Duff Chips

[wubskis]

Chips that just roll off the face of the club, go about one yard and leave you staring in a mixture of disbelief in anger are possibly the biggest gripe in my game right now. I'm not hitting them fat, so all I can think is that I'm not committing to my follow-through.

I guess this is more of a confirmation to a suspicion, I can't say I notice a truncated follow-through when I duff a chip but it is generally when I'm playing to a tight pin or when I'm scared of rolling off the back of the green or into potential trouble.

Any insight, I'm pretty sure this thread just needs one reply~

[kennay92]

i do this same thing, i dont think i commit on the follow through as im scared i might it thin or something and it go flying across the green. but i know if i just followed through and hit it right it would do just as i wwant it to.

[zeg]

I get these when I don't commit. Instead of accelerating through the chip, I decelerate and my weight either doesn't shift or shifts back à la reverse pivot, increasing the loft of the club to and scooping instead of striking. For me, it means I didn't practice enough short chips recently because it takes a lot of confidence to believe that you can use an aggressive, accelerating swing for a short chip. Hit a dozen < 10 foot chips before the round to remind yourself that short backswing + acceleration = a crisp, short chip.

[Zeph]

Hit the ball first, the club going down through it. Duffing it is a result of trying to get the club under and lift the ball. Unless you are trying to hit a flop shot, you don't want to get under it. You want to hit down on the ball, pop it up. Takes some time getting used to the feeling.

It's such an easy shot, but we make it a lot harder than necessary.

[bsettle]

Easy to eliminate......KEEP HANDS FORWARD and mantain flat front wrist angle. This will all but eliminate chunking chips. If you are still chunking chips consistently, you have larger issues.

[wubskis]

At setup, the ball is between the centre of my stance and my back foot, and my hands are between the centre and my front foot, ahead of the ball.

I think it's a combination of trying to help the ball up and not committing to the shot I've chosen to play

[jfrankl5]

I've been having the same issues when chipping. I recently tried having an open stance and placing the ball in the back of my stance. The key to me is not breaking my wrists so that way I don't manipulate the chip into a duff. I always tell myself to stay down the target line, although it takes a lot of confidence to stay committed. I'll be darned if I am breaking out a chipper. BTW I use a 52 for the chip, with a 56 if I need to really get it up and stop.

[wubskis]

I vary clubs depending on what I've got in front of me. Anything out of 8i, 50*, 56* or 60*. I'm heading to the practice facility at my local course tomorrow so I'll just spend a while getting to grips with it. We'll see what happens~

[SQ Bimmer]

I'm about the same handicap as you guys having issues with chipping, and I will say this, I spend about 20 minutes on the practice chipping green at the local range, once or twice per week, and I have seen vast improvement in my chipping on course as a result. I got up and down 3 times last time I played, two of them being tap-ins. I spend more time hitting chips of different distance, with different breaks, with different clubs than I hit my driver and woods combined. I have been making more difficult pars as a result.

So watch some videos on youtube, read some articles online or in magazines, get an idea for some different techniques, and PRACTICE. I've also recently considered taking an hour lesson just for short game. Might not be a bad idea to consider this as well.

[wubskis]

Well, I had a vague-ish end of lesson talk about chipping, so my teacher went over some principles with me to go away and practice, which I have done and I'm seeing some results.

As an example, I played 18 on monday. I almost holed out two 8-iron bump and runs, I had two chips land within about 3 feet of the pin from off the green, and I had one blind chip up a hill onto a green that sloped away that I landed right on the ridge and rolled down to about 4 feet.

But then I had three holes where I took three (...) chips to get ON the green, because I just completely duffed them. One was hit way too fat, which can be accounted for, but the others just kinda trickled off and went nowhere.

I honestly think it's an issue with me truncating my follow through and thus not accelerating through the ball. As mentioned, I'm off for a practice tomorrow so I'll check on what's going on. I'm going with a buddy who can be my spotter to see if anything looks awry~

[SQ Bimmer]

Do you know for a fact that you don't follow through your chips?

