Chipping

[Par5n2]

Most talk on forums about chipping is about technique. While technique is important, something equally (maybe more) important is landing spot.

If you are not hugely focused on where to land the ball when chipping (and most pitches) then I encourage you to get that focus.

A 54* wedge on moderately fast greens should be landed about 50% of the way to the hole. Let's call moderately fast to be between 9 and 10 on the stimp. Faster greens, less carry and more roll. Slower is the opposite.

A drill to do...find a fairly flat chip. Find the spot 50% of the way between your ball and the hole. Put a tee in that spot. Go chip balls and work on landing the ball near the tee. Evaluate rollout and adjust the tee location. Then just work on hitting the landing spot. Then do it for your 60.

Do that and your chipping will improve.

 

[*Range Rat]

I do all my chipping with my 50* wedge; I believe its better & simpiler to learn just 1 club all the way around a green. You'll learn about varying the landing spot as you practice.

 

[Browndog]

I love to practice chipping and I agree with @Par5n2.

A quick and fun couple of drills that I like to do when practicing my chipping is to lay a golf towel on the practice green and first try to have the ball finish on the towel.

Then the next thing is to have the ball hit the towel on the fly and then release.

It is usually harder to hit the towel than it is to get the ball to finish on the towel.

 

[Par5n2]

I do all my chipping with my 50* wedge; I believe its better & simpiler to learn just 1 club all the way around a green. You'll learn about varying the landing spot as you practice.

I'm very close to your mindset. I use my 54 and 60 only. There are rare times I'll use my pw...long run out...but never use my 50.

My perspective is that you should only chip with the clubs you practice with because you know how to hit your landing spot with the clubs you actually practice landing spot control with.

So, agree with your premise...I just practice with and use 2 wedges.

 

[Bosco...]

I tend to go “one club wonder” with a 56* unless it’s a long runner. I think it’s more of a habit and warm & fuzzy seeing the ball check up instead of playing a shot. But I’m working more on contact anyway right now so I’ll give myself a little pass.

Fighting a wedge conundrum right now between 52-56-60 or 50-54-58.

Just so comfy with 56/12

 

[Par5n2]

I tend to go “one club wonder” with a 56* unless it’s a long runner. I think it’s more of a habit and warm & fuzzy seeing the ball check up instead of playing a shot. But I’m working more on contact anyway right now so I’ll give myself a little pass.

Fighting a wedge conundrum right now between 52-56-60 or 50-54-58.

Just so comfy with 56/12

You missed the entire premise of the thread...

 

[War Eagle]

I'm a firm believer in landing spot on chipping over all else, most of the time. I am not talented enough to fling the ball at the hole to let it spin and stop, more I like to play to a spot and let the green do the rest of the work.

Finding the perfect landing spot, and playing to it tends to lead to far better results than trying to get it at the hole. But then again, I use a lower chip and roll out vs carrying the ball further and hoping for more spin to get it to stop where I want.

 

[DataDude]

I agree with most in this thread. One, I love chipping. Two, the landing spot is crucial. The last thing I look at before putting my head down to start my swing is the spot I want the ball to land, then just let my brain and arms work together from muscle memory to hit the shot.

 

[MarMill]

Landing point is super important. I have always heard on more bump and run you chip 1/3 and it will roll out 2/3. ish

 

[Xforged]

I agree that working and focusing on landing spot is important. Paddy's golf tips helped me though because I need to always practice working my swing divot in front of ball and if I take practice swings looking at landing spot my divots get too behind the ball. So mind is on landing spot, but eyes are looking at club hitting grass in front of ball.

 

[CTRosarian]

I have a tougher drill that takes less time. Play three balls. The first ball is your target. Can you hit that ball with your next two shots? How closely can you group the three balls together?

We all duff shots. I'm learning how to fight though a bad swing and still put the ball on the green.
If its on the green I can two putt. Which, in the end, may be just as good as getting close to the pin but missing the putt!

 

[Par5n2]

I'm a firm believer in landing spot on chipping over all else, most of the time. I am not talented enough to fling the ball at the hole to let it spin and stop, more I like to play to a spot and let the green do the rest of the work.

Finding the perfect landing spot, and playing to it tends to lead to far better results than trying to get it at the hole. But then again, I use a lower chip and roll out vs carrying the ball further and hoping for more spin to get it to stop where I want.

Landing point is super important. I have always heard on more bump and run you chip 1/3 and it will roll out 2/3. ish

Yeah, where to land it and what type of shot to play are really more preference. Knowing and practicing your preference is key. I tend to play with a bit more spin so I'll land it a bit closer and rely on that first bounce check. But the sort of back footed, low chip and run is effective too. Just have to know landing spot and run-out range.

And marmill...those landing spot %s could be true. That changes depending on green speed, technique, and club loft...ball back, more run, ball forward, less run.

 

[bsbmike5]

Most talk on forums about chipping is about technique. While technique is important, something equally (maybe more) important is landing spot.

If you are not hugely focused on where to land the ball when chipping (and most pitches) then I encourage you to get that focus.

A 54* wedge on moderately fast greens should be landed about 50% of the way to the hole. Let's call moderately fast to be between 9 and 10 on the stimp. Faster greens, less carry and more roll. Slower is the opposite.

A drill to do...find a fairly flat chip. Find the spot 50% of the way between your ball and the hole. Put a tee in that spot. Go chip balls and work on landing the ball near the tee. Evaluate rollout and adjust the tee location. Then just work on hitting the landing spot. Then do it for your 60.

Do that and your chipping will improve.

