Other Club Selection Considerations When Golf Chipping (Video) - by Pete Styles
Other Club Selection Considerations When Golf Chipping (Video) - by Pete Styles

A couple of other things that you might consider when you're actually playing the chip shot onto a green and you're looking at your club selection, one of those first things might actually be nerves. Now that sound a bit funny, but nerves can affect the club selection here and the more difficult shot might be the lob wedge, the high, cutty, up and under lob wedge shot. If you're playing that when you're nervous the chances are you're going to pull in from that shot, you're going to pull away from that and actually catch that ball thin, catch it in the middle of the club and shoot it off the other side of the green.

And particularly if you're early on in the round of golf, you’ve got your group watching you, you’ve got a pond in front of you, you’ve got the green and then you’ve got an out of bounds fence at the back, that’s quite a nerve wrecking situation. And if you're particularly nervous and you're not particularly happy with the lie, I would play maybe a little bit more of an easier pitching wedge middle of the green, expect the ball to roll to the back of the green rather than opening the face of a lob wedge and try to fly the ball high up in the air. So just be careful of how nervous you are when you're playing these chip shots and make sure your club selection is appropriate to that nervous level that you have. Something else to consider is we've talked about the lie of the ground, long grass, short grass and all that sort of stuff. But what about when the weather is very wet and the ground is very soft? If the ground is very soft you're more lofted clubs could potentially dig into the ground a lot more. So if you're playing this shot and you can feel it sort of squelchy around you and it's been raining quite heavily, if you’ve got a lob wedge here and particularly lob wedge without much bounce. If that club hits into the ground there's a risk it's just going to stick into the ground and it's potentially going to cause a lot of fat shots. So it might be better in those wet ground conditions that you play a little bit less loft, you play down on the ball less aggressively, you play a more sort of sweeping shot with a seven, eight, nine-iron something of that nature, not digging the clubbing into the ground so much. And actually because the ground conditions are very wet chances are the ball will stop on the green anyway, you won't need to fly the ball quite so high when it lands on the green anyway. Now one last consideration is probably one of the most important actually of all of this. It's just personal preference; it's just the one that you’ve done the best within the best. Most people when they look in the bag will remember the good shots they’ve had with one particular club. I know for me is my 50-degree club. If I've got a choice and I've got any option to play I'm probably just going to go to my 50-degree wedge, that’s the one I just feel most comfortable and consistent with. So don’t feel like you’ve got -- don’t feel like you’ve been pushed into using one particular club just because it's what I told you to play it or because it's what your mates told you o play. Use the club that you feel confident is going to give you the best results particularly when you're in awkward positions in the golf course and you just think, "I just need one of my bag standard stock chip shots middle of the green and move on from this awkward situation." So hopefully with that in mind, you can now go ahead and successfully select the right club for your best ever chip and pit shots.
2016-07-18

A couple of other things that you might consider when you're actually playing the chip shot onto a green and you're looking at your club selection, one of those first things might actually be nerves. Now that sound a bit funny, but nerves can affect the club selection here and the more difficult shot might be the lob wedge, the high, cutty, up and under lob wedge shot. If you're playing that when you're nervous the chances are you're going to pull in from that shot, you're going to pull away from that and actually catch that ball thin, catch it in the middle of the club and shoot it off the other side of the green.

And particularly if you're early on in the round of golf, you’ve got your group watching you, you’ve got a pond in front of you, you’ve got the green and then you’ve got an out of bounds fence at the back, that’s quite a nerve wrecking situation. And if you're particularly nervous and you're not particularly happy with the lie, I would play maybe a little bit more of an easier pitching wedge middle of the green, expect the ball to roll to the back of the green rather than opening the face of a lob wedge and try to fly the ball high up in the air. So just be careful of how nervous you are when you're playing these chip shots and make sure your club selection is appropriate to that nervous level that you have.

Something else to consider is we've talked about the lie of the ground, long grass, short grass and all that sort of stuff. But what about when the weather is very wet and the ground is very soft? If the ground is very soft you're more lofted clubs could potentially dig into the ground a lot more. So if you're playing this shot and you can feel it sort of squelchy around you and it's been raining quite heavily, if you’ve got a lob wedge here and particularly lob wedge without much bounce. If that club hits into the ground there's a risk it's just going to stick into the ground and it's potentially going to cause a lot of fat shots. So it might be better in those wet ground conditions that you play a little bit less loft, you play down on the ball less aggressively, you play a more sort of sweeping shot with a seven, eight, nine-iron something of that nature, not digging the clubbing into the ground so much.

And actually because the ground conditions are very wet chances are the ball will stop on the green anyway, you won't need to fly the ball quite so high when it lands on the green anyway. Now one last consideration is probably one of the most important actually of all of this. It's just personal preference; it's just the one that you’ve done the best within the best. Most people when they look in the bag will remember the good shots they’ve had with one particular club. I know for me is my 50-degree club. If I've got a choice and I've got any option to play I'm probably just going to go to my 50-degree wedge, that’s the one I just feel most comfortable and consistent with.

So don’t feel like you’ve got — don’t feel like you’ve been pushed into using one particular club just because it's what I told you to play it or because it's what your mates told you o play. Use the club that you feel confident is going to give you the best results particularly when you're in awkward positions in the golf course and you just think, “I just need one of my bag standard stock chip shots middle of the green and move on from this awkward situation.” So hopefully with that in mind, you can now go ahead and successfully select the right club for your best ever chip and pit shots.