The Influence Of The Lie In Your Golf Chip Shot Selection (Video) - by Pete Styles
The Influence Of The Lie In Your Golf Chip Shot Selection (Video) - by Pete Styles

We now may have considered which club is the right club to use for the high shot, the low shot, the medium shot and how that ball’s going to react on the green. But there's one other influence that we really do need to take into consideration when we are setting up and choosing the right club to hit at chip and pitch shots with and that's actually the lie that the ball is sitting on because we don’t always find these perfect situations as we are on a driving range or a practice ground where we are chipping and pitching the ball of a perfect lie every time. So different lies will make a club selection a little bit more important and particularly playing out of the fairway, the semi-rough or the rough is a consideration. And even in those situations you might find the ball in the semi-rough, but it might be sitting up brilliantly. You might find the ball in the semi-rough and it’s really sitting down a lot.

Generally speaking, if the ball is sitting up and the lie is better, you have a free reign over any of your club selections so you could hit any club off a good lie. But if that ball starts to bury itself and then starts to go down into the longer grass, I think it would be much better to use a more lofted club. Taking something like your lob wedge, my 58-degree wedge here, the leading edge is going to cut through the long grass a lot better. So if the ball is sitting down in the sand or sitting down in the long grass in the rough, use a more lofted club, hit down nice and aggressively, but the loft will get under the ball and it will fly the ball out nicely. That's how the longer grass can affect your club selection. You could also consider how you would the ball if you're on a downslope or an upslope and your club selection you would use. So let’s imagine I'm on a upslope, so my front leg is higher than my rear leg and I'm chipping up the hill. Generally the hill will add to the loft on the club I've got, so that ball’s going to fly a lot higher. Therefore it’s going to fly higher, land sooner and stop quicker. So I might actually club down a little bit and go down to my pitching wedge and my nine iron to try and make sure the ball still goes far enough forwards. And likewise, if I'm on a downslope, this way, so my leading foot is lower than my trailing foot I'm hitting down the hill, it’s the exact opposite. On a downhill lie, the ball’s going to come out lower and faster, so my intention would be to play more loft, use more loft to hit that ball back up in the sky. So on an upslope, I might use a nine iron and on a downslope I might use my lob wedge and hopefully that gives an understanding of how the slopes can change the club selection there. One last option would be a very bad lie. If the ball isn't sitting on a very good lie at all, there's very little grass around, maybe one of those areas where people have walked off the green and it’s kind of bad lie. It’s a very very difficult shot there to get the club underneath the ball. So you might consider that trying to play a bad lie and then taking something like a lob wedge and making a big full swing trying to cut the ball up in the air, is going to be very difficult. If it comes off, it will be brilliant and it will spin loads, but if you feel it’s embedded, it’s going to go knifing off through the green which is going to be a problem. So it might be better when you got yourself in a bad lie, just take something a seven or eight iron and pump the ball forward. The benefit of that is if you hit a bad seven or eight iron, it’s nowhere near as bad as a bad lob wedge. So just take your seven or eight iron and just play the ball as like a putt and just get the ball nudged forwards. In fact, if the grand conditions in front of you is suitable, you could potentially putt that shot as well. So we are not only talking about wedges, you might be putt that ball forwards. So, when you approach the ball, yes you’ve got to look at the shot in front of you and what is got in hand for you. But you can also actually have a look at the lie and consider how the lie can change your club selection when you're chipping. 2016-07-18

We now may have considered which club is the right club to use for the high shot, the low shot, the medium shot and how that ball’s going to react on the green. But there's one other influence that we really do need to take into consideration when we are setting up and choosing the right club to hit at chip and pitch shots with and that's actually the lie that the ball is sitting on because we don’t always find these perfect situations as we are on a driving range or a practice ground where we are chipping and pitching the ball of a perfect lie every time. So different lies will make a club selection a little bit more important and particularly playing out of the fairway, the semi-rough or the rough is a consideration. And even in those situations you might find the ball in the semi-rough, but it might be sitting up brilliantly. You might find the ball in the semi-rough and it’s really sitting down a lot.

Generally speaking, if the ball is sitting up and the lie is better, you have a free reign over any of your club selections so you could hit any club off a good lie. But if that ball starts to bury itself and then starts to go down into the longer grass, I think it would be much better to use a more lofted club. Taking something like your lob wedge, my 58-degree wedge here, the leading edge is going to cut through the long grass a lot better. So if the ball is sitting down in the sand or sitting down in the long grass in the rough, use a more lofted club, hit down nice and aggressively, but the loft will get under the ball and it will fly the ball out nicely. That's how the longer grass can affect your club selection.

You could also consider how you would the ball if you're on a downslope or an upslope and your club selection you would use. So let’s imagine I'm on a upslope, so my front leg is higher than my rear leg and I'm chipping up the hill. Generally the hill will add to the loft on the club I've got, so that ball’s going to fly a lot higher. Therefore it’s going to fly higher, land sooner and stop quicker. So I might actually club down a little bit and go down to my pitching wedge and my nine iron to try and make sure the ball still goes far enough forwards. And likewise, if I'm on a downslope, this way, so my leading foot is lower than my trailing foot I'm hitting down the hill, it’s the exact opposite.

On a downhill lie, the ball’s going to come out lower and faster, so my intention would be to play more loft, use more loft to hit that ball back up in the sky. So on an upslope, I might use a nine iron and on a downslope I might use my lob wedge and hopefully that gives an understanding of how the slopes can change the club selection there. One last option would be a very bad lie. If the ball isn't sitting on a very good lie at all, there's very little grass around, maybe one of those areas where people have walked off the green and it’s kind of bad lie. It’s a very very difficult shot there to get the club underneath the ball. So you might consider that trying to play a bad lie and then taking something like a lob wedge and making a big full swing trying to cut the ball up in the air, is going to be very difficult. If it comes off, it will be brilliant and it will spin loads, but if you feel it’s embedded, it’s going to go knifing off through the green which is going to be a problem.

So it might be better when you got yourself in a bad lie, just take something a seven or eight iron and pump the ball forward. The benefit of that is if you hit a bad seven or eight iron, it’s nowhere near as bad as a bad lob wedge. So just take your seven or eight iron and just play the ball as like a putt and just get the ball nudged forwards. In fact, if the grand conditions in front of you is suitable, you could potentially putt that shot as well. So we are not only talking about wedges, you might be putt that ball forwards. So, when you approach the ball, yes you’ve got to look at the shot in front of you and what is got in hand for you. But you can also actually have a look at the lie and consider how the lie can change your club selection when you're chipping.