By Tyler Olson, PGA Associate ·
To chip better, make the shot smaller and simpler. Stand a little closer with your feet narrow, put most of your weight on your front foot, play the ball just back of center, and keep your hands slightly ahead of the ball. Then rock your shoulders back and through like a putting stroke, with very little wrist. Let the loft on the club lift the ball. Don't try to scoop it into the air.
A chip shot is a short, low shot played from just off the green, usually from the fringe or a few yards into the rough. The ball spends a little time in the air and a lot of time rolling, kind of like a long putt that has to hop over some grass first.
A chip is different from a pitch. A pitch flies higher, rolls less and uses a bigger swing. A lot of new golfers try to hit every short shot like a pitch, high and soft, when a low chip would be easier and safer. When I talk about chipping in golf, I mean the small, putting-like motion that gets the ball onto the green and rolling toward the hole.
A good chipping setup does most of the work before you ever move the club. Here is the setup I teach beginners: stand closer to the ball than you would for a full swing, with your feet only a few inches apart. Turn your front foot open a little toward the target. Grip down on the handle so your hands are closer to the clubhead. That shorter grip gives you more control.
Put most of your weight on your front foot and leave it there for the whole shot. Your hands should sit slightly ahead of the ball, closer to your front thigh. If you drew a line from your lead shoulder down the shaft to the ball, it should look fairly straight. That forward lean is what helps the club hit the ball first and the grass second.
For a basic chip shot, play the ball slightly back of center in your stance, a bit closer to your back foot than your front foot. With a narrow stance that only moves the ball an inch or two, but it matters. A ball that sits too far forward is one of the most common reasons beginners hit chips fat or thin.
Ball position and weight work together. Ball back of center plus weight forward means the club is still traveling slightly downward when it reaches the ball, and that downward strike is what makes clean contact. If you play the ball off your front foot and hang back on your trail leg, the club bottoms out before the ball, and you get either a chunk into the turf or a skull across the green.
Most chunked and skulled chips come from the same habit: trying to help the ball into the air. It feels natural to flick the wrists and scoop under the ball. The problem is that scooping moves the low point of the swing behind the ball, so the club either digs into the ground or catches the ball right on its equator.
The fix for chunked and skulled chips is trusting the loft. Your wedge or short iron already has loft built into the face. If you keep your hands ahead and make a quiet, slightly downward stroke, the ball pops up on its own. Think of rocking your shoulders back and through like a putting stroke, with the wrists mostly still and the clubhead never passing your hands before impact.
Tension causes trouble too. A death grip makes the stroke jerky. Hold the club lightly enough that someone could pull it out of your hands without a fight.
The chipping drill I give beginners most often is the landing spot drill. Drop a small towel on the green about three steps past the fringe. Set a few balls just off the green, pick a hole beyond the towel, and try to land every chip on the towel. Don't worry about the hole at first. The goal is to fly the ball to a spot and let it roll the rest of the way.
The landing spot drill teaches the most important idea in chipping: you choose where the ball lands, not where it ends up. Once you can hit the towel fairly often, move it, switch clubs and watch how the roll changes. A pitching wedge rolls less than a 9-iron, and an 8-iron rolls more than both. Ten or fifteen minutes of this before a round tells you a lot about how the ball is reacting that day.
If you have worked on your setup and the landing spot drill and still chunk or skull chips, lessons can help, because the cause is often something you can't feel yourself, like weight drifting back or wrists breaking down early. Someone watching from the outside can usually spot that pretty quickly.
I'm a PGA Associate, and I teach 30-minute one-on-one lessons in Orem and Vineyard for beginners, juniors and adult amateurs. Short game instruction fits that format well because chipping is a small motion you can really focus on in half an hour. Every lesson ends with a written practice plan you keep, so you know exactly what to work on before the next one.
Start with one club, usually a pitching wedge or a 9-iron, and learn it well. A pitching wedge gives a little more air and less roll, while a 9-iron runs more along the ground. Once your contact is consistent, try other clubs to change how far the ball rolls.
If the grass between you and the green is short and smooth, putting is often the simpler choice for a beginner. Chip when the ball sits in longer grass or when you need to carry rough or a bump before the green. A common rule of thumb is to putt when you can and chip when you can't.
For a basic chip, keep your wrists mostly quiet. The motion should come from your shoulders rocking back and through, like a putting stroke. Too much wrist action is one of the most common causes of chunked and skulled chips.
Control chipping distance with the length of your stroke and your landing spot, not by hitting harder. Keep the same smooth rhythm and make the backswing and follow-through about the same length. Pick a spot to land the ball and let the club you choose decide how much it rolls.
Thirty minutes, one-on-one, and a written practice plan you keep. Most students start with the 5-Lesson Package.
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