Jhonattan Vegas
A ball resting just off the edge of the green and sitting in thick rough can be difficult to chip close, especially if you don’t use the correct fundamentals. These images of Jhonattan Vegas at Torrey Pines demonstrate the proper way to set up and execute a chip shot out of thick rough.
Jhonattan selected a high lofted club to generate enough club head speed to get the ball out of the rough and land softly on the green. His slightly open stance has his feet and shoulders aiming left of his target line. He then opens up the club face (aims right of the target) and swings the club across his body alignment. It’s the combination of the open club face and open stance that creates a slight cut spin on the ball and produces a high soft shot, priceless on fast, firm greens.
Jhonattan does an outstanding job of finding and maintaining perfect balance on his front foot through the chip shot. He starts by shifting his upper body weight forward and establishing a balance point on his front foot. Once he finds his balance point, he maintains it through the entire swing. His forward weight transfer also creates a steeper angle of attack on the ball, which is good in thick rough because your club head will travel through less grass to reach the ball.
Notice that his club face is still aiming at the target and not rolled over with the toe aiming at the target. Too many people think they need to roll their hands through impact, that is not fundamentally correct and will produce low chips with top spin. He uses his shoulders to create the power and soft hands to generate the club head speed. To hit a soft chip out of thick rough, you need to accelerate through the ball and maintain extremely soft hands.
