Make That Golf Ball Spin On the Greens With This Chipping Impact Tour Alignment Sticks Drill (Video) - by Pete Styles
Make That Golf Ball Spin On the Greens With This Chipping Impact Tour Alignment Sticks Drill (Video) - by Pete Styles

If you ever watched the golf on the TV, I’m sure you’ll have seen those shots where the best players in the world of 50, 60 yards are from the green; they hit a short in and you think, “Yeah for all the money in the world, that’s going to land next to the flag and its going to go over the back of the green because that’s what my shots always do”. But then their shot lands next to the flag and spins to a standstill, almost dances on the green and stops and you think, “How do they get theirs to do that? Mine never looked like that”. It’s all about the quality of their strike and the amount of back spin they can generate on the shot. And it happens because the best players in the world aren’t trying to hit the ball high into the air with their short clubs. They’re trying to hit down on the golf ball with their short clubs, getting a better quality of contact, striking the ball nicely and generating lots of spin.

So start by taking quite a lofty club, maybe even as much as your lob wedge but don’t expect the lob wedge to hit the ball really high with this shot, expect the lob wedge to hit the ball to hit the ball down and forwards but generating more spin. Now I’m going to set this up with my tour stick because I’m going to play the tour stick about three inches back behind the golf ball. This is going to encourage me to pick the golf club up quite steeply but also bring it down quite steeply, getting really sharp with my chipping action. It’s certainly not going to encourage me to drag the club away low to the ground and lean back and flick the ball up in the air, which is a common fault that all of club and amateur golfers have, where they try and scoop their chip shorts into the air, they get grass stuck between the club and the ball or they actually hit the ball fat.

And that reduces the quality of the contact and definitely reduces the amounts of spin. So we play the ball around about the center of the stance, we play a lot of bodyweight nicely in front of the ball, about 70% body weight in front of the ball onto your front leg. And then focus on hitting down on the golf ball, there’s no part of my body here that looks like it’s trying to lean back and flick and scoop the ball in the air, that’s simply isn’t what’s happening. We’re getting forwards, striking down, drilling the ball low which generates lots and lots of back spin. The key to hitting a good back spinning shot; you need to be about 50 to 100 yards away from the flag. If you’re 10, 15 yards away from the flag, the ball won’t come out with a great deal of spin.

It might check a little bit, but it certainly won’t be one of those that lands on the green and dances back like you see Phil Nicolson and Tiger Woods playing. You need to be 50 - 100 yards away to hit the ball hard enough to generate the spin for those shots. But even on a little short shot, this would definitely give you a cleaner and better contact. So the tour sticks three inches behind, the ball the ball is in the center of my feet, I’m leaning into my left hand side for a right handed golfer and I’ve got my hands well in front. And I’ll strike down on the ball and I get a nice clean contact on my 50 yarder and the ball will spin and check. The other way to make sure you’re getting t lots of spin, use a nice soft golf ball, keep your grooves nice and clean, nice and dry and you’ll spin the ball better if you want nice short dry grass. If you’ve got grass and mud stuck between your club and the ball, wet ground, long grass you’re leaning back and scooping it, that’s why your ball isn’t spinning on the green like Tigers does.

 2013-06-27

If you ever watched the golf on the TV, I’m sure you’ll have seen those shots where the best players in the world of 50, 60 yards are from the green; they hit a short in and you think, “Yeah for all the money in the world, that’s going to land next to the flag and its going to go over the back of the green because that’s what my shots always do”. But then their shot lands next to the flag and spins to a standstill, almost dances on the green and stops and you think, “How do they get theirs to do that? Mine never looked like that”. It’s all about the quality of their strike and the amount of back spin they can generate on the shot. And it happens because the best players in the world aren’t trying to hit the ball high into the air with their short clubs. They’re trying to hit down on the golf ball with their short clubs, getting a better quality of contact, striking the ball nicely and generating lots of spin.

So start by taking quite a lofty club, maybe even as much as your lob wedge but don’t expect the lob wedge to hit the ball really high with this shot, expect the lob wedge to hit the ball to hit the ball down and forwards but generating more spin. Now I’m going to set this up with my tour stick because I’m going to play the tour stick about three inches back behind the golf ball. This is going to encourage me to pick the golf club up quite steeply but also bring it down quite steeply, getting really sharp with my chipping action. It’s certainly not going to encourage me to drag the club away low to the ground and lean back and flick the ball up in the air, which is a common fault that all of club and amateur golfers have, where they try and scoop their chip shorts into the air, they get grass stuck between the club and the ball or they actually hit the ball fat.

And that reduces the quality of the contact and definitely reduces the amounts of spin. So we play the ball around about the center of the stance, we play a lot of bodyweight nicely in front of the ball, about 70% body weight in front of the ball onto your front leg. And then focus on hitting down on the golf ball, there’s no part of my body here that looks like it’s trying to lean back and flick and scoop the ball in the air, that’s simply isn’t what’s happening. We’re getting forwards, striking down, drilling the ball low which generates lots and lots of back spin. The key to hitting a good back spinning shot; you need to be about 50 to 100 yards away from the flag. If you’re 10, 15 yards away from the flag, the ball won’t come out with a great deal of spin.

It might check a little bit, but it certainly won’t be one of those that lands on the green and dances back like you see Phil Nicolson and Tiger Woods playing. You need to be 50 – 100 yards away to hit the ball hard enough to generate the spin for those shots. But even on a little short shot, this would definitely give you a cleaner and better contact. So the tour sticks three inches behind, the ball the ball is in the center of my feet, I’m leaning into my left hand side for a right handed golfer and I’ve got my hands well in front. And I’ll strike down on the ball and I get a nice clean contact on my 50 yarder and the ball will spin and check. The other way to make sure you’re getting t lots of spin, use a nice soft golf ball, keep your grooves nice and clean, nice and dry and you’ll spin the ball better if you want nice short dry grass. If you’ve got grass and mud stuck between your club and the ball, wet ground, long grass you’re leaning back and scooping it, that’s why your ball isn’t spinning on the green like Tigers does.