This is a great game for improving your skills around the green.
To score well, you’ll need great imagination, to read and adjust to different lies, and to process all of the available information in order to make the right club and shot selection, pick the best landing spot and then to execute the shot with the chosen trajectory and spin.
How to Play
To play the Darts pitching & chipping game, do the following:
- Play nine pitch & chip shots to a variety of pins on the practice green, each one from a different distance and angle.
- Work your way around the green, dropping balls in a variety of lies, and then play them as they lie.
- Try to find a variety of slopes and lies: upslope, down slope, and side-hill lies; fairway, semi and thicker rough.
- Play three easy shots, three medium, and three shots that you regard as difficult.
It is important that you perform your full pre- and post-shot routine for every pitch. Read the lie for each shot, and carefully determine the required club, trajectory and landing spot. Take your time to visualise the shot, try the right amount and react to the target. Use your post-shot routine to actively build your self-image and learn from your mistakes.
When playing this game, you should be paying full attention and trying your best to make every shot.
Scoring
Always record your score in your practice session log, and try to beat your best score each time you play this game. The competitive edge is crucial.
Figure 1. Pitching game scoring chart
Score each shot as follows (see Figure 1) – it’s easier than it might sound, just keep track of how you are doing versus “par”:
- Holed pitches count as 1 stroke (1 under par)
- Shots that finish within 3 feet (90cm) of the hole count as par, 2 strokes.
- Pitches that come to rest more than 3’ but within 6’ (1.8m) of the hole count as 3 strokes.
- Shots that don’t meet the above criteria and stop within 9’ (2.7m) score 4 strokes, and 9’ or more from the hole is 5 strokes.
So a par score is 18, and the best possible score is 9. Any score above 30 is poor, indicating that you need to work hard on your pitching skills, and that you have a lot to gain by doing so. A world-class short game player would expect to score 20 or less.
After you play, take the time to make notes in your practice session log of any mistakes or shots that you particularly struggled with. Think about what you can do to improve before the next time you play.
How to Compete
This is a great game to play against a partner in match play format.
Toss a coin to determine who plays first, that player gets to choose where to play from and the pin to play to, then drops his ball and plays it as it lies. The second player drops and plays from approximately the same spot.
After both shots are played, the hole is scored according to the chart above, and the player with the lowest score wins the hole. Ties halve the hole.
If both players hole out, the second player wins the hole.
For the next hole, the honour changes hands, and the other player gets to choose the pin and the place to play from.
Play continues, the honour changing on every hole, until one player is six up, that player wins.
This game forms part of the Golf Loopy Pitch & Chip like a Champion series, the sensational new pitching and chipping game improvement system that will help you to improve every aspect of your performance around the greens. The improvements will be dramatic, and they will be permanent.
