How Should I Play A Downhill Golf Chip Shot? (Video) - by Pete Styles
How Should I Play A Downhill Golf Chip Shot? (Video) - by Pete Styles

Playing a downhill chip or pitch shot from around the side of the green is actually a much more difficult proposition than playing the uphill shot. Because the downhill slope here when you are leaning down into the ball is encouraging the ball to go low and run and that’s often not something we want to happen when we are playing a short shots around that side of the green. So two considerations we have here, what will a slope do to the golf ball and what will a slope do to the golfer? The first thing is the down slope this way will encourage the ball to come out low, effectively the down slope is taking loft off the club taking height off the ball. So we need this ball to land sooner and expect more roll. We could also adjust the loft that we have on the golf club to try neutralize the factor of the slope, so it might take them a lofted club still to try and get the ball up in the air.

So we might play this down shot here with a little lob wedge and just try to land on the edge of the green and get it to release because a normal pitching wedge or nine, nine might just land and shoot off the other side. The other consideration that we have here is what is a slope going to do to the golfer? Well a slope should encourage the golfer to tilt their shoulders with the hill to a spine angle with the hill and that’s how you should play, you should play very aggressively onto your left side shoulders and spine angle tilted with the hill, let the club come down fairly steeply following the line, following the arc on the hill. The instinctive thing to do here for lots of golfers when they see the ball coming out low is to lean back and try and flick the ball into the air, and that’s conversely the exact opposite of what you should be doing you really don’t want to be doing that, because if you lean back and try and scoop the ball up in the air you just hit the slope that’s behind the ball. So when you find yourself down slope chipping around the side of the green consider what the ball will do, what you will do. The ball will come out low and run, you should tilt yourself with the hill shoulders and spine angle perpendicular unparallel, let the club follow the down slope keep the body weight left and bump one forwards expected to come out low and fast. Practice your downhill chipping and that will help improve your skills. 2014-08-12

Playing a downhill chip or pitch shot from around the side of the green is actually a much more difficult proposition than playing the uphill shot. Because the downhill slope here when you are leaning down into the ball is encouraging the ball to go low and run and that’s often not something we want to happen when we are playing a short shots around that side of the green. So two considerations we have here, what will a slope do to the golf ball and what will a slope do to the golfer? The first thing is the down slope this way will encourage the ball to come out low, effectively the down slope is taking loft off the club taking height off the ball. So we need this ball to land sooner and expect more roll. We could also adjust the loft that we have on the golf club to try neutralize the factor of the slope, so it might take them a lofted club still to try and get the ball up in the air.

So we might play this down shot here with a little lob wedge and just try to land on the edge of the green and get it to release because a normal pitching wedge or nine, nine might just land and shoot off the other side. The other consideration that we have here is what is a slope going to do to the golfer? Well a slope should encourage the golfer to tilt their shoulders with the hill to a spine angle with the hill and that’s how you should play, you should play very aggressively onto your left side shoulders and spine angle tilted with the hill, let the club come down fairly steeply following the line, following the arc on the hill. The instinctive thing to do here for lots of golfers when they see the ball coming out low is to lean back and try and flick the ball into the air, and that’s conversely the exact opposite of what you should be doing you really don’t want to be doing that, because if you lean back and try and scoop the ball up in the air you just hit the slope that’s behind the ball. So when you find yourself down slope chipping around the side of the green consider what the ball will do, what you will do.

The ball will come out low and run, you should tilt yourself with the hill shoulders and spine angle perpendicular unparallel, let the club follow the down slope keep the body weight left and bump one forwards expected to come out low and fast. Practice your downhill chipping and that will help improve your skills.