Chipping From Just Off the Green - How to Swing Golf Tip (Video) - by Pete Styles
Chipping From Just Off the Green - How to Swing Golf Tip (Video) - by Pete Styles

So here let's say I am in a situation, where I have played the ball onto the green. I am quite happy with my shot and then it’s just rolled off the side of the green. And I have got that frustrating little shot where I have just got to chip it back on, so I am just off the green, need to chip it back on. There are different options that you could take it, you could possibly take a putter, if the grass was flat and smooth, you could put it back on it. You could take a lob wedge and flick it back on, that might be a more risky shot. But I am going to play a straight forward chip shot from just off the side of the green. Here is my technique, I am going to play the ball from the middle of my stance.

That keeps the ball position nice and simple for you, but I am actually going to play a very narrow stance, a wide stance creates power, the power that I simply don’t need here. I am also going to grip the base of the club, gripping at the top of the club creates power, and again I don’t need the power. So I am going to grip down, now I might feel the gripping down. I need to move nearer to the ball, so go ahead and set up the correct distance away. We don’t need you to be reaching out too much, so I am narrow, I am down, and I am near to the bull. Now moving my bodyweight from right to left during a full swing, again generates power, the power I don’t need. So I stand narrow and then I also stand left, I put a lot of bodyweight to my left side for a right-handed golfer, about 60% of my bodyweight covers my front leg. During my stroke, it stays on my front leg, in the follow through, even more goes into the front leg. So there is nothing leaning back and scooping here, it’s front leg, all the way through. It’s also noticeable, how when I play this shot, I am going back half and through half. So I want to be 50:50 as a minimum and possibly even one-third, two-thirds just to accelerate. There is a never a thought of the long backswing and then slowing down, that simply wouldn’t work for me. So I am one third back, two-thirds through to make sure I am accelerating. The last tip when you are chipping from just off the side of the green, is don’t use your hands too much. Don’t start to get flicky with this and lifting it here, the scooping action really isn’t going to help you when you are chipping. Try and play a relatively firm left wrist and straight back and straight through and you can see my follow through, that left arm line is exactly as it started to swing. It sets up here, follows through to here, so I set up, I am narrow, I am down on the grip. I am left back through, stay on my left hand side, bodyweight is here, left wrist hasn’t changed shape. And there was no scooping or flicking, that’s a great technique for you to practice to improve your chipping from just off the green. 2013-09-17

So here let's say I am in a situation, where I have played the ball onto the green. I am quite happy with my shot and then it’s just rolled off the side of the green. And I have got that frustrating little shot where I have just got to chip it back on, so I am just off the green, need to chip it back on. There are different options that you could take it, you could possibly take a putter, if the grass was flat and smooth, you could put it back on it. You could take a lob wedge and flick it back on, that might be a more risky shot. But I am going to play a straight forward chip shot from just off the side of the green. Here is my technique, I am going to play the ball from the middle of my stance.

That keeps the ball position nice and simple for you, but I am actually going to play a very narrow stance, a wide stance creates power, the power that I simply don’t need here. I am also going to grip the base of the club, gripping at the top of the club creates power, and again I don’t need the power. So I am going to grip down, now I might feel the gripping down. I need to move nearer to the ball, so go ahead and set up the correct distance away. We don’t need you to be reaching out too much, so I am narrow, I am down, and I am near to the bull. Now moving my bodyweight from right to left during a full swing, again generates power, the power I don’t need. So I stand narrow and then I also stand left, I put a lot of bodyweight to my left side for a right-handed golfer, about 60% of my bodyweight covers my front leg.

During my stroke, it stays on my front leg, in the follow through, even more goes into the front leg. So there is nothing leaning back and scooping here, it’s front leg, all the way through. It’s also noticeable, how when I play this shot, I am going back half and through half. So I want to be 50:50 as a minimum and possibly even one-third, two-thirds just to accelerate. There is a never a thought of the long backswing and then slowing down, that simply wouldn’t work for me. So I am one third back, two-thirds through to make sure I am accelerating. The last tip when you are chipping from just off the side of the green, is don’t use your hands too much. Don’t start to get flicky with this and lifting it here, the scooping action really isn’t going to help you when you are chipping. Try and play a relatively firm left wrist and straight back and straight through and you can see my follow through, that left arm line is exactly as it started to swing.

It sets up here, follows through to here, so I set up, I am narrow, I am down on the grip. I am left back through, stay on my left hand side, bodyweight is here, left wrist hasn’t changed shape. And there was no scooping or flicking, that’s a great technique for you to practice to improve your chipping from just off the green.