How Can I practice my Chipping the Best? (Video) - by Dean Butler
How Can I practice my Chipping the Best? (Video) - by Dean Butler

The question is how can I best practice my chipping? So, what is chipping? Let’s explain what a chip is first of all. Chipping is where you’re just off the green and we’ve got a fluty sort of line between you and actually the green. It’s not high up. It’s not big on. It’s not got a bunker. So, we can actually go fairly low. So, a chip-and-run shot is basically like swinging with a putter. Same technique but we’ve got a little bit of loft on it. And that little bit of loft, takes us over a little bit of rough terrain to start with, lungs the ball, and rolls it up. So, that’s what a chip is.

So, the – how do we best practice chipping? If only every chip that we play were from the same position, the same lie, the same shot. But on the golf course, we’ve got 18 holes. We’ve most probably got thousands of permutations of how the shots going to finish and what we’re faced with. So first of all, let’s look at the techniques. When we’re on the chipping green, instead of just putting a bucket of balls here as I see many people at my club and just practicing from the same position, why don’t you just think yourself right. Let’s put three balls down. Let’s look at a flight that is, say, very close to us and let’s put the ball in a nice lush lie. And from there, we want to practice a short swing, a very short swing, because that short swing is all we need as we play that golf shots onto the green and let it run up. Let’s put a ball now a free ball if we’re going to hit now 25 yards away. The technique is exactly the same, but the only difference being now is that we just need to lengthen the swing a little bit. As the swing gets a little bit longer, there’s a little bit more clubhead speed. That means the ball is going to just lift up a little bit more and a little bit more release. So, when you go to play your chipping around the chipping grid, that’s not just going to one position. Let’s maneuver ourselves all the way around it. There are all sorts of different things you can do. Example, if you’re going to play a chip-and-run and you’d just go for a flight of say 20 yards away, why not put a couple of tee pegs nice and wide like a gate say 2 yards short and 2 yards beyond the hole and try and get in that zone. Where would you rather be? Would rather be 2 yards short or 2 yards long? Correct answer would be 2 yards long. Why? Because it had the chance to go in. If we never get to the hole, we’ve got no chance at all. So, that’s a good exercise to kind of set yourself up and start practicing that shot and get into the zone. Another good tip will be to say right, I’m now going to practice my chip from this side of the green to the over side, but I want to let the ball stop say 2 foot shorter of the fringe. So, you could do this with your friends. You can actually make a bit of a competition, make a bit of a game of it and set yourself up with three balls each and try and do it. So, chipping and practicing these techniques from different positions encourages a better consistency when you’re faced with that one chance on the golf course to play it. And of course make it lighthearted, make it fun with your friends and score points or maybe think let’s have a beer on this one or whatever. Make it light hearted. So, when you’re doing your chipping and running, don’t stick it in one position. Go from different locations around the green, face yourself with different shots, and from there you can rely on that technique, on that one chance. Remember in the golf course, you got one chance. So, practice what you want to do. Go on the golf course and very quickly by practicing what we’ve just said, you should be able to have that game and that ability to produce that one chance on that shot to get the best results possible. 2014-05-14

The question is how can I best practice my chipping? So, what is chipping? Let’s explain what a chip is first of all. Chipping is where you’re just off the green and we’ve got a fluty sort of line between you and actually the green. It’s not high up. It’s not big on. It’s not got a bunker. So, we can actually go fairly low. So, a chip-and-run shot is basically like swinging with a putter. Same technique but we’ve got a little bit of loft on it. And that little bit of loft, takes us over a little bit of rough terrain to start with, lungs the ball, and rolls it up. So, that’s what a chip is.

So, the – how do we best practice chipping? If only every chip that we play were from the same position, the same lie, the same shot. But on the golf course, we’ve got 18 holes. We’ve most probably got thousands of permutations of how the shots going to finish and what we’re faced with.

So first of all, let’s look at the techniques. When we’re on the chipping green, instead of just putting a bucket of balls here as I see many people at my club and just practicing from the same position, why don’t you just think yourself right. Let’s put three balls down. Let’s look at a flight that is, say, very close to us and let’s put the ball in a nice lush lie. And from there, we want to practice a short swing, a very short swing, because that short swing is all we need as we play that golf shots onto the green and let it run up. Let’s put a ball now a free ball if we’re going to hit now 25 yards away. The technique is exactly the same, but the only difference being now is that we just need to lengthen the swing a little bit. As the swing gets a little bit longer, there’s a little bit more clubhead speed. That means the ball is going to just lift up a little bit more and a little bit more release.

So, when you go to play your chipping around the chipping grid, that’s not just going to one position. Let’s maneuver ourselves all the way around it. There are all sorts of different things you can do. Example, if you’re going to play a chip-and-run and you’d just go for a flight of say 20 yards away, why not put a couple of tee pegs nice and wide like a gate say 2 yards short and 2 yards beyond the hole and try and get in that zone. Where would you rather be? Would rather be 2 yards short or 2 yards long? Correct answer would be 2 yards long. Why? Because it had the chance to go in. If we never get to the hole, we’ve got no chance at all.

So, that’s a good exercise to kind of set yourself up and start practicing that shot and get into the zone. Another good tip will be to say right, I’m now going to practice my chip from this side of the green to the over side, but I want to let the ball stop say 2 foot shorter of the fringe. So, you could do this with your friends. You can actually make a bit of a competition, make a bit of a game of it and set yourself up with three balls each and try and do it. So, chipping and practicing these techniques from different positions encourages a better consistency when you’re faced with that one chance on the golf course to play it. And of course make it lighthearted, make it fun with your friends and score points or maybe think let’s have a beer on this one or whatever. Make it light hearted.

So, when you’re doing your chipping and running, don’t stick it in one position. Go from different locations around the green, face yourself with different shots, and from there you can rely on that technique, on that one chance. Remember in the golf course, you got one chance. So, practice what you want to do. Go on the golf course and very quickly by practicing what we’ve just said, you should be able to have that game and that ability to produce that one chance on that shot to get the best results possible.