Best ways to stop duffing or thinning your chip shots!
Even the world’s best golfers can experience struggles with their chipping. Tiger Woods’ well-reported difficulties with his chipping in 2014/15 was an example of what can happen when the chipping demons arrive. See this youtube video for yourself.
Through his resilience and careful practice, there is much less evidence of his chipping woes and he seems to be back to his almost best around the greens. As coaches, we come up against these issues almost daily and everyone who comes thinks they are the only one! Nothing could be further from the truth…….
In the recent past I worked with a student who has struggled with his chipping and wedge play for over 20 years. He was about to give up, he was totally frustrated and clearly not enjoying his game. What may surprize you is that he plays off a 3 handicap! His strategy was to either hit it in the bunkers (he was a great bunker player) or leave it 50 yards from the green where he was confident of pitching.
Hitting up rather than swinging down.
My student’s problem related to the angle his club approached the golf ball, truthfully it looked as if he was trying to scoop the ball into the air rather than trusting the loft of the club.
Obviously, he had chipped this way for a long time and his results over time became consistently poor. But practicing the wrong way has it consequences!
It obviously worked well when he was young playing lots but with the passage of time physics catches up!
So now let’s examine a few simple but tangible tipswhich helped my student improve his strike and helped prevent those unwanted duffs and thinned shots. But first we must start with the right concept.
CORRECT CHIPPING CONCEPT
We have 14 different clubs in our bag so there is really no need to try and lift the golf ball particularly when the ball is sitting on a tight lie.
Choose a club that will carry the ball over the fringe so that when it bounces, it can then roll to the hole. Remember there is no need to throw the ball up high in the air if there is no obstacle in your way.
To make good contact with the ball, particularly an iron shot, we need to hit down on the ball . Our objective should be to make contact with the ball first and brush the grass thereafter and this will be made much simpler by setting up correctly to the shot.
Have a look at the image below (left) to illustrate what I see most days on the lesson tee. You are setting up for failure if this is how you look.
As you can see in the image on the LEFT, the players sternum is leaning away from the target, his head thereby several inches behind the ball, with the ball positioned closer to the back foot.
By having the golf ball positioned too far back in the stance, it can lead the player to hit behind the ball with the leading edge of the club, resulting in a duffed shot or alternatively catching the ball on the way up, blading it along the ground. Either way, it’s not pretty!
The image on the RIGHT is more what we like to see; the ball position is more in the centre, the sternum positioned in front of the ball, as is the players head. This helps the club move more in a downwards angle to the ball, collecting the ball first and then slightly brushing the grass after. Golfers are much more likely to make solid contact this way.
And when you have mastered the contact, chipping it closer to the hole becomes an achievable task.
CONTACT IS BETTER? NOW LETS’ CONTROL DISTANCE.
After some practice, you should start making better contact with your chips,and then it just remains to learn how to “control the roll”. Depending on the club you use, the “in the air time” versus” roll time” will be different. Here are some approximates:
- 7 iron- 25% air time and 75% roll
- 9 iron- 50% aire time & 50% roll
- Sandwedge- 60% air time & 40%roll
When you have selected the correct club to meet the task, you should then identify the appropriate landing area.Most golfers look at the flag and pull the trigger and don’t give suffiicient time to calculating where the ball should land. Based on the estimates above, have a go at picking out the landing zone before you take your shot. The figures above are calculated based on chipping to a flat surface so you may have to make adjustements depending on the orientation of the green and the pin position.
SETTING UP FOR SUCCESS
So lets recap and review the “must do’s” to help you make great contact with your chip shots:
- Choose the correct club for the shot, it doesn’t always need to be the most lofted.
- Lean your sternum towards the target feeling about 70% of your bodyweight on your left side (assuming you are a right-handed golfer!)
- Position the ball in the centre of your stance
- Make a downward swing on the ball, collecting the ball first and brushing the grass after the strike.
- Don’t forget the ball will run further on landing so you will have to adjust the length of your stroke and or your landing spot.
If you would like to be an expert chipper and lower your scores, then I can help! I have delivered hundreds of Short Game Boot Camps and have lots of happy campers with improved short games. See what Eda has to say!
“With decades of golf lessons behind me, I can truly say that Gillian’s 3-hour intensive bootcamp on the short game was the best I have ever attended. It was so clear and focused, so well-structured and graded according to our abilities — and such fun. Not just that we learned a great deal, we took away thoroughly practical and enjoyable exercises to improve every aspect of our short game [and they really work!]”
Eda Sagarra, Bootcamp participant
My SHORT GAME BOOTCAMPS take place at Charlesland Golf Club so if you would to book a place give me a call on the number below. I look forward to hearing from you.
Gillian Burrell PGA Adv Fellow
Mobile No: 0872586788
Email: burrellgillian@gmail.com