Golf Chipping, Why Do I See Some Pros Chip With A Fairway Wood (Video) - by Pete Styles
Golf Chipping, Why Do I See Some Pros Chip With A Fairway Wood (Video) - by Pete Styles

This is always an interesting shot isn’t it? When you see the pro’s on TV they're just beside the green, they’re lining up their shot, they’ve got their hand on the putter, then they take the hand on the pitching wedge, no, no, give me the 3-wood, give me the 3-wood and the caddy he’s got eyebrows like this going seriously? 3-wood yeah happy yeah. Chip the 3-wood lands on the green, rolls up, stone dead tap in, player for that told you, 3-wood.

It’s a strange shot to hit isn’t it because when you run the side of the green, you’d not be able to look into the short end of the bag, the wedge is the putter why are we looking at a 3-wood. But if we look at the make up of the club, and also the make up of the shot that we’re going to try and hit, the 3-wood might be the natural choice. Following the side of the green here, all I've got to do is just cover a yard of semi rough to land on the surface and run that down towards the camera. If I had that ball in my hand, and I tried to roll it onto the green, I wouldn’t roll it through the long grass because it’s going to get stuck in the fringe but also I wouldn’t throw it really high up in the air like a wedge, what I would try and do is just roll the ball so it lands here and then chases off down the edge of the fairway, oh sorry down, off the fairway down on to the green. So the fairway wood might have the right man loft to hit that shot. The other thing a fairway wood is really good at is it doesn’t snag in the grass too much. The profile of the golf club, the flat sole the, the blunted leading edge that’s all deigned nicely just to scheme through the turf for a fairway wood shot but also, for a little chip shot pit shot around the side of the green. Now the one difficulty with playing this little bump and run shot if you like from around the green, is simply the length of the golf club it’s far too long to stand back here and try and waft around with any degree of control. So we’re much more likely to grip down on the golf club actually stand it up a little bit on its toe make it feel like a long porter and then a little nudge backwards and forwards, it’s not a big swing and we’re certainly not involving any risks or anybody follow through, it’s just a little push forward almost like a long putting stroke. So we take our 3-wood which raises a few eye brows already, we grip down, we stand the club up a little bit and we just put it forwards, we just want to land the ball just over the fringe of the green here, let it land on the flat green and run forwards. Now so with that shot I would like you to try and consider to play on the golf course, but practice it first. You can’t go out there and just expect to hit that shot first time and hit it well like any other golf shot it needs practice. So take yourself to the quiet corner of the garden, quiet corner of the chipping or putting green at the golf club and practice just nudging those 3-woods forwards and see if that can help improve those little touch shots around the side of the green. 2014-11-05

This is always an interesting shot isn’t it? When you see the pro’s on TV they're just beside the green, they’re lining up their shot, they’ve got their hand on the putter, then they take the hand on the pitching wedge, no, no, give me the 3-wood, give me the 3-wood and the caddy he’s got eyebrows like this going seriously? 3-wood yeah happy yeah. Chip the 3-wood lands on the green, rolls up, stone dead tap in, player for that told you, 3-wood.

It’s a strange shot to hit isn’t it because when you run the side of the green, you’d not be able to look into the short end of the bag, the wedge is the putter why are we looking at a 3-wood. But if we look at the make up of the club, and also the make up of the shot that we’re going to try and hit, the 3-wood might be the natural choice.

Following the side of the green here, all I've got to do is just cover a yard of semi rough to land on the surface and run that down towards the camera. If I had that ball in my hand, and I tried to roll it onto the green, I wouldn’t roll it through the long grass because it’s going to get stuck in the fringe but also I wouldn’t throw it really high up in the air like a wedge, what I would try and do is just roll the ball so it lands here and then chases off down the edge of the fairway, oh sorry down, off the fairway down on to the green.

So the fairway wood might have the right man loft to hit that shot. The other thing a fairway wood is really good at is it doesn’t snag in the grass too much. The profile of the golf club, the flat sole the, the blunted leading edge that’s all deigned nicely just to scheme through the turf for a fairway wood shot but also, for a little chip shot pit shot around the side of the green. Now the one difficulty with playing this little bump and run shot if you like from around the green, is simply the length of the golf club it’s far too long to stand back here and try and waft around with any degree of control.

So we’re much more likely to grip down on the golf club actually stand it up a little bit on its toe make it feel like a long porter and then a little nudge backwards and forwards, it’s not a big swing and we’re certainly not involving any risks or anybody follow through, it’s just a little push forward almost like a long putting stroke.

So we take our 3-wood which raises a few eye brows already, we grip down, we stand the club up a little bit and we just put it forwards, we just want to land the ball just over the fringe of the green here, let it land on the flat green and run forwards. Now so with that shot I would like you to try and consider to play on the golf course, but practice it first. You can’t go out there and just expect to hit that shot first time and hit it well like any other golf shot it needs practice. So take yourself to the quiet corner of the garden, quiet corner of the chipping or putting green at the golf club and practice just nudging those 3-woods forwards and see if that can help improve those little touch shots around the side of the green.