Tight lie, chipping help please

Well you'd figure I'd have this down pat by now if anyone has ever been out my way, but recently chipping from a tight lie has been the bane of my golf game.

My miss lately has been to cut right under the ball catching it heavy/high off the face and the ball just going no where.

I've tried moving the ball around in my stance with out much success. I actually think my scoring is higher on holes where after the drive I'm under 80 yards than with a wedge or higher club in my last 5 rounds >.<

Basically is there a tried and true method for hitting "feel"/non full shots off of tight lies that I could use as a base to work on my short game with?

Thanks GolfTec!

Thought I would bump this up. Im having the same problem. Been next to no rain for the last month and everything around the green is like hardpan. Seem to hit alot thin and they shoot across the green. So how do you chip off a tight lie?

Are you talking around the greens or from 60 odd yards?

I am slightly confused as you say chipping but then talk about 3/4 wedge shots...

For around the green id reccomend if possible using the hybrid with a putting stroke to get through any tough grass..

For further out if it is a straight run to the green i certainly find it easier to take a good extra few clubs so from 80 yards maybe a p wedge and just do a small punch shot.. for me anyway i find this a little easier to execute out of very bad lies

~Shane

This is the Ask the Pro Section guys. Please keep this clean until GolfTEC has had a chance to come in and respond.

It could be a number of things, but I'll go straight for the one I see most consistently: Too much shaft lean.

I live in a coastal area where it's usually fairly lush, but there was a dry/hot spell a while back that left the green surrounds quite firm and boy did I struggle. Turned out I was employing the typical forward shaft lean, weight forward, hitting-down-on-it mentality, but proved to be too much for such a slim margin for error.

When it's really firm the butt of the club should be just barely in front of the front of the ball. This ensures a downward angle of attack, but it's shallow enough such that you don't need to have the ball in the EXACT right position to still hit it clean.

Hope that helps,

Trevor Broesamle, PGA
GolfTEC Santa Barbara, CA

AAAHHHHHHHHHH.....thanks for the light bulb Trevor! I think you may have hit the nail on the head. My usual go to shot is a ball back, forward shaft lean chip shot. Thanks, I'll try to work on this.