I have a couple of those cup size discs you can throw down on greens for practice round putting...love using those as landing spots for chipping practice

 

[leftybob]

Landing point is super important. I have always heard on more bump and run you chip 1/3 and it will roll out 2/3. ish

Unless there is a good reason to deviate the old 1/3rd 2/3rds rule has served me well. Following that rule I’ll chip with anything from a 8i to 60° instead of manipulating the loft of a wedge to hit my landing spot.

 

[WLG1952]

I chip just about everything with my 8i. My landing spot is always 2-3 feet on the green, and rolls out from there.

Since I use my putting set up, and stroke for chips, I control the roll out distance the same as Ì do when putting.

The one thing I see quite a few golfers not doing, that they should be doing, is reading the green for chips, the same as they do when putting. Read the green from the chip's landing spot.

When feasible, I read the green for any shot that has roll out.

 

[Par5n2]

I chip just about everything with my 8i. My landing spot is always 2-3 feet on the green, and rolls out from there.

Since I use my putting set up, and stroke for chips, I control the roll out distance the same as Ì do when putting.

The one thing I see quite a few golfers not doing, that they should be doing, is reading the green for chips, the same as they do when putting. Read the green from the chip's landing spot.

When feasible, I read the green for any shot that has roll out.

100% on green reading. I remive the words "when feasible". I'm reading the green from thr landing spot 100% of the time. Have to know slope at yhe landing spot because landing spot changes if the chip is uphill/downhill...

 

[JonMA1]

I'm a firm believer in landing spot on chipping over all else, most of the time. I am not talented enough to fling the ball at the hole to let it spin and stop, more I like to play to a spot and let the green do the rest of the work.

Finding the perfect landing spot, and playing to it tends to lead to far better results than trying to get it at the hole. But then again, I use a lower chip and roll out vs carrying the ball further and hoping for more spin to get it to stop where I want.

This is my mindset as well. I do not have control over spin, so I have to sometimes land the chip just short of the green and hope I chose the right effort and executed contact correctly to get favorable roll out. One-putt results are usually due to a little luck - either by getting it close on the chip or sinking a longer than average putt. Getting it close enough for an easy 2-putt is a success in my world.

The 60° is my default wedge but will go to the 56° or 52° if the hole is uphill or with a lot of green to work with.

 

[War Eagle]

This is my mindset as well. I do not have control over spin, so I have to sometimes land the chip just short of the green and hope I chose the right effort and executed contact correctly to get favorable roll out. One-putt results are usually due to a little luck - either by getting it close on the chip or sinking a longer than average putt. Getting it close enough for an easy 2-putt is a success in my world.

The 60° is my default wedge but will go to the 56° or 52° if the hole is uphill or with a lot of green to work with.

I read the green on a chip the same as I would a putt, the quicker I can get the ball up, down and rolling the better results I see.

 

[SunnyWalker]

Most talk on forums about chipping is about technique. While technique is important, something equally (maybe more) important is landing spot.

If you are not hugely focused on where to land the ball when chipping (and most pitches) then I encourage you to get that focus.

A 54* wedge on moderately fast greens should be landed about 50% of the way to the hole. Let's call moderately fast to be between 9 and 10 on the stimp. Faster greens, less carry and more roll. Slower is the opposite.

A drill to do...find a fairly flat chip. Find the spot 50% of the way between your ball and the hole. Put a tee in that spot. Go chip balls and work on landing the ball near the tee. Evaluate rollout and adjust the tee location. Then just work on hitting the landing spot. Then do it for your 60.

Do that and your chipping will improve.

I agree that visualizing landing spot and run out is important. However, if your technique is poor, you can work on that all day every day and only have limited success. I know this from my own personal experience (and chipping woes)! One of my many short game lessons, and what i consider the worst one ever, the pro told me to just focus on where to land the ball, everything else was fine. He made no adjustments in my setup what so ever. I went right back to chunking and flubbing chips soon after.

It's taken me years to figure out that i was too far from the ball, my hands were too low, my grip was too tight, the club was too square and my swing was too steep. All this lead to digging in waaay to much and inconsistent contact.

My advice is get the setup correct, get the club gliding along the ground(not digging), then that landing spot work will really pay off.

 

[That post]

Landing spot is something I’ve been working on extensively this year. We have a 100y short game area at the club. There are all types of lies, grass, and bunkers to simulate shots out of. My short game has gotten so much better due to this focused practice. It’s getting very close to becoming the biggest strength of my game. Getting up and down from bad spots is so important and I feel more confident than ever doing it now.

 

[Bosco...]

You missed the entire premise of the thread...

No, I didn’t.
I was carrying on a conversation.

My perspective is that you should only chip with the clubs you practice with because you know how to hit your landing spot with the clubs you actually practice landing spot control with.

I do all my chipping with my 50* wedge; I believe its better & simpiler to learn just 1 club all the way around a green. You'll learn about varying the landing spot as you practice.

 

[AZ_golfer]

I use my gap wedge for all my chipping unless there is a reason not to. It is just easier for me to learn one club then to try to learn a bunch of different shots..

 

[Par5n2]

I use my gap wedge for all my chipping unless there is a reason not to. It is just easier for me to learn one club then to try to learn a bunch of different shots..

You, too, completely missed the point of the thread...

 

[WLG1952]

100% on green reading. I remive the words "when feasible". I'm reading the green from thr landing spot 100% of the time. Have to know slope at yhe landing spot because landing spot changes if the chip is uphill/downhill...

By feasible I mean when close enough to take the time to get a good read.

 

[AZ_golfer]

You, too, completely missed the point of the thread...

I thought the point was where you should land the ball on the green? I don't know what else to say, I judge my stroke rather than measuring how far away the pin is. This is what works for me. I'm sorry if I angered you.