Chipping Strategy to Save Par
Sorry, you need to be a member to access this video.
You Are Just Seconds Away - Become a member here!
Already a member? Log in now
Your chipping strategy is crucial for helping you save par and employs my Compass Drill from my putting series.
all right so no this is not my putter but unless you're hitting 18 greens around you're probably going to be faced with a chip or two around the green that is really the purpose of to set up your next putt and so a lot of times people get up to a chip shot where here i'm just off the green and i've got a little chip shot here maybe 20 yards or so but they don't think about what they want to do with the ball they're just trying to get as close to the ball as humanly possible without thinking about the next shot and any good player any low handicap player who's going to play strategically sound golf is going to be thinking about where they want to leave the ball yes of course we want to think about making these chip shots but within reason you're not going to make every chip shot either right so we've got to be somewhat smart about this and think okay if i miss it where do i want to leave the ball and guess what you want to put into play here my compass drill so what i have i've set this compass drill up here maybe a little bit tougher to see from over there but you'll get the idea i've got this is my south ball this is the important one because everything here is going to be straight uphill if i leave it over here on the southwest side i'm going to be starting to face a left to right putt as i go to the northern hemisphere it's going to be downhill and as i move my way back around i'm going to start working my way back around to an uphill right to left putt my quadrant where i want to leave the ball in this case with this pin from that position is in the southeast quadrant anything between this ball and the hole and that ball in the hole is going to leave me with a really short right to left putt now again you're going to think well if i don't get it all the way to the hole i'm never going to make a chip i'm not saying don't be you know try to make it but you've got to use some common sense here too that if you do try to make it and you give it a really good run and you run it four feet by which is still a pretty good chip shot well now you've only got four feet but it's four feet left to right downhill is that really the next putt that you want well i doubt it so for me even though i want to give it a shot i'm not going to be that aggressive when my next shot leaves me with the potential for a down to right or downhill left to right putt now let's think about it the other way if i'm on the other side of the green and i chip it what's going to be my miss i'll just go over there real quick and show you an idea if i'm on this side and i'm going to be aggressive even though it's going downhill because if i miss where's the tendency for the ball to end up well look where it ended up yes it's four feet by but it's four feet straight up the hill pretty much so i don't mind on that if i'm on that side of the green to miss and try to make that chip shot even though it's downhill again i'm not trying to ram it 20 feet by but i'm going to let that one trickle out a little bit more and give it a really good shot to go in whereas on this one even though it seems obvious that this is a straight uphill or slightly right to left chip shot i want to really give it a go i want to try and make it if i miss and i run it past the hole i'm looking at two putting and that's a bogey so what i'm going to do in this case is just try and leave it even a little bit short and if i leave it short yeah it's not ideal i came up a little short there i've still got a really easy putt to come in there now if i go a little more aggressive oh ball's moving on me and now i hit it a little harder maybe a little bit closer but now look what i'm facing a downhill left to right putt that's not going to work so now i'm in really big trouble so i'd much rather be shorter on this side have an uphill i'd rather have four feet up to hill right to left than three feet downhill left to right so when you're thinking about your chip shots around the green think about them in terms of the compass drill so anytime let's say you've missed the green the first thing that you're going to do is go and find zero line where is it that's the first i'm trying to walk to the bottom of the hole and i'm scanning to say where is zero okay it's about you don't have to be extremely precise with it just get an idea all right this is pretty much straight uphill here and then i'm going to look to the finding my right to left putt i'm going to find east and anything in here this is go zone i'm going to make most of these anything over here you start getting into the caution zone you're going to start thinking okay this is a little sketchy here actually this is going to be caution and this is going to be no bueno this is danger zone you do not want a downhill left to right putt to save par you start getting over here it's a little cautious zone here because it's downhill so at least it's right to left but you ram it past the hole you're going to be looking at left to right putt again so it's not bad but not ideal so even though you're chipping still think about your next shot think about your putt because that's going to be the one that saves par not the chip
William
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
richard
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
richard
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Chuck
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Ryan
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Terry
Chuck