How To Chip A Golf Ball – The Proper Setup And Why
So many amateur golfers struggle with how to chip a golf ball and the reason is the setup! They’ve been taught to set up in a way that makes it very difficult to create clean, crips and consistent contact. We’re going to make it easy today. Not only in your mind as I’m sure if you’re like most golfers, you’ve struggled with why one day it’s great and one day it’s not but we’ll get that fixed.
Most golfers set up in a way that makes it virtually impossible to properly play the shot. First let’s talk about the way it’s commonly taught and the issues that can come from that. Then we’ll get into exactly how you should set up to get success.
Problems With The Usual Taught Setup In Chipping
Most golfers and golf instructors alike, actually teach or are taught to put the ball way back in the stance. Sometimes off the back foot or even potentially behind the back heel. Have your stance open and the shaft leaning forward. This is kind of chipping 101 when you talk to someone or go for a lesson. In SOME ways, this kind of setup has some advantages. For one, you’re delofting the club. This does make it nice and easy to get a ball to roll on a chip shot right away. Getting the ball to roll in a chip shot is critical as you don’t want it flying up in the air. That’s a good way for it to get knocked off line.
On a chip shot, I need the ball to be driven relatively low. Almost acting like a putt and not a pitch shot. A pitch shot goes a bit higher and runs less, so this type of set up does in fact make those things simple to do. The downside to it however is you’ve taken so much loft off of the club due to the shaft lean, the only thing that’s going to hit the ground is the sharp leading edge.
The Proper Setup
As you move the club back to vertical, the trailing edge can now be used. This keeps the club from digging and truly is the secret for amateur golfers. You do NOT want the club to dig on a chip shot. Most amateurs tend to over use their hands and stick the club in the dirt. That’s a recipe for that leading edge to get down in the dirt quick. Everyone’s taken a 6 foot chip shot and turned it into a 3 inch one because of this.
You can prevent all of that by just changing how you set up to the ball. For chip shots, you want the shaft relatively vertical. You also want your stance square and the ball further up in your stance. This makes it easy for you to aim as your stance is square and the shaft VERY slightly forward.
This allows the club to glide through the grass because you put the bounce in play to be used. You don’t get the benefit of the bounce if you’re setup with your hands to far forward and the ball too far back. All the club wants to do at that point is just dig into the ground. You also create a very steep angle of attack that way as well. You have to get everything to happen perfectly in sync to have consistent success this way. When you use the bounce, it’s not going to matter. You could hit six inches behind the ball and the club would glide right through.
Watch the video above and you’ll see exactly how to set up for consistent results. You can also checkout how you can master chipping from tight lies here.
