The Art of Chipping

Ryan Sharpe, Deacon’s Lodge

If you are struggling with chipping the ball, try this:

On virtually every short game shot, you want to start with your weight forward and keep it there. The best way to feel this and work on it (for a right-handed golfer) is by putting all of your weight on your left foot and move the right foot back, so only the tip of your right shoe is n the ground. After you do that, place the club in the left hand only and try balancing. After you place the club in the left hand, try turning the right hip back, keeping your shoulder and hips level. Make sure you stay on your left side as you turn through. You get the feeling of rotary action on the top of a single axis and no slide or tilt.

The third and final step in correcting the slice early in the swing is the direction of the takeaway. In my experience many players that tend to slice the ball push the club up and away from them in the takeaway, when really it should work more around them. A good rule of thumb when taking the club back is that the hands pass over the right knee and work over the right pocket for right handed golfers. When working in this direction we set ourselves up for the club to travel on a more in to out path, and with assistance from the face alteration in tip two, we are able to shape the ball more right to left. As much as we all want to hit the ball perfectly straight every time, curvature in any direction is almost a guarantee, yet the more we can reduce the factors that emphasize this movement, the straighter shots we will see.

Control the Chip Gunnar Engebretsen, Assistant Golf Professional, Ruttger’s Bay Lake Resort

The big thing in chipping is controlling how far the ball will roll out. If you plan to hit high or low shots, keep your chip shots simple by following this process. First, walk the distance to the hole and look at the shot from behind the hole to visualize how the ball will roll out on the green. Next, pick the club that will most benefit the shot you want to hit. You want the ball to start rolling as soon as possible. If the situation has you hitting it low, move the ball back in your stance for lower trajectory with more roll. Hitting it high, move the ball forward in your stance for a higher trajectory with less roll. You want to feel you’re making the same stroke every time, so the only things changed are the club and where the ball is positioned.