Chipping is my weakness.

[andrewsx]

I have started to actually take golf up seriously in the last few weeks. I have not purchased a set of clubs( been testing out brands with friends clubs). This past Friday I went golfing with a good friend of mine who gave me a lot of good advice and was able to help me reduce my slice, practically eliminate it.

However when it came to chipping onto the green, whether off the fairway or a bunker I was horrible! He told me I am coming back to far on my back swing on some shots and overpowering the swing he also said that I fail to follow through with my swing which is why I cant place the ball where I want. He told me to go to the driving range to practice my chipping. I was just wondering if anyone had any other advice for me to try on top of this.

Thanks,
Andrew

[sp33d]

Lock your wrists, lots of practice. You also have to learn ball control, and when to hit what shot.. Flop, bump and run, etc.

If you want to see some one who is almost flawless in the short game, look at Phil, he is insane.

[TheHappyHacker]

I've found that to have any kind of consistency you need to make sure that accelerate through the ball. (As with any shot but especially the short game). Any time I don't do that it's pretty much an ugly result. Something else I would recommend is taking the time to read and try to follow Dave Pelz's book The Short Game Bible. His wedge system of thinking of your back swing as a clock has helped my short game greatly. After reading it and following his instructions on a swing, take the time to go to the range and actually find out your distances with the different wedges. All told it took me about 2 weeks of reading, swinging a club in my house/yard and going to the range. I seldom leave a chip from 15 to 75 yards out more than 10 feet from the hole.

My putting on the other hand is atrocious....

Hope this helps.

[Shindig]

Learn your distances at 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 swing with each of your wedges. You can write it down on a paper on your bag. Golf is open notes, as long as you don't take too long to find your notes.

This will be immensely helpful to you, and with this, you should at least be able to get to within 2-putt distance consistently.

I also suggest reading Stan Utley's book on chipping.

[case31]

Three tips that helped me improve my chipping:
1) Use your big muscles to swing -- Use your shoulder muscles instead of your wrists to swing. This will promote consistent distance and ball contact.
2) Keep your hands in front of the ball -- You want the club to come down and pinch the ball, not sweep it. If your hands are behind the ball at contact, you are much more likely to hit it thin.
3) Keep your eyes on the ball -- I'm trying to relearn this for the 8,000th time. A pro told me "On every swing, you need to find the ball." It didn't sink in until I realized that my recent inconsistent swing was due to me pulling my head to early and not making consistent contact. When I forced myself to keep my head down, especially while chipping, helped me make good, consistent, crisp contact each time.

[shankapotamus]

The art of the short game- Stan Utley


That will improve your chipping by leaps and bounds.

[deafheaven]

Pick up Phil Mickelson's "Secrets of the short Game". Can't recommend it enough.

I love Phil's approach to pitching and chipping. Easy to understand and easy to execute and, imo, he has one of the very best, perhaps the best, short game in golf.

Don't be afraid to chip with other clubs... I use my 7 iron a lot.
If you've got a difficult lie, shift your weight a little to your front leg... about 60%.

The biggest mistake people tend to make is decelerating into the ball.

[CG031]

Once you understand the technique, it's all practice to make the technique into perfection, so to speak. Short game is a lot of feel and touch so to be a real good chipper you have to put in the time on the practice green messing around with different feels shots and such so when you get out on the course you have enough confidence to pull it off.

[andrewsx]

I know the biggest key is practice practice practice! ha. I am going to play golf with some friends Friday and will probably get there an hour before them just to hit a bucket or two of balls and practice chipping. I did find that I was lifting my head too early and wanting to see where the ball went instead of seeing the club and ball meet. At the end of 18 holes I was getting more accurate but I was still over shooting my intended target. I try not to decelerate through the swing but I am a big guy, muscular throughout the shoulders, chest and back so I am always a little worried I am going to crush the ball, which again has a lot to do with how far I am going on my back swing. It is definitely what I have to fix in my game though. Would of have decent score had I not had that issue.

Andrew

[b_lcky]

From an equipment standpoint, the "6,8,10 rule" is a good standard to live by for green side chipping. The key to good chipping is to get the ball rolling on your target line as soon as possible. A lot of mistakes can happen when you try to fly the ball to the hole including chunking, blading, and wind.

I read about the 6,8,10 rule on golf.about.com. You can read about it here .

