When you stand over the ball preparing to play a shot, you want to feel confident in what you are about to attempt. Every golfer knows how great it is to stand over the ball while expecting to be successful – and every golfer knows how bad it feels to think that you are about to fail. While confidence is important all over the course, it is particularly crucial when standing next to the green getting ready to hit a chip shot.

You need to strike the ball perfectly in order to hit a good chip, and solid contact stems from using your technique properly. The problem is this – technique tends to break down when nerves come into the picture. If you don’t think that you are going to be able to pull off a given shot, you will get nervous and your technique will suffer. With this in mind, it is important on every chip shot to use the club that is going to fill you with the greatest degree of confidence.

That is not to say you are always going to feel confident – sometimes, you just have to face a shot that makes you uncomfortable. However, even in such a situation, you should think through your options and pick out the club that you feel provides the best opportunity for success. It’s okay if that club doesn’t happen to be the one that you would choose if playing strictly ‘by the book’. You own level of confidence should trump the urge to play the textbook chip shot in all scenarios.

For example, picture a chip shot where the ball is sitting on the fairway-length grass next to the green, and you have nothing but flat ground between you and the hole. The shot isn’t particularly long, and there are no difficult conditions to worry about. In other words, this chip shot is about as easy as they come. For most players, this situation would call for the use of a pitching wedge. Just bump the ball onto the green, let it roll to the cup, and move on. However, for some reason, you aren’t feeling confident in your ability to play the shot with a pitching wedge. You can’t stop thinking that you are going to hit the ball too far if you use what would be considered the ‘right’ club for the job.

So what should you do? Use a different club. Since this is such a simple shot, you don’t have to worry so much about external factors. Instead, you can look inside yourself and decide which play is going to give you the best chance at a positive result. If that means using your sand wedge, or even your lob wedge, so be it. Trust your instincts, make choices that instill you with confidence, and hit the shot will 100% commitment to your plan.