Advice On:Common Chipping Mistakes And How To Correct Them
In this video, Golf Monthly Top 50 Coach Ged Walters explains the 6 most common faults golfers suffer with when chipping around the green and suggests simple ways to overcome them! Whether you're setting up to the ball incorrectly or struggling to strike your chips cleanly, this video has all the pointers you need to become a confident chipper and turn a weakness into a strength.
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00:00Do you struggle with your chipping?
00:01Well, if you do, this could be the video for you.
00:04We're down here at Sandy Way Golf Club in Cheshire
00:06with Golf Monthly's top 50 golf coach, Jed Walters,
00:10and he's gonna be taking you through six common mistakes
00:13amateurs do around the green when it comes to chipping.
00:17Right, save me talking, let's get into it.
00:19Over to you, Jed.
00:20Thanks, Monty.
00:21So, there's no better place to start
00:23than with the biggest issue, the number one issue.
00:27Poor, poor setup leads to everything.
00:31What is the most common setup that I see?
00:33Well, I see people setting up
00:34as if they've got the seven iron in hand.
00:36So, they're doing this,
00:38and they are literally three feet away from the green.
00:41Now, if you're like this, and then all of a sudden
00:44you're trying to hit a shot which is going about 25, 30 feet
00:48we see, and then it's a big slow down.
00:52So, we try and help the ball up into the air,
00:55not hit it too far,
00:56and that leads to hitting the ground too soon,
00:59it leads to hitting the middle of the golf ball
01:01and thinning it across the green,
01:02it leads to topping it,
01:04and a lot of frustration more than anything else.
01:07So, how do we get the right setup?
01:09Well, you're set up for,
01:11let's start with this sort of basic shot.
01:15I'm just on a lovely lie here.
01:18The keys that we wanna get is we don't wanna go too wide.
01:22So, we wanna narrow the width of the stance down.
01:26So, if I was to put my club head in between my feet there,
01:29you can see it's only ever so slightly wider
01:33than the width of my golf club.
01:35Now, I don't want to be miles away
01:38from the golf ball as well.
01:41I want to be a little bit closer than normal.
01:44So, from here,
01:47there is very little space between me and the golf club.
01:53If I was to just change to here,
01:59that's about the distance you would want to be.
02:02So, we want our golf ball for this as a generalized shot,
02:07being generally more central in the stance
02:11because that's just gonna help you
02:13with your angle of attack then moving down.
02:16From this position here,
02:17you are in a much better place
02:19to be able to move the club nicely.
02:22More importantly, be able to move the torso
02:26and allow the body's rotation
02:28to support the release of the club.
02:30One which I see loads all the time
02:33is a loss of structure in the arms.
02:35So, you can see here, I have a little ball
02:38just dangling from my neck here on a little lanyard.
02:41You don't have to use one of these.
02:42You could use a deflated football.
02:44You could use a swimming armband.
02:47But what this is for is to maintain a little bit more
02:50of the structure of the arms.
02:52If we think about when we were taking our setup position,
02:57if I was just to pinch this between my forearms here,
03:00from here you can see that the structure
03:03between my shoulders and my arms is more like a triangle.
03:09So, if we then take that down into the golf club itself,
03:11it's almost like creating the letter Y.
03:15Now, what I see loads of is a struggle from golfers
03:19who want to try and get the golf ball up in the air.
03:22They lose that letter Y
03:24and it comes from the separation of the elbows
03:28as they try and help the ball into the air.
03:30Now, the release of the club,
03:32so this movement in the wrists
03:35is an essential movement to really control.
03:39We want to have that.
03:40We don't want to take that out of the way.
03:42But what we do want to stop
03:43is this shortening of the radius.
03:45So, if we think about the club being sat on the ground,
03:48as soon as I separate my elbows,
03:51the club comes away from the ground.
03:53So, that's shortening the radius.
03:54Well, if I now move on to the golf ball,
03:56well, I've got no chance of hitting the golf ball there.
03:59The club isn't going to collect the ball on its way through.
04:02So, I'm going to do one of three things.
04:05I see we stick the club into the ground too soon
04:08because we then start leaning back.
