For many amateur golfers, chipping is the scariest part of the game.

They get nervous anytime an approach shot misses the putting surface, as they know that a chip shot is just a few moments away. While professionals tend to make this part of the game look rather easy, anyone who has played golf knows that is not the case. It takes plenty of practice to hit quality chip shots, along with a steady nerve and solid technique.

Unfortunately, even those who put in the effort during practice to learn how to chip are never able to get over this hurdle. If that sounds like you, should you just throw up your hands and give up golf? Of course not. This is a great game, and it would be a shame to miss out on it just because you struggle with your chipping. One of the options you may want to consider is adding a chipper to your set of clubs. This is a club which is shaped much like a putter, except it has enough loft for you to chip the ball up into the air and onto the green. Some golfers find it much easier to play shots from around the greens with a chipper as opposed to something like a pitching wedge or sand wedge.

In this article, we are going to talk about how you may be able to use a chipper effectively in your own game. Even if you don’t yet own a chipper, it is a good idea to read through this article while trying to decide whether or not to buy one to add to your set. Of course, if you do add a chipper, you will need to take one of your current clubs out of the bag. We will discuss this issue as well and talk about how you can decide which club should go.

All of the content below is based on a right-handed golfer. If you happen to play left-handed, please take a moment to reverse the directions as necessary.

The Benefits and Drawbacks of a Chipper

As we’ve already touched on, a chipper is a club which tends to be used by a player that has struggled with the traditional method of chipping with a wedge. In this section, we are going to talk more about the benefits of using a chipper, and we are going to mention a couple drawbacks, as well. It’s always important to have a clear picture of the pros and cons presented by a given club as you decide whether or not to add it to your set.

• Benefit – Avoid fat contact. For many golfers, it is fat contact that tends to give them the most trouble when chipping. Rather than striking the ball cleanly, these players hit behind the ball more often than not, resulting in fat contact and a shot which comes up short of the target. It takes skill and plenty of practice to successfully strike clean chip shots with a wedge over and over again. If you just can’t seem to break the habit of hitting your chip shots fat, opting for a chipper might be a good choice. Since you’ll be using a putting-like motion – more on this later – it will be easier to pick the ball cleanly off the turf. With just a bit of practice, you should find that you are able to send the ball up toward the hole with the proper speed time after time. Hitting fat chip shots can be incredibly frustrating, and it might cause some to consider quitting the game entirely. It doesn’t need to get to that point, however, as a chipper just might be a good option to work around the problem.
• Drawback – Limited flexibility. Without a doubt, the biggest drawback to adding a chipper to your bag is the limited flexibility that it provides. Sure, you should be able to produce nice chip shots from clean lies around the green, but that’s going to be about it. With a regular wedge, you can hit all kinds of different shots from many different situations. You can hit full swing shots from back in the fairway, you can hit flop shots, you can hit bunker shots, and on and on. Adding a chipper to your bag means you need to take out another club, and the club that you sacrifice is probably one which is more versatile than the chipper. Does this mean you should forget about this idea altogether? No – for some golfers, the loss of versatility will be worth it in order to gain a club which can produce reliable chipping results. However, you do need to be aware of this drawback and take it into consideration as you decide whether or not a chipper is right for you.
• Benefit – Reduced stress. Once you learn how to use your chipper, it’s likely that having this club in your bag will take away some of the chipping-related stress that you used to feel. One of the problems with chipping poorly is that those struggles can transfer over into other parts of your game. For instance, if you are getting ready to hit an approach shot, you might feel extra pressure to hit the green, knowing that you don’t want to face a chip shot. That extra pressure could cause you to make a poor swing, leaving your ball in exactly the position that you were trying to avoid. On the other hand, if you are confident in your ability to use your chipper when you miss the green, the pressure you place on yourself for approach shots may be reduced. You’ll know that it’s possible to get up and down even if you hit a poor shot, so you’ll feel freed up to make your best swing and see what happens.
• Drawback – Working around the problem. Picking up a chipper may help you manage to produce some good short game results – but it doesn’t actually address the weakness of your chipping technique. You’ll still have that problem, and it will still pop up when you face chip shots that are not well-suited to the use of a chipper. If you have lofty goals in golf and you would like to continue to get better as time moves along, you’ll need to learn how to chip properly at some point. Adding a chipper to your set is a nice workaround to help you enjoy your time on the course, but you’ll still have chipping problems to address.
• Benefit – Performance under pressure. During practice, you may be able to hit chip shots with your wedges without much trouble. If that performance trails off on the course, however, it’s probably pressure that is doing the damage. Nerves can do bad things to your short game, even if you don’t think you are actually that nervous. It doesn’t have to be a big tournament or anything like that to cause you to be nervous – most players are a bit nervous whenever they are on the course, as they always want to play their best. If nerves give you trouble on a regular basis in the short game, turning to a chipper could help. The simple technique that is used with a chipper will make it less likely that pressure will lead to a poor result.

