By John Burckle
Photos Michael Weinstein
Use the fundamentals to make chipping easier.
Chipping doesn’t have to be difficult if you’ve got the correct technique. To many golfers approach the short shots as if it’s a miniature long swing, which means they set up to the ball as if they were hitting a full shot but make a little swing. Let’s look at how the best golfers set up to hit simple chips.
First get your feet close together and most importantly put 90% of your weight on your lead leg. Notice in (photo 1) of Jhonattan Vegas you can see his weight is on his forward leg even though the ball is sitting down in deep rough. While maintaining he’s weight on his forward leg, he swings his arms and club back together keeping the hands quiet and his weight firmly on top of his forward leg.
At impact (photo 2) he maintains perfect balance on the forward leg. This allows the club to approach the ball at a slightly descending angle and allows the club to contact the ball first and ground second which will pop the ball out of the rough and onto the green. If your weight starts to lean towards your back leg the club will tend to scoop the ball and make poor contact resulting in a bad chip.
In the third photo you can see how he keeps the triangle of the shoulders, arms and club moving all together into the finish. His motion stayed connected and his weight never wavered from his lead leg.
So next time you practice chipping make it simple by learning these few easy steps.
JOHN BURCKLE – Director of Instruction at GolfLabAcademy.com
• 25 Years Teaching Experience
• 80 Professional Wins
• 6X Golden State Tour Order of Merit Champion