04:10We thin the ball across the other side of the green
04:12or we just catch it right on the top.
04:14So, controlling the structure is really, really important.
04:18So, if I keep the forearms pinched together,
04:22so they're maintaining the ball in place,
04:25all I have to do then is just maintain
04:28the height of my posture and then keep the club moving
04:33and I can brush the ground.
04:35And as long as I keep doing that,
04:36I'm going to brush the ground all the time.
04:39So then, the club is going to collect the golf ball
04:42on its way through.
04:43So, if I was then to address the golf ball,
04:47all I'm thinking about is maintaining the Y,
04:50maintaining the structure of the arms
04:52and keeping my movement.
04:56And I'm going to make really nice contact all the time.
04:59So, the length and speed
05:01is going to then control the distance.
05:03Another common mistake is a lack of movement
05:07in the upper body.
05:08There's a lot of players who just try and use
05:10their hands and arms and forget
05:13that the real sort of engine of the motion
05:16is about turning the torso.
05:18So, what do I mean by that?
05:20Well, when you see a lot of chipping actions,
05:25we see a lot of this.
05:28So, when you look at it from face on,
05:31you see that my chest is still facing the golf ball.
05:35So, it's a lot of this kind of action.
05:38Now, what happens, I see a lot from there,
05:41is when we see that lack of motion,
05:44the club moves quite a bit
05:45and then it starts to slow down
05:47and the speed of the arms tries to control the shot
05:50and then lots of that happens.
05:52So, what we need to do is we need to make sure
05:55that this bit moves.
05:56The chest has got to start moving
05:59and it's got to have that motion
06:00where the arms then follow
06:04and it's the chest supporting the release
06:06of the club head as we go through.
06:09Now, as long as we get that happening,
06:12we'll be able to allow the golf club
06:16to almost land on the turf,
06:18glide along the turf and then take off.
06:22Almost, if you imagined an aeroplane landing on the runway,
06:26so it would come down, it would touch down wheels,
06:30it would then move along the runway.
06:34And then imagine it wanted to sort of take off again,
06:37it would then move up.
06:39So, we're releasing the golf club,
06:42but we're supporting this release
06:43with the turn that we're going to make.
06:45So, now when I make a backswing
06:50and I rotate the torso,
06:52I can allow the club to land on the ground.
06:56The sole is going to do most of the work.
06:58So, it'll just bruise the turf as we go through.
07:02And then even if I was to get the club to land,
07:06say here, an inch, inch and a half behind the golf ball,
07:09because of the way I'm using the club and the body,
07:14the club is actually going to still move along the ground.
07:17It's going to be like the plane
07:18still going along the runway.
07:20So, I'm not going to get that duffed shot,
07:22I'm actually still going to get a really good outcome.
07:25So, on this shot,
07:26I'm now going to support that release with the rotation
07:30and we're just going to allow the club
07:32then to bruise the ground.
07:34And then you can see,
07:35it just pops up nicely off towards the target.
07:39Another one of the big mistakes that I see
07:42from lots of people when they're chipping
07:45is they move the club inside very, very early.
07:49Plenty of golfers are moving the club
07:52in and around here very, very early.
07:55So, the only thing they can either do from there
07:58is try and come back in.
08:00So, the only thing they can either do from there
08:03is try and come back this way
08:05and the body's then got to start working away
08:07to keep the club away from the ground
08:09because it would just stick into the floor back here
08:11too far away.
08:13So, this leads into a lot of pushed shots,
08:16a lot of shanks and stuff like that.
08:19Or, they then try and loop over the top.
08:23Now, sometimes you can get away with it,
08:26but there's a lot of timing involved
08:27and when there's timing involved,
08:28sometimes it stays with you for a bit,
08:30but when it disappears,
08:31you just don't know when it's gonna come back.
08:33So, if we think about what's gonna happen
08:36if we move the club on a more natural plane,
08:42as the club moves away from the golf ball,
08:45if you thought about it moving in a straight line,
08:48it would be moving straight back,
08:49but the more it moves off the ground, it arcs.
08:52So, it's moving back, it's moving up,
08:54and it's moving in,
08:56but it's not moving too far in.
