If we now look at the specifics of how a thin chip shot might happen, so one of these skinny ones, thin ones, where we hit the top half of the golf ball, and the ball shoots off low and forwards, lands on the green, and maybe rolls off the other side. Why does that happen to a golfer? A couple of issues just to start within the setup position, the ball position might be too far forwards for the golfer, so the ball position might be too far to the left side. For the right-hander the club is then on the rise as it hits through the ball. So we want to see a nice central ball position. We also want to see the bodyweight leaning slightly into the left side to produce a slight downwards angle of attack, certainly not leaning back trying to scoop it. We often see golfers thinning the ball when they're actually lifting up too early through the ball.

Now I'm not specifically going to say lifting up with your head or looking up too early, it's not quite as simple as that. A lot of golfers can keep their head down over the ball, and still top the ball because actually their hands and arms are lifting up. So if you're a golfer that's trying to help the ball into the air it might be the hands and arms lifting up here that create the thin contact rather than staying down. Sometimes we see golfers that rush a little bit when they're hitting the chip shots, so they're so eager to make good contact on the ball, they get a bit anxious, a bit nervous and rush it a little bit, maybe a bit too tight and tense in the hands. As a golfer that tends to be a little bit smoother and have better tempo will often let the club hit the ground quite nicely.

And the last thing that can cause these issues is actually a fault that can cause the fat shots and the thin shots at the same time, which is overuse of the right hand. If a golfer is using their right hand too much, the right hand is overtaking. This is where a right-handed golf would be the rear hand. The right hand is overtaking the left, and flicking. Now as the club flicks it bottoms out and then it rises up. And if it bottoms out prior to the ball, it's fat. But if it bottoms out, and doesn't hit the ground it's probably raising more as it hits the ball, and we catch it thin. So the fat shots and the thin shots can both be caused and created by too much right hand throughout the action. So if we can have a good central ball position, just in the center of your stance, bodyweight slightly ahead of center, hands nicely forwards, and then a nice smooth, accelerating downwards action without too much right hand, that should help improve the quality of contact to avoid those thin chip shots.