Tiger Woods - Chipping Woes
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Even the best players in the world struggle around the greens from time to time! In this video, I'll show you what caused Tiger Woods to lay the sod over multiple chips this past weekend at the Hero World Challenge. I'll show you some of the distinct differences in his green side technique and I'll also give you a couple of areas to pay attention to in your own game that will ultimately help you become a great short game player.
- Stay wide with both arms and rotate with some wrist set during the takeaway.
- Make sure the left thumb is not pushing on the shaft and the right hand is relaxed.
- Keep the forearms close together and rotating through the hitting area.
Hey everyone, This is rotary swing instructor Chris Tyler, and this past weekend we finally see Tiger Woods getting back on the golf course with his new swing.
We saw him struggle just a bit around the Greens, with a few very uncharacteristic chunk chip shots that showed us.
Even the best players in the world struggle from time to time around the greens.
I'm going to show you the causes of Tiger, or what caused Tiger to hit these shots.
And I'm also going to give you guys a couple of key tips that are going to help you get better around the greens and play better golf.
Day in and day out.
I think it's pretty safe to say that we've all struggled with this chunk chip shot or thin chip shot from time to time around the Greens.
And it can be overly frustrating and sometimes even embarrassing, depending on the moment.
But I want to show you a couple of the areas that are different with Tiger's pitching technique.
From this past weekend at the Hero World Challenge to where it was just a couple of years ago.
And hopefully he'll get this sorted out because he's always been known for his fantastic short game.
So I want to show you some of those areas and I also want to give you guys a clear indicating.
Or, you know, with your own golf swing or your own chipping technique of what can be causing you these problems and help you get those sorted out.
On the Sooner side.
So looking at both players on the right hand side of the screen is you know just a couple years ago.
Both players are going to appear to be very similar here.
The one on the right is going to have a little bit more wrist set because he's hitting a little bit further of a shot.
You can see here we got a little bit more wrist set here.
But notice how both players have stayed really wide with the arms and nice rotation.
Alright so this is the spot where we can run into trouble especially as amateur golfers.
We have to understand what can cause the golf club to come down very steep.
Now, there are two things in the chipping or in the regular golf swing that can steepen the golf club coming down.
And that's going to be either the left thumb or your lead thumb, depending on what handed you are, as far as you know, right handed or left handed.
But in Tiger's case is left thumb or the right hand.
Both of those things are in a position to where they can push against the shaft.
And if you push against the shaft, that's what's going to cause the club head to come down very steep and very quickly.
Now, when we look at this analysis later, you'll be able to tell exactly what caused Tiger to get this club really steep and ultimately hit these dreaded chunk shots.
So let's go ahead and take a look as we start down.
And both players are going to be very similar down into the hitting area.
Okay so you can see it gets his hands leading into the shot beautifully.
So here we are at impact.
Very similar styles from both Tiger of old to Tiger of now.
So there's not really a ton of change going on here.
But these next few frames are going to be the important ones and show you exactly what the culprit was.
To have this club coming in a little bit on the steep side.
So when you watch post impact here you're going to see the forearms start to separate quite a bit.
So you see how the forearms get further apart here.
And now his lead arm is starting to break pretty drastically.
It's got this good size break in it.
Now, when you see this, if you ever watch yourself on camera, or if you're out on the golf course and you notice, you know, with pitching.
Or if you even see from a full swing perspective that your lead arm is breaking very quickly, that is caused from a trail side push.
And like I said, from the top part of the chipping technique, there there's two things that are in a position that can push.
Either the right hand, the right arm or the left thumb.
And if you were to hold both hands out in front of you?
You can try this with your palms together, both straight out in front of you and then push your right arm across your center.
Keep pushing, pushing, pushing.
Your left arm is eventually going to break.
So when you see this particular move now you understand that the culprit was the right arm, The right hand pushing very hard down in the hitting area.
And in turn, that's what's going to steepen the club up.
And this is where he ran into problems with laying the sod over.
Where if you look at this older chipping technique, watch his forearms here, You're going to see that they stay very close together and there's some rotation there and then there's some extension.
That left arm does not break at all.
So those are the real big areas that he struggled with this past weekend.
And you know, you can attribute it to reps.
You know, when we start to get out there into an environment where we get a little nervous, we always want to use the dominating hand.
And in turn, that can create the problems.
You know we always talk about push versus pull here at Rotary Swing.
So understanding, you know how to be able to control the golf club with the only thing that can pull, and that's the lead hand.
If you get your pressure in those back three fingers, more so back in that back pinky and not pushing against the left thumb, you can control, you can pull the club into the hitting area, You can keep things gradually rotating to help shallow things out, and then, in turn, you're not going to overpower it from the right side.
So there's a couple of good videos on the website that will really kind of expound on what I'm talking about.
We have the push versus pull video, that's another great video that Chuck did.
We also have the why is golf so hard in the solution.
That's another great video that really kind of outlines the push versus pull method.
And you know if you've been struggling with your pitching around the greens, the golf pitching video, All these videos are going to be over to the right hand side of the screen as recommended videos for you.
But I just wanted to give you guys a really in depth look of what was causing Tiger those problems around the green and hopefully gets it sorted out.
I'm sure he'll get it sorted out on the sooner side.
And it's very uncharacteristic to see him get so much right side push down in the hitting area to cause these sorts of things to happen.
So get out there, understand what can steepen the golf club up.
Make sure that you have no pressure in that left thumb on the way down, and keep that right hand extremely relaxed and learn how to lead with that control hand.
And you'll be on your way to hitting better pitch shots and getting it closer to the hole, and certainly not hitting that embarrassing, frustrating shot anymore.
Alright guys, I wish you the best of luck and let's get out there and play some great golf.
Loran
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
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