If you look at a chip shot now, the couple of components that make up a chip shot or make up a good chip shot let’s say, we’ve got the accuracy of the chip shot whether it’s straight or left or right. And because the nature of a chip shot is quite short, that it isn’t really that difficult to get right. It’s not like a slicing tee shot or a pulling tee shot. It’s such a short shot. The accuracy of the chipping isn’t that difficult. And also because it’s quite a short shot, hitting the ball at relevant distance isn’t that hard. It doesn’t need to be a full swing. Yes, you can use a variety of different clubs but the swing is generally so short that getting the right distance isn’t that difficult, unless you’re not striking the ball correctly. And this is probably the biggest factor that makes up the difference between good and bad chip shot, is the quality of the contact, particularly the crispness of the contact. So, when you see someone that is good at chipping and you watch the guys on the TV at the toll place, you can pretty much guarantee that getting good crisp contacts on the chip shot at some pit shots, hence why they’re always be able to hit the ball at the right distance, hit the ball at the right height and with the right amount of spin.
One of the big issues that I see in club golfs, at amateur golfs is when they’re playing these chip shots. It’s not the distance, it’s not the direction, but it’s the quality of the strike. And it’s a fact that quite often the club hits the ground first before the golf ball causing a fat shot or actually hitting the top of the golf ball above the equator causing a thin shot. Generally, fat shots will be short, heavy and go in the front bunker, and thin shots would be high upon the golf ball, skidding the ball across the green and shooting it through the green on the far side. And if you can remember a time on the golf course where you’ve done that and fudge the chip and it hasn’t gone on to the green or thin the chip and it’s gone right away through. Hopefully, the drills in this next section will help you crispen up the strike on your chip shots for better control around the greens.