The chip is a simple shot made with a simple swing. It is very easy to learn and has tremendous rewards.
Set-up is everything with the key being to hit the ball with a descending blow. To achieve clean contact with the ball and promote a downward blow with the most consistency and accuracy set-up keys include:
- Stance should be open and narrow with distance between the feet between 4-6 inches
- Shoulders are parallel to the target line
- Weight should be forward onto your front foot which will help to promote a descending blow
- The ball is played back in your stance, 2 -3 inches from the center of your stance.
- The ball should be positioned just off the back heel
- Hands are well ahead of the ball aligned with the inside of your left thigh
- Clubface is square to the target line
- The back swing is made with the arms, upper and lower body synchronized as you take the club back and follow through with your forward swing with the arms and shoulders creating a triangle that keeps its shape through the entire swing
- You must ensure that you follow through on your forward swing (about 20% longer than your back swing). Leaving the club in the grass will just stub the ball along a few inches.
That’s the easy part. The real finesse part of the short game is in understanding what the ball will do when it lands on the green.
The Finer Points of Chipping Strategy
- Land the ball about three feet onto the green, then let it roll the rest of the way to the hole. This will ensure hat you don’t hit it short and leave the ball stuck in the rough or well short.
- Use the lowest lofted club that will the land the ball on the green. The lower the ball flight the straighter the bounce when it hits. Also, the lower the loft, the less swing you will have to take
- Moving the ball back in your stance lowers the flight of the ball
- Changing the loft of the club doesn’t have much affect of the total distance the ball travels. What does change is the carry distance versus roll. For example:
- A 60 foot chip with a 6-iron will fly the ball approximately 10 feet while the roll will be 50 feet
- A 60 foot chip with an 8-iron will fly the ball 18 feet and roll 42 feet
- A pitching wedge will carry the ball about 25 feet and roll 35 feet
Chipping Breakdowns
There are three major issues duffers have with chipping:
- Left wrist beaks down in the forward swing. The swing becomes ‘wristy’ with the duffer trying to lift the ball up with the club rather than letting the club do the work. This results in thin or sculled shots that scoot up and onto the green, race right past the flag stick and on into the bunker on the opposite side of the green. You must keep your left wrist from breaking down.
- Poor ball position, usually too far forward, resulting in shots hit extremely ‘fat’ landing well short of the pin (if they travel at all). Easy fix for this is to move the ball back in your stance so that your club will achieve clean contact with the ball.
- Zero body motion. The back swing and forward swing are generated by a slight body motion synchronized with your arms.