I personally force my hands past the ball and up as high as my backswing. Be careful though, it took me some practice to not hit the ball TWICE during a chip as I was accelerating farther than I needed to. You basically want to accelerate through the ball until the ball leaves the club face, then decelerate immediately to avoid doing this. To get the feeling of a complete follow through, like I said, I swing forward as much as I swing back. But the right tempo coming down and through the ball is crucial.

[wubskis]

I'm not entirely sure I truncate my follow-through, but it's the prime suspect for now. I've never hit a ball twice with a chip, but that does sound pretty funny.

I usually have a 50/50 backswing/follow through, sometimes extending my follow through slightly further just so I'm not stopping it with a jerk. To use the good old clock face, if I'm swinging to parallel with the ground at 9, my follow through would usually be to 2. I'd say my deceleration starts at about 5.

[mc0388]

At setup, the ball is between the centre of my stance and my back foot, and my hands are between the centre and my front foot, ahead of the ball.

How is your stance? is it shoulder width apart? If so, try with an open stance with your feet almost together, weight towards the front foot, and playing the ball where its comfortable. With your hands in front of the ball, take a smooth shorter backswing, accelerate through the ball (hitting ball first), and have a longer follow through...

If im close to the green with room for the ball to roll, I use my PW.

[TempoIsKey]

It sounds like you "KNOW" what to do. The problem is doing it. Stand almost up to the ball, take a couple of practice swings to get the EXACT swing that you want to execute, step up to the ball and hit it. Don't set and think about, just hit it, no need to stand over a chip too long IMHO.

[zeg]

I love how everyone has THE solution... and every THE solution is a different combination of ball position, foot width, etc.

[James_Black]

http://www.golfdigest.com/instruction/2009/05/mickelson

That helped me with my chipping.

It could be due to not enough bounce on your wedge as well though.

[mtsalmela80]

I was practicing chipping in the backyard yesterday (should've banged out of work and taken advantage of what is sure to be the last set of beautiful days here in the northeast) and was trying to figure out a way to fool myself into hitting better.

I basically started trying to hit the ground directly underneath the ball with my swing, and noticed the chips getting a little better. Not so much making sure I hit it on the down swing, but intentionally tried hitting earth right under the ball. I feel like that improved my ball striking on chipping.

Ususally Im either fat and it goes almost no where, or its thin and I skull it. I can control the distance based on length of backswing, but always accelerate through the swing. Seemed to work pretty good so far.

[wubskis]

How is your stance? is it shoulder width apart? If so, try with an open stance with your feet almost together, weight towards the front foot, and playing the ball where its comfortable. With your hands in front of the ball, take a smooth shorter backswing, accelerate through the ball (hitting ball first), and have a longer follow through...

The outside of my feet are about shoulder width apart, it's quite a compressed stance with enough room to balance. My weight shift is about 60/40 onto my leading foot, with the ball inbetween centre and my back foot. As I mentioned, my follow-through is usually a little longer than my backswing, to accomodate for deceleration, but I think I'm decelerating too soon out of fear I'm going to knock it too far.

It sounds like you "KNOW" what to do. The problem is doing it. Stand almost up to the ball, take a couple of practice swings to get the EXACT swing that you want to execute, step up to the ball and hit it. Don't set and think about, just hit it, no need to stand over a chip too long IMHO.

I think this is a big problem too, I'll approach a shot and have a club in mind, pull it out of my bag, then spend some time second guessing myself. I'll usually go with my instinctive first decision, but that nagging doubt could be what's holding me back and causing the duff.

Well, I was at the practice green today and had mixed results. I tried a couple different things, but what gave me most success was the setup I outlined above. Feet close, ball back in stance, weight forward a little, hands forward to deloft the club. I was making good contact maybe 8/10 times, but those two mishits were the dribblers that barely leave the clubface. The bad part is, I honestly still don't know why. Next time I head up I'll get someone to watch me so when I duff something, hopefully something will stand out and there'll be a correction I can work on. I'm hopefully playing 18 tomorrow so we'll see how it goes. It's a real shame, last time I was out (monday) I hit every par 3 in reg, my irons are getting better and everything seems to be improving, or at least to the stage where I know what's going wrong. Chipping is the one thing where I'm still totally unsure