Commited chipping
by Alex Nicolson, PGA Coach
"You can't do much to recover after hitting a bad pitch or chip shot, while you can often recover from poor longer shots. Just like a poor putt, a poor pitch or chip is usually another shot lost to par".
Dave Pelz, on the importance of the short game
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Commit to the strike
A lot of amateurs come to me for lessons with the complaint that they have lost their feel for chipping. Distance control is the key element in chipping and to lose your feel will soon result in higher scores.
However, most of the time, it wasn't their feel that deserted them first. Consider this - there are two variables in distance control - power and strike. In other words, how hard the ball is hit, and how well. If the strike is inconsistent, it becomes impossible to anticipate how hard to hit the ball, so inevitably the feel goes as a result.
In order to strike the ball well, the club must hit down and bruise a small patch of grass under and after the ball. Many players can do this in their practice swing, but fail to over the ball.
If this is a feature of your chipping sometimes, try these three things:
• Focus your eyes on the back of the ball - not the top
• Make the aim of the stroke to bruise the grass
• After the strike, keep your eyes on the spot where the ball was
Notice in the second picture how the golfer's head has stayed down. This is a sure sign a player has committed to the strike.
Try this at home on the carpet or around a chipping green, and rehearse a few times before taking it to the course - it needs to become familiar before it will work consistently.