As you can see, there are certainly things to like about using a chipper. And, at the same time, there are drawbacks which should not be ignored. There are no perfect golf clubs, and that is true when talking about chippers. Think about your game, and think about your goals, and figure out whether or not a chipper would make a smart addition to your set.

A Simple Technique

One of the best things about a chipper is the fact that you can basically use your putting stroke in order to hit your chip shots. As long as you have a decent putting stroke in place, you should be able to transfer that technique over to using the chipper without much trouble. This makes sense, of course, since most chippers look very similar to putters.

For starters, we recommend using the same grip on your chipper as you use when putting. If you use the reverse-overlap grip while putting – like many players do – go ahead and stick with it when reaching for your chipper. By using your putting grip for these shots, you should find it easier to replicate your putting stroke motion. Depending on the length of the chipper you purchase, it might be necessary to choke down a little bit at address to get comfortable.

In addition to forming a solid grip, you also need to make sure the ball is in a good position in your stance. Specifically, you don’t want to let it get too far behind the center of your stance, as that could lead to trouble. If the ball is too far back, you’ll wind up hitting down too steeply at impact, which is not the way this type of club is meant to be used. Keep the ball at least in the middle of your stance, if not a bit forward of that point. Such a ball position will let you swing through impact while keeping the club head moving roughly parallel to the top of the turf. This will result is a clean strike, and the ball should pop up nicely off the ground before coming back down and rolling out toward the hole.

With your grip and ball position set, there is nothing left to do but make the swing and send the ball on its way. As mentioned above, you should be swinging your chipper in the same manner that you would swing your putter. Use your shoulders to put the club in motion and keep the rest of your body still. It is a good idea to focus on keeping your head still when hitting this kind of shot. Any unnecessary head movement is going to bring in the risk of hitting the ball fat or thin, and that’s exactly what you need to avoid here. This is supposed to be a simple shot, so use as few moving parts as possible in order to strike the ball.

Since the technique you are going to use when playing a shot with a chipper is so similar to the technique you’ll use with your putter, it shouldn’t take much practice to get up and running with this club. The big challenge you will face is learning how far the ball is going to travel based on the size of your swing. The ball will react differently than when you use a putter, of course, so you’ll have to get used to how the ball carries and then rolls out toward the cup. Put in some practice time before using this club on the course so you are able to use it effectively right from the start.

Running Some Tests

One of the limitations that comes with using a chipper is the fact that it is not going to be able to handle as many different situations as a wedge. The design of the club prevents it from being able to do everything a wedge can do – it’s just that simple. With that in mind, one of the good things to do with your chipper before using it on the course is to practice with it on a variety of lies to see what it can handle.

To do this, you’ll obviously need to find a good short game practice area at a golf course near you. Look for a facility which not only offers a chipping green, but also has some variety of terrain around that green. You’ll want both short and long grass, and ideally, you’d like to have some slopes to work with, as well. When you find such a practice area, use the tips below to guide your practice session.

• Start with the easy stuff. To get used to the way your chipper performs, start out by hitting some simple chip shots from short grass near the green. Drop a few golf balls just a foot or two off the edge and chip them up toward one of the practice holes. These shots should be the easiest shots you can find around the practice green, as you want to focus on the way the club works without having to deal with challenging conditions. Only when you are comfortable with these basic shots should you move on to tougher stuff.
• Test out the longer grass. It’s quite likely that your chipper won’t work particularly well from the long grass. You usually need to hit down on the ball in the rough in order to get it out but try a few test shots anyway. Depending on the design of the specific chipper you are using, you might be able to get decent results. It will be helpful to know if you can consider your chipper as an option when in the rough, or if you should simply keep it in the bag for those kinds of shots.
• Uphill and downhill. In addition to trying your new club out in the rough, also see what it is capable of doing on uphill and downhill lies. When on a downhill lie, the only difference should be that the ball will come out lower and have more run after it lands. Therefore, as long as you have short grass between your ball and the hole, you should be able to generate acceptable results. The story changes some when trying to use a chipper from an uphill lie. You may find that it’s tough to hit the ball cleanly in this situation, and even if you do, judging the distance of the shot could be tricky. Your experience may vary, of course, so try it out for yourself and see what happens.
• Long chips across the green. For many golfers, the chipper is a handy club for dealing with shots where the ball only needs to be chipped a few feet onto the green before it rolls out a few more yards to the hole. That’s fine, but you’ll also want to test out your ability to chip the ball to a hole located on the other side of the green. How does your club perform on these longer chips? Will you need to turn to a wedge when a long chip shot is in front of you, or can the chipper do the job? You want to answer those questions in practice, so you don’t have to learn the answers on the course.

In the process of testing out your chipper, you will also gain the benefit of picking up experience using this club. As you hit more and more shots with your chipper, your confidence will grow, and you’ll be more willing to use it on the course moving forward.

