Golf Chipping Drill (Video) - by Pete Styles
Golf Chipping Drill (Video) - by Pete Styles

Here is three great little tips that I think are going to help you chip and pitch the ball better from around the side of the green. And the first thing that I would like you to do is practice chipping from pole lies. We quite often see when golfers go to the practice ground they throw a lot of golf balls down and then when they get to a chip they just lift the ball up on to a decent lie and then chip it from there. But how many times are you allowed to do that on the golf course, simply not you have to chip the ball from the lie you find it in. So rather than positioning the ball up on a decent lie every time, what would be better is if you just through the ball in to the air see where it lands and then play it from there and I actually sit down in a lot poor a lie straightaway and the instinct from a golfer is. Well just, give that a little nudge on through a good lie and then hit a great chip shot and think I'm certainly Tiger Woods all of a sudden.

But the reality is that ball sitting down in a quite poor lie I've got work a lot harder to drive that ball out of that bad lie. So you practice chipping from a bad lie. Now it might be better if you are using a slightly more lofted club, a sand wedge or a pitching wedge, when the ball is in a bad lie, but experiment with that, the key to this is make sure you get plenty of experience chipping from bad lies. Similar and following on from that exercise is chip from slopes a lot of golfers who come to the practice ground drop the balls down in nice flat area, with good grass and chip the ball and feel great. But I'd encourage you to go and find the side of a banker the side of a banker and chip the ball from the slopes and you will appreciate that if you're on an uphill slope chipping this way the ball will fly a lot higher and stop a lot quicker. Therefore, you need a lower lofted golf club to produce the same sort of roll and flat, like wise if you're playing from a downhill slope you're playing down this way it will land a lot sooner and roll a lot further. So therefore we need to make a more lofted club to get the ball to fly as you would expect it to do and again experience and practice but don’t always practice on the side on the flat practice on uphill and downhill slopes. One of the tip I think I could impart to you here is try and sort of practice and play with the plan of a professional when you're chipping a lot of us just look at that hole and think oh its about 20 feet away I'll just hit this shot. But the problem is actually formulate a little bit of a better plan they might read the green better, they might select the right club but they are also going to look at the spot where they want the ball to land and then just focus on that spot and play the appropriate shot to that spot. So rather than looking at the flag that might be a few feet further up the green, they'll actually pick a spot nearer to them. It might be a patch of ground or a bit of dirt and they'll then chip to that and they will use the appropriate club to hit that spot then they will watch the ball roll out. So we got to read this shot and plan for this shot like any other shot in fact may be even more so than any other shot. We are not just going to walk up look at it and dink it forward. Pick your spot choose the appropriate club make sure you're aiming correctly land it in the right spot run it out to the hole nicely, don’t always practice from good lies and don’t always practice from flat lies. Get yourself on the slopes and you will be a better chipper straight away to improve your golf.
2015-11-04

Here is three great little tips that I think are going to help you chip and pitch the ball better from around the side of the green. And the first thing that I would like you to do is practice chipping from pole lies. We quite often see when golfers go to the practice ground they throw a lot of golf balls down and then when they get to a chip they just lift the ball up on to a decent lie and then chip it from there. But how many times are you allowed to do that on the golf course, simply not you have to chip the ball from the lie you find it in. So rather than positioning the ball up on a decent lie every time, what would be better is if you just through the ball in to the air see where it lands and then play it from there and I actually sit down in a lot poor a lie straightaway and the instinct from a golfer is. Well just, give that a little nudge on through a good lie and then hit a great chip shot and think I'm certainly Tiger Woods all of a sudden.

But the reality is that ball sitting down in a quite poor lie I've got work a lot harder to drive that ball out of that bad lie. So you practice chipping from a bad lie. Now it might be better if you are using a slightly more lofted club, a sand wedge or a pitching wedge, when the ball is in a bad lie, but experiment with that, the key to this is make sure you get plenty of experience chipping from bad lies. Similar and following on from that exercise is chip from slopes a lot of golfers who come to the practice ground drop the balls down in nice flat area, with good grass and chip the ball and feel great. But I'd encourage you to go and find the side of a banker the side of a banker and chip the ball from the slopes and you will appreciate that if you're on an uphill slope chipping this way the ball will fly a lot higher and stop a lot quicker. Therefore, you need a lower lofted golf club to produce the same sort of roll and flat, like wise if you're playing from a downhill slope you're playing down this way it will land a lot sooner and roll a lot further.

So therefore we need to make a more lofted club to get the ball to fly as you would expect it to do and again experience and practice but don’t always practice on the side on the flat practice on uphill and downhill slopes. One of the tip I think I could impart to you here is try and sort of practice and play with the plan of a professional when you're chipping a lot of us just look at that hole and think oh its about 20 feet away I'll just hit this shot. But the problem is actually formulate a little bit of a better plan they might read the green better, they might select the right club but they are also going to look at the spot where they want the ball to land and then just focus on that spot and play the appropriate shot to that spot. So rather than looking at the flag that might be a few feet further up the green, they'll actually pick a spot nearer to them.

It might be a patch of ground or a bit of dirt and they'll then chip to that and they will use the appropriate club to hit that spot then they will watch the ball roll out. So we got to read this shot and plan for this shot like any other shot in fact may be even more so than any other shot. We are not just going to walk up look at it and dink it forward. Pick your spot choose the appropriate club make sure you're aiming correctly land it in the right spot run it out to the hole nicely, don’t always practice from good lies and don’t always practice from flat lies. Get yourself on the slopes and you will be a better chipper straight away to improve your golf.