, 50 and 70 metres: ten balls per swing length in a bay, the median on the card, the tour as a reference and not as a goal.

Chipping or pitching: the difference, the right club and the distance ladder you calibrate in a simulator — post image

Chipping or pitching: the question comes up beside every green you have missed, and the answer often decides the next putt. Both shots are short, and yet they are two movements with different clubs. Here is what sets them apart, which club fits which lie and the technique in five sentences. Then what a range without tracking cannot do and a bay can: the distance ladder for 30, 50 and 70 metres, measured with your own wedges.

Chipping or pitching: roll or flight

A chip rolls, a pitch flies. That is the short answer. Alison Curdt, a PGA Master Professional, describes the chip at the PGA of America as a one-lever movement: the shoulders move the club, the wrists stay quiet. The pitch has two levers, the trunk and the wrists: the ball lies farther from the hole, and only a bigger arc with rotation and a weight shift brings it to the green. The chip belongs near the green, the pitch farther away.

Adam Smith, a golf teacher in Virginia, describes it at Golf.com from the other side. The chip is a putt with a club that has little loft: the ball starts low, hops and rolls to the flag. The pitch is a small version of the full swing with plenty of loft: the ball flies high and lands softly. His rule: if you can putt, putt. If you cannot putt, chip. Pitch only when you have to, over a bunker or out of deep rough, where only the loft gets the ball out. The bigger movement is the bigger risk.

Which club for which lie

In a chip, the club sets the ratio of flight to roll. The drills Swiss Golf publishes for junior coaching show the principle: five zones at 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 metres, with the pitching wedge and the 9, 8, 7 and 6 irons, one club per zone. First, every ball is rolled by hand over the landing zone into the target. Adam Smith also uses a 7 iron or a hybrid for the low chip; for the pitch he names the 54-degree sand wedge or the 60-degree lob wedge. The Swiss Golf drill "Over the wall" plays the sand wedge over an obstacle 1 to 2 metres high at the edge of the green (Swiss Golf, pitching). A simple assignment follows:

The lieShotClubWhat the ball does
Fringe, nothing in the way, plenty of green to the flagChip8 or 7 ironlittle flight, plenty of roll
Little green, flag close to the edgeChipPitching wedgelands sooner, rolls less
Bunker or obstacle in front, or deep roughPitchSand or lob wedgehigh and soft

The technique in five sentences: ball position, weight, wrists

The chip, after Gia Liwski at Golf.com and after Adam Smith. The ball sits in the middle of the stance, below the belt buckle. A little more weight is on the front foot to keep the legs quiet. You grip down the club, and the shorter the shot, the narrower the stance. The wrists stay firm, and the club head stays low to the ground going back and coming through, as in a putt. The sole brushes the grass, and you meet the ball in the middle of the face.

The pitch, after Adam Smith. The ball sits in the middle of the stance, and the hands hold the grip softly. In the backswing the wrists hinge until the shaft and the lead arm form a right angle. The body turns away from the target and back towards it, and the weight moves with it, only a little, as it is a half swing. The club brushes the grass under the ball. The finish is high, and you do not slow down before the ball: the follow-through keeps the pace.

The middle is the home position. Put the ball forward for a chip, towards the target foot, and the face meets it with more loft: the ball flies a little higher and stops sooner. Put it back, and you hit it more on the way down with less loft: the ball runs farther. Liwski suggests working through this on the practice green with one club, then the next, and watching how far the ball rolls after it lands.

The distance ladder: 30, 50, 70 metres, measured in a simulator

Between the longest chip and the full pitching wedge lies the range where most people guess. The full swing has a number on the card, the chip has the eye. At 30, 50 and 70 metres, both are missing. Swiss Golf trains this stretch: in the drill "Target" five tees stand at 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 metres, with three circles of 1, 2 and 3 metres radius around the hole, five balls from each tee. In "Distance control" the balls from 5 to 25 metres land between two tapes 5 metres apart (Swiss Golf, pitching). On a range without tracking the number is missing: you cannot see exactly where the ball lands from 60 metres. In a bay the carry is on the screen after every ball.

  1. Bring your own wedges. A rental wedge may have a different loft.
  2. Warm up without writing anything down.
  3. Take the sand wedge and three swing lengths: short, half, three-quarter. Ten balls per length at the same pace, and you write down the ten carry values.
  4. Sort the ten values and take the median, halfway between the fifth and the sixth. One fat ball and one thin ball move the average; they hardly move the median.
  5. Next to it, write the second shortest and the second longest ball. The span tells you how big your target has to be.
  6. The same with the gap wedge and the pitching wedge. Of the nine medians, three sit closest to 30, 50 and 70 metres: their swing length is yours for that distance.
  7. Write the ladder on the card next to your full shots, as the post Club distances describes, and measure it again once a season.