From a technique standpoint, locking the wrists is fine advice if you have a good lie, but will get you into trouble from the rough, sand, or longer chips/pitches. I would suggest the following

1. Open your stance slightly
2. Quiet your lower body (opening your stance and quieting your lower body go hand in hand. with such a short swing, it is difficult to have the same swing mechanics, so you dont need as much hip rotation)
3. Shorten your backswing.
4. Hit down on the ball.
5. Accelerate through the ball.
6. Don't roll your wrists over after impact (the club face should point toward the sky for much longer than on a regular shot)

Bonus tip: Start high, finish low. Phil Mickelson calls it the "hitch and hold" on his dvd. Set your wrist angle early on the backswing and hold the follow through.

[allin]

From an equipment standpoint, the "6,8,10 rule" is a good standard to live by for green side chipping. The key to good chipping is to get the ball rolling on your target line as soon as possible. A lot of mistakes can happen when you try to fly the ball to the hole including chunking, blading, and wind.

The hit down advice always makes me nervous. If you set up properly, open stance, ball back, hands forward, no concious effort to hit down is required and on non level lies can defeat your posture adjustemts. Effort thoughts with the hands makes consistency more difficult. I just try to feel as though my right hand, (I play right handed) palm feels as if it stays facing down through the shot. This keeps the hands in the forward position and encourages the downward motion. Don't over do it, hands remain soft.

[KimboSlice]

Three tips that helped me improve my chipping:

These are all tips my instructor showed me... the hardest part that I had to get used to was tip #3. First, he said take some practice swings, and try to "feel" the correct distance to the hole, never looking down at the ball. Next when you come to address the ball, he said to take your swing, and keep your head down - well after you strike the ball. Then after you look for your ball. Hopefully the ball goes where you intended it to go

Normally, I would immediately look up after contact and follow the ball. Doing this change takes some getting used to...

[kris]

"Chipping is my weakness". haha, mine too. It seems like I waste at least 5-10 strokes per round just because of poor chipping. I think it's really the part of my game that's holding me back.

Thankfully, I've become good friends with the practice chipping green and it's helped me a little. I think just more and more and more practice will help eventually.

[lumpuckeroo]

The two biggest keys for me is to make a backswing that is apropriate for the shot and accelerate through the shot. If I am chipping and/or pitching a ball, I try to make the backswing that will produce the feet/yardage I need the ball to travel, so an 8 foot chip would not have the same length backswing at a 20 foot chip.

[pjsnyc]

I'm surprised no one mentioned favoring weight on your front foot when chipping (actually most short game shots). It really helps encourage a descending strike.

Also - keeping your wrists locked definitely improves consistency. But I've found that a slight release of the clubhead on longer chips helps too.

[KimboSlice]

I'm surprised no one mentioned favoring weight on your front foot when chipping (actually most short game shots). It really helps encourage a descending strike.

True. I never realized how complex chipping can be (or golf for that matter)!

I also learned from my instructor that you also have picture in your head what kind of shot you want to execute. When you're chipping and if you want the ball to travel in the air a longer distance, you should use a higher lofted club (sw) or if you need more roll, use a lower loft, like a 9i or even an 8i.... What a game...

[Zeph]

Chipping is easy if you know how to do it.

I would say there are three critical parts of the chip:

1: Impact. You must hit the ball first and down on it. Scooping will not work. This also takes bounce and whatever is underneath the ball out of the equation. Be it a soft fairway or hard pan lie, as long as you hit the ball first, it does not matter. If you normally scoop and try to get under the ball, I'm betting the ball will go higher if you hit down on it. Does for me at least.

2: Weight. Keep 60-70% of your weight on the leading foot through the entire shot. This helps hitting the ball first and down on it. Prevents scooping and fat shots.

3: Wrists and hips. Lock the wrists completely in the backswing before coming down. Take a short turn, hands usually no higher than the hips. From there, turn through with the hips. Keep the arms and wrists following, but not speeding up. The waist connects the torso and hips, if you turn either, the other will follow. This will give you an accelerating shot where you can adjust the speed of the hip turn to how far you want to hit it.

[Brakkus]

I have tried several methods of chipping,like the Utley style the best so I combined his small pivot with my front leg being the focus,with a small takeback to about the back knee,that way I accelerate the clubhead to just past my front knee,finishing half open to my target,wrists firm.

I have only chunked possibly a couple of chips in my last three rounds whereas before it was about 1in3 of every chip.