The Steep Attack Short Game Drill

Fat and thin chip shots share the same root cause: the low point of the swing arc is arriving before the ball. This almost always traces back to the takeaway — when the club gets sucked too far inside early, it gets stuck behind the body on the way down, forcing the club to bottom out in the turf before the ball. To compensate, most golfers then flip their wrists or lift their elbows, which produces inconsistent contact. Joe Stago's drill uses the pathpal at 70° to prevent that inside move from the very start of the stroke.

For short game shots with a wedge, Joe targets a downward angle of attack of 10° or more. A steep, descending blow compresses the ball against the turf before the club contacts the ground, producing clean ball-first contact, consistent spin, and predictable trajectory. Most recreational golfers are hitting up on or flat through chip shots — a positive or near-zero angle of attack — which is why they struggle with fat contact and lack of control. Joe achieves 11.9° down in this drill, which he describes as his personal benchmark.

The 70° angle mirrors the steeper shaft plane of a wedge at address — significantly more upright than a driver or iron setup. Joe positions the rod directly in line with the plane of the club, so it acts as an extension of the correct swing plane rather than an arbitrary obstacle. If the club sucks inside the rod during the takeaway, you get immediate feedback. If it stays on or outside the rod, the takeaway is on plane and sets up a descending, ball-first strike. The angle specificity is what makes this drill precise rather than generic.

"Sucking inside" means the club moves too far to the inside of the target line on the takeaway — rotating flat and behind the body rather than tracking up the shaft plane. In the short game this fault is especially destructive because there is less time and distance in the stroke to self-correct. The club arrives from a shallow, inside angle, the low point shifts behind the ball, and the only way to make contact is to add wrist or elbow movement to lift the club through. The pathpal's rod at 70° physically stops the inside move before it can start.

Both. Joe explicitly says this is his personal go-to drill — the same one he uses himself before rounds, referencing specific courses and distances he practices at. He mentions 18-yard shots at Pebble and 20–23 yard pitches as his personal benchmarks. The fact that a GOLFTEC Director of Instruction with over 20,000 lessons taught uses this drill on his own game — and achieves 11.9° down on camera — makes it one of the more credible endorsements in the pathpal drill library.