The Big Picture

To finish up this article, we want to talk a bit about the big picture of your short game. In many cases, golfers will turn to a chipper when they don’t feel like they have any other options. They’ve tried to hit chip shots with wedges, it hasn’t worked, so they’ve turned to a chipper in order to simply get the ball on the green without too much of a struggle. And, to be sure, there is nothing wrong with that plan. You need to use clubs that will help you get the job done in this difficult game, and that might mean using a chipper to get around your issues.

With that said, we want to point out that you should not give up on the idea of chipping with a wedge. Even after you add a chipper to your set, it’s still a good idea to practice chipping with your wedges on a regular basis. It’s always going to be more useful to chip with a wedge, simply because there are more shots that you can hit. Wedges are adept at dealing with longer grass, and they can handle just about any slope that you might encounter. You’ll also be able to put more spin on the ball with a traditional wedge, and you can even go for a flop shot when the time is right. If you give up on the idea of chipping with a wedge and simply use your chipper as often as possible, you are going to be lowering the ceiling on what you can become as a player.

You can think about this issue in the same way you might think about learning a new ball flight. For example, maybe you currently hit a fade on almost every shot, and you would like to hit a draw instead. So, what do you do? Well, during practice, you work on hitting your draw – probably with mixed results. When you get back out onto the course, however, you just use your fade and make it around in as few strokes as possible. You’ll only break out the draw once it has proven itself on the range.

It’s the same with a chipper and your short game. For now, you can use the chipper to help you play the game and have as much fun as possible. At the same time, you can be practicing your chipping with a wedge, hoping to one day be able to use that method effectively on the course. By working on one thing in practice while using another option on the course, you can give yourself the opportunity to improve as the years go by.

We hope this article has helped you gain an understanding of what a chipper can do for your game, and how you can use this type of club effectively. Chippers are relatively easy to use, and while they are limited in their versatility, they certainly do have a useful role to play. Good luck!

One of the most frustrating situations a golfer can find himself in is when his long game is improving really nicely, his putting has always been okay, but he’s struggling with the chipping. You see it’s more of a problem when your long game is good and you’re now on the side of the green in two shots and then you duff a chip that feels really costly. So if you’re struggling with your chipping but you can’t putt from off the fringe of the green, here’s a little solution for you, it’s a chipper. So a chipper is a lofted putter, so it’s about the length of the putter. It’s got the lie angle of a putter and it’s got a very similar putter head and actually on the back of this you can see there’s a line on the back to encourage me to hit it in exactly the same direction like a putter or like a lot of the Thomas Golf golf clubs, hybrid clubs woods and irons all have the alignment side on the back. So now as I set up to my ball, I’ve got the alignment side telling me which way I need to hit this and get it lined up nicely. It’s the length of a putter; it’s got the same sort of angle of shaft as a putter. So it’s down to reason that I can go and play it with a putter style and a putter stance. And the first shot we’re going to look at is exactly that. You would play it like a putt with a putting stroke with a little bit of lofty it’s about the loft of a seven iron. We just lift it up over the first couple of feet of fringe and then it would trickle on down and run down towards the hole quite nicely. So I take my putting with the stance, my ball position just slightly ahead of center like I should be for putting, nice grip down and a little putting stroke.

You see in the putting stroke here there’s no leg action, no hip action, no head movement, just rocking the shoulders and very minimal hand and arm action. If I needed a longer stroke I might just involve a little bit of hands and arms but for this shot particularly nothing like that happening just back and through. Now if you have a very particular putting grip you could even involve your putting grip in these chipping shots. So if you putt with one of your fingers down or two fingers down, you could actually go ahead and play the chipper the same way, personally I prefer to putt with my hands crossed over. So I would putt this way so I could use my chipper in the same fashion. Line everything up nice and carefully, ball position good, body and head are very still and stable and then just putt it forwards. And it will just lift the ball up over the first couple of feet and then runs off nicely down to the hole. Let me ask you this, when was the last time you finned or fatted your putter, you just don’t do it. You might fin and fat a pitching wedge from here or a lob wedge from here but you never fin and fat your putter. So it stands to reason you won’t fin or fat your chipper.

The second shot we’re going to look at is a slightly longer version, maybe now we’re 10, 15 yards back off the fringe of the green we need a little bit more speed we can’t just putt it up there, we need a little bit more speed and effort. We’re going to play the ball slightly back in the stance this time that would just encourage a nice sharp descending downswing into the ball to good, clean contact. I would revert back to my normal grip, my traditional golf club grip, I would then encourage you to the – a nicely downwards angle, actually involving a little bit of wrist hinge on the way back. We don’t really need the open stance and big leg action of a traditional chip or pitch so it’s a little bit of a mixture of putting and a good down strike. Now as I hit down on the ball there it jumps forward 10, 15 paces and then releases nicely up to the hole. So if you’re really struggling with your chipping and you feel that poor chipping is costing you some shots around the golf course and losing confidence, you could consider investing in a chipper and then using those two techniques to improve your short shots.