When you miss a green, it’s important to hit a great chip. When you learn how to chip a golf ball the right way, you can save par on almost any hole. However, chipping can be a little tricky. When you learn how to properly chip a golf ball, you will feel more in control around the greens.
If you are ready to take your short game to the next level, I have all the information you need. As a professional golfer, chipping is one of the strong points of my game, and I’m happy to share any tips I have with you.
How To Chip a Golf Ball
To hit a great chip shot, golfers first need to get into the proper posture and stance. The chip shot requires a slight rotation, quiet arm movement, and hitting down and through the golf ball. Chip shots do not need to be a large swing, and using a pitching wedge, sand wedge, or lob wedge is usually the best choice for a chip.
How To Chip Like a Golfing Pro
When you watch professionals chip the ball, nothing seems to bother them. Even when they only have a few yards of green to work with, they can often get the ball to stop in place and roll just a few feet from the pin.
There are some important features to chipping, like a golf pro, that needs to be understood. Some of these will come naturally to you, but others you will have to work on specifically.
Club Selection
The first part of this process is choosing the proper club for chipping. When you hit a chip shot, you will want to make sure the ball gets up in the air. To get a golf ball up in the air, you need a certain amount of loft on your shots.
This requires hitting a club like a sand wedge or pitching wedge that has enough loft. Although you have to take a look at each lie and decide which club is best for you, many golfers will stick with their sand wedge on the chip shots as it seems to be a good fit.
With chipping, you will want to learn how to hit the shots with a variety of wedges. Being able to vary the ball flight by simply choosing another club is a great benefit.
Read Also: Best Wedges for Chipping
Setting Up The Right Way
The chip shot is a much smaller shot than a full swing shot release. Therefore you cannot set up to hit a full swing drive and expect that you will get your short chip shot to land where you want it to. The proper chip shot takes a really great setup.
The best way to look at this setup is something that is a little smaller than you are used to.
You will want to get your feet closer together, move yourself more over the ball, and stand even a little closer to the ball. This close proximity to the golf ball will really help you control the distance of the shot.
In addition, golfers often face their bodies a little more open to the target when chipping. This slightly open stance allows for better rotation. The golf ball position is usually in the middle of the stance, but the stance itself is much narrower.
Narrow Down The Target
When you hit a chip shot, the ball won’t go directly to a hole. In fact, you won’t want it to. Most of the time, a chip shot will land on the green and then roll out several feet. If you don’t plan where the ball needs to land, expect that you are going to have a hard time being accurate.
Golfers need to pick a spot that is usually about halfway to the hole for the chip to land. Sometimes on higher lofted chip shots, you can fly it ⅔ of the way to the hole and let it roll out the rest of the way.
Narrowing down the target spot will make it easier to be accurate on the course.
Takeaway
The takeaway needs to be down the line in order for golfers to square up the face at impact. For instance, if you take the club too far inside on the backswing or too far outside, it becomes difficult to return it to impact in a square position.
The takeaway is one of the most important parts of a chip shot because it will set up the rest of the swing.
Arm and Upper Body Movement
Most of the time, in chipping, you will want to keep the movements a bit more simple. When you are learning to chip the ball, keep your arms in a triangle type shape and just rotate them back and forth.
You may eventually learn to be a little more flexible and less rigid, but for now; it does not hurt to keep your arms extended a bit more and maintain that triangle in the shoulder line.
Turf Interaction
When you hit a great chip shot, you must hit down and through the golf ball. If you don’t make contact with the turf, the golf ball will not go up in the air. Proper turf interaction sometimes comes from having the right mindset.
I have seen so many golfers struggle with this concept of lifting the golf ball into the air.
You do not want to lift the golf ball.
Lifting the golf ball does not work, and it provides no control for players. Instead, it is important to hit down and through the ball. Once you have this concept down of hitting down and waiting for the ball to pop up, the chances of improving your results are considerably better.
Rotation and Follow Through
The rotation and follow through of a chip shot are important. If you lock your lower body in place and don’t use it, it can be hard to hit consistent chip shots. In fact, one of the most common mistakes we see players make is using their hands and wrists a bit too much in their golf swing.
With rotation, I like to think of my belt buckle. It has to turn back slightly and then through the ball at impact. When I’m finished with my chip shot, my body should be facing the target.
If you rotate properly and your setup is correct, to begin with, the ability to hit down and through the grass is considerably easier. The rotation pulls the club down into the turf, and then players can benefit from a higher ball flight and better spin on their shots.
Why do I shank chip shots?
Most golfers shank their chip shots when they bring the golf club too far inside on the takeaway. The clubface tends to open up, and when it is wrapped behind you and open, it becomes very difficult to square it up for impact. Make sure your takeaway has the club moving back on the proper plane.
Conclusion
At this point, you should have all the information you need to take your golf game to the next level. Learning how to chip a golf ball like a pro will certainly take some practice. Take these tips that we gave you and bring them to the golf course. You can spend working on a practice chipping green and really perfect your feel and distance control. The next time you go out to play, you will be glad you took the time to learn how to hit chip shots.
