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

So if we are going to be an efficient chipper of the golf ball we need to make sure that we've got two elements right. We've got to make sure the set up in the chip shot is correct we've also are going to make sure the swing for the chip shot is correct. And it's a slightly different stance and set up and swing in comparison to a normal full shot. So a full shot with my nine irons I've got here to chip with, a full shot would look like this, but my chipping set up is going to look very different, I'm going to stand with my feet a lot closer together that reduces power but gives me a bit more control. I'm also going to grip a lot lower down on the golf club and again reduces power, gives me more control, I'm going on to lean my body weight quite a lot into my left hand side, again reduces power gives more control, but also helps me strike down on the golf ball.

It kinds of steepens the angle of attack if you like, a lot of people we see making mistakes when their chipping are leaning back and scooping the golf ball into the sky. So we get too much body weight over on this right side, thus I’m trying to hit the ball into the air which is what the golfer thinks should happen. But actually if we put the body weight on the left side for the right-handed player and hits down low, the loft on the golf club, well the thing that hits the ball up in the air. So when you're set up, narrow the stance, grip down on the club, lean on the left side, swing down and make a little bit of contact with the turf after the golf ball. Once you got that set up right the next consideration is how you swing the club, we want to make sure the swing is appropriate for the length of shot we've got, so we simply putt a shorter swing for a shorter shot and the longer swing for a longer shot. But specifically when we are chipping the golf ball, we don’t really want to initiate too much hand action particularly in the backswing, but also I guess in the three swings or both parts of the swing very, very little hand action. We could probably hit the ball the correct distance just doing that, but that’s definitely not what we want to do here. There is very little control with that and too much of a scooping and flicking action, would rather get on that left side and swing back with straight arms no wrists and swing through straight arms no wrists. So there is no hinge and flicking release, it's straight back straight through, and hopefully with that technique we'll actually be better at chipping the ball nice and close to the flag, so it's narrow, down, left, back and through and not too much hand action in those chip shots. 2015-11-04

So if we are going to be an efficient chipper of the golf ball we need to make sure that we've got two elements right. We've got to make sure the set up in the chip shot is correct we've also are going to make sure the swing for the chip shot is correct. And it's a slightly different stance and set up and swing in comparison to a normal full shot. So a full shot with my nine irons I've got here to chip with, a full shot would look like this, but my chipping set up is going to look very different, I'm going to stand with my feet a lot closer together that reduces power but gives me a bit more control. I'm also going to grip a lot lower down on the golf club and again reduces power, gives me more control, I'm going on to lean my body weight quite a lot into my left hand side, again reduces power gives more control, but also helps me strike down on the golf ball.

It kinds of steepens the angle of attack if you like, a lot of people we see making mistakes when their chipping are leaning back and scooping the golf ball into the sky. So we get too much body weight over on this right side, thus I’m trying to hit the ball into the air which is what the golfer thinks should happen. But actually if we put the body weight on the left side for the right-handed player and hits down low, the loft on the golf club, well the thing that hits the ball up in the air. So when you're set up, narrow the stance, grip down on the club, lean on the left side, swing down and make a little bit of contact with the turf after the golf ball. Once you got that set up right the next consideration is how you swing the club, we want to make sure the swing is appropriate for the length of shot we've got, so we simply putt a shorter swing for a shorter shot and the longer swing for a longer shot.

But specifically when we are chipping the golf ball, we don’t really want to initiate too much hand action particularly in the backswing, but also I guess in the three swings or both parts of the swing very, very little hand action. We could probably hit the ball the correct distance just doing that, but that’s definitely not what we want to do here. There is very little control with that and too much of a scooping and flicking action, would rather get on that left side and swing back with straight arms no wrists and swing through straight arms no wrists. So there is no hinge and flicking release, it's straight back straight through, and hopefully with that technique we'll actually be better at chipping the ball nice and close to the flag, so it's narrow, down, left, back and through and not too much hand action in those chip shots.