The shot that requires the most authority is also one of the shortest. Golf instruction chipping without authority can be thin, fat or even shanked shots. Whatever can go wrong usually will. However hitting your chip shots like you mean it, you are more likely to be tapping your next shot in for birdie.
Fear, indecision, lack of strength lead to a lack of authority, which in turn leads to poor chipping. Think about your golfclub like a horse.(weird analogy but stay with me ) If your not confident, it has this uncanny knack of recognizing your concern and plays up. If you show it who’s boss and in charge, the results are often far more satisfactory.
The best way to ensure authority is repetition. Bring authority back to your short game, take on these two strength drills now.
First Drill- Hold your club horizontally out in front of your body, then cock the wrists. These simple exercises will gradually build strength and flexibility into those wrists, repeat each drill for 10 repetitions.
Drill 2; Hold your arms outstretched with a weight (a couple of golf clubs or 440gm cans are fine if you don’t have hand weights) and lift up and down with your wrists.
Increase Wrist Strength
If the golfclub feels heavy in your hands, it's difficult to hit a shot with any authority. The chip is a firm wristed action, so the wrist must secure the golfclub to make sure you're in control of your swing. For many beginners, weak wrists can be a problem, however it won't hurt all golfers to spend some effort on these drills.
Be Decisive
There are countless articles covering club selection and type of chip shot for a particular situation. Eliminate doubt, whatever your decision, convince yourself that it is the correct shot.
Spend the time on the practice green repeating the same shots over and over again.
If you’ve got some time at home, place a basket or bucket in the backyard and practice chipping the ball into the target. Regularly hitting the target could mean that your decisive, have strong wrists and on your way to getting a lot more of your chip shots closer.
Learn the proper chipping set-up; weight on lead side, ball slightly back of centre in your stance, eyes and hands closer to the target than the ball is at address.
Use your dominant hand during the backswing, hinge the golfclub slightly.
Hold this position post impact, in the follow through. That is, don't let your clubhead pass under the lead hand before impact. The back of that lead hand must be nearer to your target than the golfball is at impact. After reaching impact, you may release the club a little.
Don't tighten up. Getting wristy and trying to scoop a chip shot into the air is the number 1 problem of amateurs.
Golf Instruction Chipping Tip- Bet on the percentages
Those high loft greenside shots of the pros might look fancy, but they are very risky, with an increased chance of error when you increase your loft. Extra loft reduces the margin for error at the impact and decreases the size of the landing zone on the green.
The second bounce check-up is one of the hardest shots to play in golf, so it’s best left to the pros.
For amateur golfers I suggest going for more roll and less air time, always remembering to land on the green.. This means using less-lofted clubs and relying on a simple formula when faced with a chip around the green. Of course, primary to this for any golf shot is some on course management. As is a brush up on the finer points of golf instruction for a balanced posture
Golf Instruction Chipping - The Method
When chipping, your target is not the flag, your focus is on your landing spot. This will change because of the state of the green, and what lofted club you are using. Use the following ratios, start with a five iron and increase the loft depending on the amount of the green available.
20 percent flight, 80 percent bounce and roll. ?
33 percent flight, 67 percent bounce and roll
50 percent bounce and 50 percent roll.
Chip with an 8 iron until you master the bump and run,then learn to use a wedge.
Here is a great golf instruction chipping tip I learned a while ago, try this. In your normal stance for a chip shot, grab a ball and throw it underarm at your target to gain a feel for how hard you will need to swing the club.
Use this method to imagine how much strength is needed to fly the ball onto the green and roll up to the hole, throw the ball two thirds of the way onto the green back to the cup. This is a great technique to get a feel for the shot.
I hope these few golf instruction tips will help you to improve your short game and reduce the number of shots in your round the next time you go out on the course.
