Stop Trying To Hit Every Chip Shot The Same Way

Having a favorite chipping club is fine. Having a shot you trust with it is even better. The trouble comes when you pull that club before you've looked at the ball and the ground between you and the hole.

You might have plenty of green ahead with the ball sitting neatly on short grass. A few holes later, the distance is similar but the ball is down in the rough and the flag is close to the edge. The shot you liked earlier now asks for a landing and a rollout the lie may not allow.

I'd rather help a golfer recognize that difference than give them another complicated shot to practice. You can cover a lot of ordinary situations with a simple motion, a sensible club choice and a better look at what's in front of you.

Start with the ball and work toward the hole

Before deciding how high to hit the chip, look at how the ball is sitting. Can you get the clubface to the back of it cleanly? Is grass likely to get between the face and the ball? Does the ground look firm or soft?

Then walk your eyes along the route to the hole. Find a place on the green where you'd be comfortable landing the ball. Allow a little room beyond the fringe so a slightly short shot can still reach the putting surface.

That landing area gives the club choice some purpose. You can now think about how much flight you need and how much space remains for the ball to roll. A slope matters here, too. Landing on a downslope is a different proposition from landing on a flatter section.

If the lie makes your preferred landing spot unrealistic, choose another. Leaving a longer putt is often a reasonable result from an awkward position beside the green.

Let a lower-lofted club do some of the work

From short grass with plenty of green available, try a pitching wedge or 9-iron. You need just enough height to clear the grass in front of you. The rest of the distance can come from the roll.

Take a narrow, comfortable stance with the ball near the middle and a little more pressure on the lead foot. Let the handle sit slightly ahead of the ball. You shouldn't have to push your hands a long way toward the target to make this work.

Make a small swing with your arms and chest, brushing the grass through the ball. Choose the swing length that carries it to your landing area. Watch the first bounce and follow the roll all the way to the finish.

That's how you learn what the club does on that green. I wouldn't attach a fixed rollout ratio to it. A firm downhill green and a soft uphill green will give you very different results from similar-looking chips.

Use more loft when there's more ground to carry

Move farther from the green and you may need a longer flight even though you're still playing toward the same hole. A sand wedge can make that easier without asking you to scoop the ball into the air.

From a clean lie, begin with the face aimed normally and the ball near the center of your stance. Give yourself enough backswing to reach the landing area. Trying to use the tiny motion from the shorter chip can leave you adding a sudden hit at the ball.

Be careful about driving the handle forward, too. That takes away some of the loft you chose the wedge for. My article on too much forward pressure when chipping explains how an exaggerated setup can interfere with the shot.

Allow for some roll after the landing. More loft gives you another flight option; it doesn't promise that the ball will stop beside the hole. Let a few practice shots show you how much room it needs.

Rough deserves a more generous target

When the ball is nestled in grass, I would be less concerned with landing it on a tiny spot. Grass between the face and ball can make the flight and release harder to predict. Give yourself more green to work with.

Take a lofted wedge and rehearse in similar grass away from the ball. Feel how much resistance the club meets. The motion needs enough length to get through it but a harder hit alone won't tell you how the ball is going to come out.

A deeply buried ball may need a pitch rather than your usual little chip. Getting onto the green can be a perfectly acceptable goal. On soft ground, understanding how wedge bounce helps the club move through the turf also helps explain why forcing the hands forward can make digging worse.

Practice from more than one spot

Use one hole but move between a clean lie with room to roll, a shot requiring more carry and light rough. Pick the club and landing area each time. You can bring the same choices into these chipping practice games.

I'd like to see you finish past the hole in that practice session. If you landed the ball where you meant to, we have a good reason to try more loft or an earlier landing spot. Keep working out those choices. On the course, you'll have better options than reaching for the wedge you always use.