Golf Chipping Strategies (Video) - by Pete Styles
Golf Chipping Strategies (Video) - by Pete Styles

So let's start this tip by hitting a couple of shots for you, both aimed towards the back flag there in the back corner of the green. That’s the first one, I’m quite happy with the result there that was played with a sand wedge and this one played with a six iron. Now we can see that both shots have actually finished relatively close to the flag, the first one at three feet shot left, the last one about a foot to the side of the hole. So both shots are finished quite nicely, but both shots flew very, very differently and played with very, very different golf clubs. This one played with a sand wedge, I had to hit that ball a lot harder fly till up higher, flied almost up towards the flag and it stopped quite quickly. Second one played with a six iron landed almost just on the fringe on the green and run out there.

Now one thing to consider here is that there is no necessarily right or wrong shot to hit here, what we've got to consider is what's appropriate for the shot that’s laid out in front of you and what's actually appropriate for your confidence in your skill level. And the general rule of thumb I'd like you use is if you can putt, putt. So if even though I'm off the green, if this was flat and smooth and nothing in front of me I should be putting that and I would encourage you to putt that as well. If you can't putt it because there is a little bit of longer grass and you think it won't roll through that consistently, chip it. But try and chip it pretty much just only over the bit that needs chipping over and then get the ball down on the surface fairly quickly. So in that regard I would be encouraging more golfers to hit that six iron little low bump and run. You can see in my very small sample example there I actually got that shot actually a bit closer but I would feel it easier to hit and there is less stuff to go wrong if you made a bad stroke, its probably not going to go severely wrong as if we played with the sand wedge. The sand wedge I would encourage you to use that more when there is a lot more stuff to carry over, so for example if there was a bunker between you and the flag you might be inclined to fly it up a little bit more. So in terms of the strategy that you are employing here what we could do is look at the flight and the roll ratio. So with that six iron that I had, the low one the ball probably only flew about 20% and then rolled the 80% up towards the flag, whereas with the sand wedge it is probably almost reversed, it flew 80% and then rolled 20%. So one thing to consider here is what does your flight and roll ratio need to look like and then choose the appropriate club with more or less loft to generate the correct result. Now a lot of that will come from experience, spend a bit of time chipping green like I'm here hitting higher and lower shots and get a feel for which one you think is going to work out best for you in that appropriate circumstance and I think that’s a great way of helping you improve you're golf course chipping strategy. 2015-11-04

So let's start this tip by hitting a couple of shots for you, both aimed towards the back flag there in the back corner of the green. That’s the first one, I’m quite happy with the result there that was played with a sand wedge and this one played with a six iron. Now we can see that both shots have actually finished relatively close to the flag, the first one at three feet shot left, the last one about a foot to the side of the hole. So both shots are finished quite nicely, but both shots flew very, very differently and played with very, very different golf clubs. This one played with a sand wedge, I had to hit that ball a lot harder fly till up higher, flied almost up towards the flag and it stopped quite quickly. Second one played with a six iron landed almost just on the fringe on the green and run out there.

Now one thing to consider here is that there is no necessarily right or wrong shot to hit here, what we've got to consider is what's appropriate for the shot that’s laid out in front of you and what's actually appropriate for your confidence in your skill level. And the general rule of thumb I'd like you use is if you can putt, putt. So if even though I'm off the green, if this was flat and smooth and nothing in front of me I should be putting that and I would encourage you to putt that as well. If you can't putt it because there is a little bit of longer grass and you think it won't roll through that consistently, chip it.

But try and chip it pretty much just only over the bit that needs chipping over and then get the ball down on the surface fairly quickly. So in that regard I would be encouraging more golfers to hit that six iron little low bump and run. You can see in my very small sample example there I actually got that shot actually a bit closer but I would feel it easier to hit and there is less stuff to go wrong if you made a bad stroke, its probably not going to go severely wrong as if we played with the sand wedge.

The sand wedge I would encourage you to use that more when there is a lot more stuff to carry over, so for example if there was a bunker between you and the flag you might be inclined to fly it up a little bit more. So in terms of the strategy that you are employing here what we could do is look at the flight and the roll ratio. So with that six iron that I had, the low one the ball probably only flew about 20% and then rolled the 80% up towards the flag, whereas with the sand wedge it is probably almost reversed, it flew 80% and then rolled 20%. So one thing to consider here is what does your flight and roll ratio need to look like and then choose the appropriate club with more or less loft to generate the correct result. Now a lot of that will come from experience, spend a bit of time chipping green like I'm here hitting higher and lower shots and get a feel for which one you think is going to work out best for you in that appropriate circumstance and I think that’s a great way of helping you improve you're golf course chipping strategy.