Chipping from awkward lies

One of my biggest problems around the green is when I get into that situation where I am on hard ground and there is a clump of grass behind the ball and downhill lie, or some other lie that just does not feel right before I swing and usually end up skulling it across the green.

Just wondering if others get into this situation and what you do differently (or not) to achieve better contact.

get the putter on it, everytime

chipper club > putter for the 1st cut.

My trick to this, it works well in thick rough near fringe if your ball is sitting down. Move the ball back in your stance, like off your the inside of your back foot. take your putter and cock the wrist early to get a steeper angle, then just strike down on the ball like your punching it out. It should just pop out of the there and when it hits the ground it will kick forward and roll out. You can experiment on placement in your stance and how much of a descending blow you want, but it works pretty good.

If i am in the fringe, most of the time i check to see how thick the fringe is, is the grain going againts me, and the condition of the fringe. If all is good, i will putt it. If not when i will chip it, or use a hybrid. I don't want to land the ball in a crappy spot and have it bounce left or right, or catch a soft bounce..

+1

I forward press my putter and let the ball pop up.  If you are too far away from the green to use this method.  I use a hybrid and just use a putting stroke and it will roll out well

If you are on a downhill lie, the last thing you really want to do is try to open up the face and get under it, because I have been in that situation and I tried to get the ball to stick and it just ended up rolling off the green all the way down the hill because I couldn't get under it. Stupid move on my part. I normally play the ball in the back of my stance with all my chip shots. If it is down hill, be sure to align your shoulders with the slope and hit it softly. If there is a clump of grass (as in mud/dirt/hard grass I think you mean) then just swing a little harder, but still getting under. It may be hard to do though so don't chicken out halfway through and decide to hit it soft.

OP, are you talking about the fringe around the green?  It sounds like the advice thus far has been for that situation.  If you mean in the tall grass beyond the fringe, that's a whole different scenario.

Normal chip, but hit it a touch harder.  Pretend the grass isn't there.  Sounds simple, but if your technique is sound that's all you need.  Your technique is sound, right?

some good advice but the thing about chipping is its all about feel so I would go somewhere and just practice these. A big piece of advice id say is make sure you get under the ball and dont skull it. As long as you get under the ball and decent contact it will become how hard to swing which you need to just feel.

I claim chipping technique is more fundamental than feel.  Technique fosters feel, not the other way around.  Develop technique and you get feel for free.  Try to develop feel and you'll be frustrated for a long, long time.  Try a test.  If you miss the green in the right spot on your approach shot, do you doubt you will get it up and down, or do you know you will make par and are just trying to hole it for a bonus?  One group has the right technique.  Guess which one.

Im trying to hole it for a bonus. I should easily be able to make that up and down. I spend many days a week at the chipping green by my house.

Yes and no. I agree that one needs to have the technique down first, but there's still more feel involved than in other shots. There are a lot more cases where you have to gauge how much harder or softer to hit the ball based on the lie and the grass it's in. Sure, this comes up in shots from the rough, but you're a lot more likely to make up for the difference by using extra club, and the cost of an error is a lot lower because you can use your short game to make up for a misjudgement on the approach.

Here are a few videos to take a look at...

First you need to understand how to use bounce - and why to use it.

Video #1 - Pitch Shot - Understanding Bounce (by Josh Zander)

Video #2 - Pitch Shot (by Josh Zander) - additional explanation of how and why to use bounce

Video #3 - Using Bounce (by Ben Crane) - He does a nice job of explaining why to use bounce - even hits a shot from the green to further demonstrate how easy it is to hit from a tight lie.

Now that you understand what bounce is - and how to use it.... Check out these videos which are more along the lines of answering how to hit the shots you're having issues with which are greenside shots - with bad lies - or tight lies.

Video #4 - Downhill Lie - Greenside - You will see he uses bounce - by opening the clubface and slides along the ground and slides under the ball.

This last video is to understand how to hit a shot when you have a nasty piece of grass behind your ball - and it is on a tight lie.

Video # 4 - Belly Wedge - Where the ball rest against the ruff when on the fringe - or green side.

On this type of shot - I'll sometimes use a hybrid - and putt it too.

Hope these help you with your short game.  I know they helped me a ton!

Thanks everyone this certainly gives me some other ideas to practice when im at the practice green.

and by the way i was not talking about around the fringe, i was thinking like 5-20ft away from green.

Maybe I should clarify.  You can't develop the best feel unless you have consistent loft at impact, constistent start lines, and are consistently hitting the sweet spot.  Too many variables and you think you are going to hit it some distance when you don't, etc.

I played a game of washers with some guys a year ago.  None of us had ever played before.  Our typical miss was maybe three inches or so.  Put a club in the same guys hands and it's 3 feet or more.  Why?

From inside deep rough, I get my hands low and push the heel of the club down. I keep this feeling through the pitch and use some speed to launch the ball up high and soft from deep rough.

From sloped downhill and uphill lies, my focus is to even out my hips. If you're standing on a hill, your hips aren't level like they are on even ground, one is either much higher or lower than the other. Drop your right foot back or move it forward to level out the hips. You will find that you can keep your balance (important!) much easier when your hips are level, and you can swing through the ball without your club digging into the hill (uphill), or skull it (downhill). Let me know if that makes sense to you, pictures would be easier to explain it.