My short game really needs improving. I’m happy enough with the way I hit the ball off of the teen and in the fairway but when I have to chip onto the green, a panic comes over me because I know that I’m just as like to hit it fat, thin or not at all. I welcome any and all tips to make me a better chipper. I’m perfectly willing to put the practice in but I don’t want to be practicing the wrong way.
How do you chip? Are you a single club chipper or do you vary the loft based upon the needed ball flight? Do you follow through or stick the club in the ground? I’ve seen it done effectively both ways. Got a good drill I can use?
After my post in ATMB, I feel compelled to answer.
The biggest problem I see with chipping around the green is deceleration. People feel like they are going to skull (scull?) the ball over the green or hit it too hard, and they decelerate the club on the downswing. You can’t do this, ever. The club doesn’t cut through the grass and you chunk it. Just take really short strokes on short chips, but keep the clubhead accelerating!
All I can say is practice it ton. If your club or the course you play on has a practice putting green try spending 30 minutes 2 or 3 times a week chipping onto the green. It’s like sand play, you just have to do a LOT of it.
As for your specific questions, don’t stick your club into the ground. The pros only do that when their ball is buried in deep rough and that’s the only way to get the club on the ball.
If you are a high handicapper you may want to use one club to get comfortable and confident with it (use a pitching wedge or a nine iron) but if you want to get better you will need to hit different clubs with different lofts.
An underused shot is the bump-and-run, which is where you take a mid-loft club like a seven iron and whack like you’re hitting a tennis ball - a flat stroke. The idea is to get the ball rolling like a putt as quickly as possible. Use it when you’re just off the green or in the closely mown area right in front of it.
I find that choking up on my pitching wedge gives me more control. Not a huge amount of choke up, but maybe an inch or two. And yeah, follow through is important.
I found I did a little better when I visualized an underhand throw to the cup and tried to match that speed and trajectory in my actual chip. It seemed to simplify the mechanics for me.
I go through periods of being dead-nuts on in chipping - two weeks ago I was 7/9 for up and downs around the green. Then I was 2/6 this weekend, so there’s that. Everything I learned I got from Dave Pelz’s Short Game Bible. Rest of my game can be shaky, though!
How about we start with the basics: how do you set up for a chip? What’s your grip, where are your feet, what do you plan for before you chip a ball?
That’s it. Go out in the back yard and practise chipping - to land the ball 3 yards away. When you take the dog down the park, take a 9-iron and practice just flipping the ball a few feet at a time. Try and land it on a dandelion. No pressure - just do it. Hell, even do it while walking along.
Don’t worry about exact form - don’t worry about setting your stance exactly right. Just get the arm movement, body sway and timing under control.
When you have to carry some distance, approach it like you would any other shot that takes less than a full swing - practice to get a feel for what a 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 swing gives in terms of flight. This usually will give you carry with little roll (subject to slope, green dryness, wind, etc.)
I (and my last instructor) would call that a pitch and chipping is different. For that I keep all of my weight on the forward foot (left if you are right handed) and hit it like a putt (all arms, no wrist). This gives a slight carry and then roll.
Panic? Similar to the yips or just a lack of confidence? Does it just occur in the longer grass? On steep inclines/declines? Does it matter if the ball is above, or below, your feet at address? Ball centered in your stance or back by your right foot (assuming you’re swinging from right to left)?
While a teen can hold the ball above the grass and fairways are usually closely cut, long grass can grab a clubhead and decelerate clubhead speed. That can lead to inconsistence results, and maybe a lack of confidence.
For practice purposes, use a 5 gal bucket or fishing net as a target. Visualize the ball going UP and in. Hit down to get the ball to go up. Pay particular attention to the direction the ball travels. Slightly right? Slightly left?
What is the swing weight of your long irons? C8? D0? D2? What is the swing weight of your chipping irons? D0? D4? D8?
I own six different wedges and will take the two I’ll most likely use at whatever course I’ll be playing. Maybe three or four if some sand traps are firm and others soft.
I’ve always considered the first rule of being in trouble is to get out of trouble and then worry about hitting the pin.
If I’m chipping on fairly close to the green I will treat the shot much like a putt, allowing for the roll once the ball clears the fringe and lands on the green. Of course, longer clubs will have longer rolls. I will take a putting stance and usually use the same stroke as if I was putting the same distance on the green.
Also, I’m not afraid to just use the putter if the lie isn’t too bad.
A +1 to the Dave Pelz advice. First, I want to say I’m not very good at playing, and probably worse at teaching. That said…
I’d say to help desensitize you to pressure, practice properly until it becomes boring. Find an expert to teach you how to practice properly. Add some fake pressure to yourself—e.g,. make 10 in a row to a particular zone on the green—when the activity starts to get routine.
When I start worrying that I’ll mishit the ball in my full swing, I shorten my swing until I feel comfortable, relaxed, and making smooth contact. Even if it means I only take the clubhead back 90 degrees. I then repeat that motion until I’m confident again, and I start to get bored with it. Then I introduce another motion to the swing, the shoulder turn say, in order to take the clubhead back further. I still want to feel that comfortable, relaxed, smooth contact, and I want to do it enough that I get so confident I’ll hit it, and I’m not thinking about the motions, that I get bored. And so on. I find the less I think about things while I’m swinging, the better I do.
I chip usually with either a PW or 9 iron, though I’ll go up the ladder if I want the ball to go further. I deliberately place the ball back in my stance, just in front of the front edge of my rear foot, exaggerate a forward press with my hands, and try to make the motion as much like putting as possible. I.e., little to no wrist break. This usually yields a lower ball flight than pitching, with lots of roll.
I have no earthly idea what my swing weights are. What difference does it make? I don’t mean that in the snarky way. I really would like to know what difference it makes. I’d never even heard of swing weight before this.
Swingweight is a measurement that describes how the weight of a club feels when the golfer is actually swinging that club.
All golf club manufacturers sell swingweighted sets of clubs. Unfortunately, some sets are more equally matched than other sets. Take your set to a good pro shop and have them tell you what your swingweights are and you might as well have they tell you what your loft and lie angles are, also. Sometimes clubs get bent during a friendly round of “Oh, shit” err, um, I mean, round of golf.
Swingweight is a scale based upon a fulcrum point measured 14" from the end of the grip. All of a club’s weight in front of the fulcrum point is considered head weight, and all of the club’s weight behind the 14” mark will act as grip weight.
Assume three identical golf clubs have a D2 swingweight and weigh an identical 16oz overall. Wrap 2oz of lead tape just below the grip on Club 1, 2oz of lead tape around the middle of Club 2, and apply 2oz of lead tape across the back of the Club 3’s clubhead. All three clubs will now weigh 18oz. However, when swinging the clubs, you will notice that Club 3 “feels” heavier, and swings slower than Club 2, and it will “feel” much heaver than Club 1.
