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

So now if we have a look at Chipping, and specifically how good players chip the ball. You look at anyone that’s – basically anyone that’s won a lot of money on the PGA Tour, Luke Donald, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, all great chippers of the golf ball. And a chip shot specifically describes that time where maybe the player has missed the green, but have missed the green and they're still quite close to the edge, not too much of a difficult shot. Now they want to try and convert that to make up and down as often as possible.

Now the average stats on the PGA Tour, most players missing let’s say 6 out of 12 greens. That’s 6 opportunities in every round where they can try and get up and down. On the good player, their converting about 2/3 of those chances so they're getting up and down, on the four occasions and probably even only leaving two opportunities where they might make bogey. Then they make a few birdies, and that’s where they come around with a score of maybe 2 or three on the par as an average. But it’s the chipping shots that would make the big difference to their score, sort of driving for show and all that sort of thing, but if you can't get up and down from the fringes of the green, it feels like maybe quite a soft bogey, quite a soft shot that you’ve given back to the golf course.

So a chip shot, we're going to take a not particularly lofty clubs, something like a 7 or an 8 iron, we're going to play the ball around about a center of the stance, grip down on the club, lean in to the left hand side and you’ll see a lot of good players setting up to the golf ball here. But then the actual stroke of shot is almost like a putting stroke. Just a very gentle back and through movements, very little wrist hinge or flick, very little leg action going into the shot. So it’s setting up nicely and then just a little putting stroke, just nudging the ball forwards. Get the ball down on the green as quickly as possible and get it rolling towards a whole.

But then quite importantly, if it’s rolling towards a hole, you need to read the rolling section of your chip, as if it’s a putt. So instead of get down on the hands and knees, have a look at how that putt’s going to break, then walk back to your chipping position, chip it to that spot and then let it break in. Don’t just think well, because the ball’s bouncing, I need to aim straight at the flag. That’s not the case, this chip shot will roll a long way across the green, so it’ll allow it break left to right, uphill, downhill, all the usual things that you would do when you're putting. So the chipping technique is narrow, down, on the left side, or on the front side and then almost the putting stroke through the ball. And then we just nudge it forwards, everything’s staying very still like a putt, get it on the surface, watch it breakdown towards the hole. And if you can get up and down from these positions on the side of the greens, your scores will come down quite nicely as well.

 2012-05-24

So now if we have a look at Chipping, and specifically how good players chip the ball. You look at anyone that’s – basically anyone that’s won a lot of money on the PGA Tour, Luke Donald, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, all great chippers of the golf ball. And a chip shot specifically describes that time where maybe the player has missed the green, but have missed the green and they're still quite close to the edge, not too much of a difficult shot. Now they want to try and convert that to make up and down as often as possible.

Now the average stats on the PGA Tour, most players missing let’s say 6 out of 12 greens. That’s 6 opportunities in every round where they can try and get up and down. On the good player, their converting about 2/3 of those chances so they're getting up and down, on the four occasions and probably even only leaving two opportunities where they might make bogey. Then they make a few birdies, and that’s where they come around with a score of maybe 2 or three on the par as an average. But it’s the chipping shots that would make the big difference to their score, sort of driving for show and all that sort of thing, but if you can't get up and down from the fringes of the green, it feels like maybe quite a soft bogey, quite a soft shot that you’ve given back to the golf course.

So a chip shot, we're going to take a not particularly lofty clubs, something like a 7 or an 8 iron, we're going to play the ball around about a center of the stance, grip down on the club, lean in to the left hand side and you’ll see a lot of good players setting up to the golf ball here. But then the actual stroke of shot is almost like a putting stroke. Just a very gentle back and through movements, very little wrist hinge or flick, very little leg action going into the shot. So it’s setting up nicely and then just a little putting stroke, just nudging the ball forwards. Get the ball down on the green as quickly as possible and get it rolling towards a whole.

But then quite importantly, if it’s rolling towards a hole, you need to read the rolling section of your chip, as if it’s a putt. So instead of get down on the hands and knees, have a look at how that putt’s going to break, then walk back to your chipping position, chip it to that spot and then let it break in. Don’t just think well, because the ball’s bouncing, I need to aim straight at the flag. That’s not the case, this chip shot will roll a long way across the green, so it’ll allow it break left to right, uphill, downhill, all the usual things that you would do when you're putting. So the chipping technique is narrow, down, on the left side, or on the front side and then almost the putting stroke through the ball. And then we just nudge it forwards, everything’s staying very still like a putt, get it on the surface, watch it breakdown towards the hole. And if you can get up and down from these positions on the side of the greens, your scores will come down quite nicely as well.