Getting a good crisp strike on your chip shots could be one of the most fundamental parts of being able to control the distance of the shot when you're around a side of the green. So we want to make sure the club is making good contact with the ball. It can’t hit the top of the ball, and we know it can’t hit the ground either. That would be a fat shot when it hits the ground or top orthin shot when it hits too high on the golf ball. So here I'm using my tour stick just to check that I'm going to make good contact on the golf ball. I've placed the stick about three inches behind the ball, I'm then going to go ahead and setup so the ball is around about the center of my stance.

So actually the stick should point towards your right little toe for the right handed golfer, your rear foot. I then want to make sure the club isn’t going to come down and hit the stick that would signify the fat shot. But I have still got to convince myself that the club should hit the ground, if I don’t hit the ground because I'm scared of hitting the stick, I'm probably going to be too high and hit the top of the ball. So if you could go ahead and setup the stick and then setup a row of golf balls along the cane and then just try and make sure that you're striking them, you are taking a divot but it's always after the golf ball.

So as we setup here the ball central, the stick points at my right big toe. A little chip swing, and I just make nice contact on the ball, you did hear the club hit the ground but it definitely didn’t hit early. If I was to setup again, but bring the club down too soon too early, you would hear the club hit the top of that. And it's a very visual and it's a very sort of obvious way of checking that you’ve done something wrong but likewise getting scared of it and hitting over the top of the golf ball is not going to do you any favors either. So a swing stick there, three inches behind make sure you're taking a divot, and that’s a great way to crispen up your chip shots.