Causes and Cures: Fat or Thin Chip Shots, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
Causes and Cures: Fat or Thin Chip Shots, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

If you're having trouble with your chipping and pitching shots, just consider why that problem is. Is it lack of distance control, lack of accuracy or is it about strike? If you're striking the ball incorrectly when you're chipping and pitching, this next session could really well help you. This is all about topping and fatting chip shots. Topping and fatting, hitting the top of the ball and hitting too much ground before the golf ball can often seem they're a long way apart. The golf ball is about 1.6 inches across so am I making a 1.6-inch mistake each time I top it or fat it or are those two issues more closely related? If I set up with the ball too far forwards in my stance, my body weight back and a scooping action, you can appreciate how I can hit the ball fat and if I miss the ground, how the club can hit over the top of the golf ball, all from a very similar action. So actually a top and a fat that feel like they're a long way apart can be very, very similar in their nature and how we can correct them can be the same.

We want to consider a good ball position so the ball position around about center, nice and simple for all chip and pitch shots. Then I have a nice narrow stance, a lot of body weight onto the left-hand side. Now we’re ready by having the ball in the middle and me leaning onto the left-hand side and staying here as a right-handed golfer leaning into my left leg will encourage me to make a slightly steeper action and stop me from getting caught back and hitting the ground fat. As long as I then keep my hands in front and the club head back and I hit down onto the golf ball, I should make a little bit of a sweeter contact and avoid any scooping action, anything where I get caught behind the golf ball on trying to flick and lift. Again that's going to be a real bad habit. So don’t try and hit the ball up. Actually just try and keep the ball down a little bit longer and then as long as you take a good focus that you are trying to hit the floor here, hitting the floor in itself is not a bad thing so if you're leaning back and hitting the floor, it tends to put you off hitting the ground because every time I hit the ground I hit a bad shot. But actually hitting the ground is a good thing. You've just got to hit the ground in the right place. You're not trying to hit the ground on the left-hand side after you've hit the golf ball.

So we take a nice setup, handle forwards leaning forwards. Stay down. Strike the floor. And as long as I strike the floor after I hit the golf ball, the ball is a good shot as opposed to the classic bad shots of a poor setup position, of poor body weight position and a poor hand action where I hit the ground first or a poor hand action where I miss the ground but catch the top of the golf ball and I’ll just top that one it bounces off the mat and then scuttles forwards, loads of overspin and races over the other side of the green. So a good setup when you're chipping and pitching should help you get a decent strike, not topping and not fatting the golf ball either.

 2012-09-17

If you're having trouble with your chipping and pitching shots, just consider why that problem is. Is it lack of distance control, lack of accuracy or is it about strike? If you're striking the ball incorrectly when you're chipping and pitching, this next session could really well help you. This is all about topping and fatting chip shots. Topping and fatting, hitting the top of the ball and hitting too much ground before the golf ball can often seem they're a long way apart. The golf ball is about 1.6 inches across so am I making a 1.6-inch mistake each time I top it or fat it or are those two issues more closely related? If I set up with the ball too far forwards in my stance, my body weight back and a scooping action, you can appreciate how I can hit the ball fat and if I miss the ground, how the club can hit over the top of the golf ball, all from a very similar action. So actually a top and a fat that feel like they're a long way apart can be very, very similar in their nature and how we can correct them can be the same.

We want to consider a good ball position so the ball position around about center, nice and simple for all chip and pitch shots. Then I have a nice narrow stance, a lot of body weight onto the left-hand side. Now we’re ready by having the ball in the middle and me leaning onto the left-hand side and staying here as a right-handed golfer leaning into my left leg will encourage me to make a slightly steeper action and stop me from getting caught back and hitting the ground fat. As long as I then keep my hands in front and the club head back and I hit down onto the golf ball, I should make a little bit of a sweeter contact and avoid any scooping action, anything where I get caught behind the golf ball on trying to flick and lift. Again that's going to be a real bad habit. So don’t try and hit the ball up. Actually just try and keep the ball down a little bit longer and then as long as you take a good focus that you are trying to hit the floor here, hitting the floor in itself is not a bad thing so if you're leaning back and hitting the floor, it tends to put you off hitting the ground because every time I hit the ground I hit a bad shot. But actually hitting the ground is a good thing. You've just got to hit the ground in the right place. You're not trying to hit the ground on the left-hand side after you've hit the golf ball.

So we take a nice setup, handle forwards leaning forwards. Stay down. Strike the floor. And as long as I strike the floor after I hit the golf ball, the ball is a good shot as opposed to the classic bad shots of a poor setup position, of poor body weight position and a poor hand action where I hit the ground first or a poor hand action where I miss the ground but catch the top of the golf ball and I’ll just top that one it bounces off the mat and then scuttles forwards, loads of overspin and races over the other side of the green. So a good setup when you're chipping and pitching should help you get a decent strike, not topping and not fatting the golf ball either.