As a reference, not as a goal: TrackMan publishes the averages of both tours from the 2023 season (TrackMan, tour averages). The full pitching wedge carries 130 metres on the PGA Tour at 84 mph of club speed, on the LPGA Tour 101 metres at 72 mph. Shorter wedges and half swings are not in the table. The ladder starts below your full wedge, and where that sits depends on your speed, not on the tour. To test the ladder, take the TrackMan Combine test, which starts in this range.

What the launch monitor shows with a wedge: launch and spin

Two numbers explain why a pitch stays and a chip rolls: launch angle and spin. The PGA Tour's full pitching wedge leaves at 23.7 degrees and 9,316 revolutions per minute, climbs to 29 metres and lands at an angle of 52 degrees; on the LPGA Tour it is 25.2 degrees, 8,465 revolutions, 25 metres and 48 degrees (TrackMan). From the 7 iron to the pitching wedge, the launch angle rises from 16.1 to 23.7 degrees and the spin from 7,124 to 9,316 revolutions. More loft means higher and more spin: that is why the pitch stays, and why the chip with the 7 iron rolls. For the ladder you only need the carry. You need the other columns when two balls from the same swing land far apart: what they mean is in Understanding launch monitor numbers, and where a fat or thin strike comes from is in Fat and thin shots.

What the mat is not: rough, slope, sand

The mat in the bay is flat, dry and always the same. That makes the ladder possible, and that is missing at the green. A ball in the rough, on a slope or in the sand demands a decision first, and no mat trains that. In the drill "Different lies", Swiss Golf places balls in difficult lies around the green and has the players find and justify solutions (Swiss Golf, pitching). Then there is what the mat forgives: a strike behind the ball slides on across the artificial turf, on grass the club digs in, as Practising golf at home describes. And the roll after landing is computed by the software in a bay. The ladder belongs in the bay. The lie, the sand and the green belong on the practice ground.

More on this: Golf wedges explained.

Ten minutes per hour: the short game's place in training

An hour in a bay costs between CHF 25 and CHF 99 at the venues that publish a price, a median of CHF 50, per bay, which up to four people usually share (golfsimulators.ch, directory). The ladder needs the whole hour the first time, then ten minutes at the end: one wedge, one swing length, ten balls, the new median next to the old. If it is off by more than a few metres, the day was different or the swing was. The rest of the hour belongs to the long game. If you get stuck with the chip or the pitch, get the numbers with a pro: 95 of the 126 venues in the directory offer coaching, and the guide Indoor golf training lists them.

The next step is an hour with the three wedges and a piece of paper. Find a venue near you in the directory and work through the ladder in the first hour. After that, practise the chip and the roll where there is grass. Putting stays at home: four Swiss Golf drills for the putting mat.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between chipping and pitching?

The chip is a one-lever movement: the shoulders lead, the wrists stay quiet, the ball starts low and rolls. The pitch has two levers, trunk and wrists, and the ball flies high and lands softly. Chip when you can, and pitch only over an obstacle or out of deep rough.

Which club for chipping?

The club sets the roll. In its junior coaching drills, Swiss Golf has players chip with the pitching wedge and the 9, 8, 7 and 6 irons to targets 4 to 12 metres away, one club per distance. A hybrid also works for the low chip; for the pitch it is the 54-degree sand wedge or the 60-degree lob wedge.

How far does a pitching wedge go?

On the PGA Tour the full pitching wedge carries 130 metres on average at 84 mph of club speed, on the LPGA Tour 101 metres at 72 mph, according to TrackMan's averages for the 2023 season. Your figure depends on your speed, and the half and three-quarter swings are in no table. Ten balls per swing length in a bay give you the median.

How many wedges do I need?

Two are enough to start: a pitching wedge, which comes with the iron set anyway, and a sand wedge. A third is only worth it once you know your distance ladder and there is a gap of more than 20 metres between two wedges.

Can I practise chipping and pitching in a simulator?

The distances yes, the feel only halfway. On the mat you calibrate your swing lengths and read carry and spin after every ball. What the mat does not give you is rough, slopes and sand, and on a course those often decide which shot is possible at all.

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