Instruction
Chipping Secrets Revealed
Chipping represents one of the simpler swings you’ll employ in a round of golf, but even a little motion can add up to big trouble if you’re not dialed in just right.
With all of the complexity associated with creating a big, powerful golf swing that effectively drives the ball with power and precision, it’s difficult to understand how simply bumping the ball a couple of yards could become the bane of one’s existence. Still we’ve seen it time and again, even at the highest levels of play. From Hunter Mahan’s Ryder Cup gaffe, to TC Chen’s “double chip” while leading in the final round of the 1985 U.S. Open, good and bad golfers alike have been brought to their knees by a shot often taught in a first lesson to beginners.
When golfers tell me about their chipping woes, I know in all likelihood their problem is rooted in two areas: trust and imagination. Trust that their club is going to find a clean strike with the ball and the imagination to know exactly what kind of shot best fits the situation.
Pick Your Spot
Great chipping is all about carry vs. run ratios. Instead of just swinging away, pick a spot on the green to land the ball that you feel will release the proper amount to the hole. If you have a tough time imagining what kind of result you would get, spend some time in the practice area tossing a few balls underhanded until you get the ball to finish close. Although a number of heights and landing spots could get the job done, you’ll notice that you’ll be most consistent with one particular carry distance and trajectory. Once you can perfectly see your shot, select the club and swing length necessary to turn your imagination into reality. Being able to properly see your shot ahead of time will allow you to begin eliminating the indecision and doubt often associated with fearful chipping.
Feel The Arc
When faced with a relatively short distance, it’s easy to try to influence the ball along the target line by producing an online swinging motion. Swings that move too much in a straight line can cause all kinds of problems, the most common being an early strike into the turf or fat shot.
Every golf swing you make should have some degree of “arc” where the club head swings away from the target line in the back swing, back to the target line at contact and then away again into the follow through. By allowing for a little arc, you’ll keep your club swinging according to its natural design, while promoting cleaner contact. In addition, it would be impossible to hit the ball twice, as post contact the club head and ball would be traveling in different directions.
Find The Bottom
Great chippers have full trust that their swing is going to find crisp contact with the ball. If you can learn to develop a consistent bottom to you swing arc, you’ll be well on your way towards making solid hits more routine.
With a little weight on your left side, make some pendulum style chipping swings with your eyes closed. Closing your eyes will better connect you to the simplicity within the motion. With your arms soft and rhythm smooth, you should begin to feel the movement necessary to make the club head repeatedly strike the turf in the same spot. Add a little pivot or “turn” into the follow through and your club should begin brushing the grass a little forward of the ball, indicating good ball, and then turf contact. As you get into your shot, trust that you’ve rehearsed perfection and swing away. To really build some skill, try hitting shots keeping your eyes closed. You’ll be amazed at just how good you can be when the club and ball meet each other with effortless ease!
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Instruction
Clement: Laid-off or perfect fade? Across-the-line or perfect draw?
Some call the image on the left laid off, but if you are hitting a fade, this could be a perfect backswing for it! Same for across the line for a draw! Stop racking your brain with perceived mistakes and simply match backswing to shot shape!
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Instruction
The Wedge Guy: The easiest-to-learn golf basic
My golf learning began with this simple fact – if you don’t have a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, it is practically impossible for your body to execute a fundamentally sound golf swing. I’m still a big believer that the golf swing is much easier to execute if you begin with the proper hold on the club.
As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.
The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.
Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply. Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:
Mis-aligned hands
By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.
The position of the grip in the upper/left hand
I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean. Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.
To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.
Too much lower (right) hand on the club
It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.
Gripping too tightly
Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.
So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.
More from the Wedge Guy
- The Wedge Guy: Golf mastery begins with your wedge game
- The Wedge Guy: Why golf is 20 times harder than brain surgery
- The Wedge Guy: Musings on the golf ball rollback
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Instruction
Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!
Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?
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