08:58So, you can see the club's relationship to the shaft,
09:01the stick that I've got there just on the angle,
09:03just to match the shaft's plane.
09:06So, it's moving back, up, and in.
09:09Then from here, you can rotate back through
09:13and the club will come back down
09:15and through to execute your shot.
09:18So, having that picture in your mind
09:20of the club moving back and up and in,
09:23and even practicing with a shaft
09:25or an alignment stick in the ground like we have here,
09:28a shaft or alignment stick on the ground,
09:30so you've got a visual of the direction
09:32that you're moving the golf club in,
09:34that's the important thing.
09:37So, from that point of view there,
09:38you could be able to practice and hit shots like this,
09:41just taking your setup,
09:42just picturing that back, up, and in motion,
09:46and making a nice, smooth, controlled swing.
09:50Another of the big, common mistakes that we see
09:53is when players try and steer the ball towards their target.
09:56So, what I mean by that is,
09:59when they swing the club through the impact,
10:02what they're trying to do is move the club in the direction
10:06that they want the golf ball to go in.
10:08When we look at how we want to move,
10:11when we're moving around the arc,
10:13as you can see, the club is moving in the opposite direction
10:16As I'm moving around the arc, as you can see there,
10:20as I move the club around the arc,
10:22it's moving up that exit route stick there to the left.
10:27Now, if I try to move it in the direction
10:29that I would want the golf ball,
10:31what we would see then is I'm pushing my arms
10:35and the club away from the golf ball,
10:38which is where a lot of you guys will hit the shanks from.
10:42So, I'm just gonna play a little shot here now
10:45where you can see that as long as I make the right movement,
10:50we've got golf ball exiting up the stick towards the target
10:55and I've kept moving around
10:58so the club has exited round to the left.
11:01Finally, one thing that I see way too much
11:05is people just picking up their most lofted club.
11:08So, I've got four clubs in my hands here.
11:10I've got my most lofted club, 58 degree.
11:14The amount of time I see people just going in for their 58, their 60,
11:18wanting to hit it up in the air, it's...
11:21Get rid of that.
11:2254, that's plenty of loft.
11:26Now, behind me where the bunker is,
11:29if I was in that situation,
11:32people would still wanna go for their most lofted.
11:3454 degrees is a lot of loft.
11:37So, the ball will get up in the air.
11:39You don't really need to go too severe, as I say,
11:42unless it's a real sort of challenging lie,
11:45downslope situation, something like that.
11:48So, again, 54 degree from this situation,
11:51that can go over there as well.
11:53There are two options, really,
11:54that I would wanna see most golfers use
11:57that would lower their scores.
11:59It's all about lower scores.
12:00It's not about hitting a sexy shot.
12:01It's about the lower score.
12:03The putter and a seven iron.
12:07They're the keys.
12:08The reason is we've got loads of green to work with.
12:11Now, the seven iron will help you get over
12:15this little bit of grass here
12:16and get the ball running nicely.
12:18The putter will just run through
12:20because this is cut really nice and short.
12:23So, it's one of the two options,
12:24whichever you feel really more comfortable with.
12:27But I like to see the ball on the ground
12:29as quickly as possible
12:31because it's one, more predictable,
12:33and two, it's telling you what the green's gonna do.
12:36So, if you leave it short,
12:38you're getting a look of how the green,
12:40how the ball is gonna move down towards the hole.
12:43If the ball goes beyond the hole,
12:45please pay attention to it
12:47because it is reading the putt
12:48that you're about to hit for you.
12:50If you watch how that ball moves,
12:52you are then gonna see how the ball
12:54is gonna be expected to come back towards you.
12:57So, from here, if I just put the putter down for a second,
13:02and in terms of playing this seven iron shot,
13:06I'm just playing just like you would play a putt,
13:08but with a narrower stance, nice and tall,
13:12and just moving back and through, nice and smooth,
13:17keeping the triangle of the arms in place,
13:21keeping the shoulders rocking back and through.
13:25You just wanna nudge the ball and let it run.
13:28That's all you wanna do.
13:29If you wanna use your normal grip,
13:31if you wanna use your putter grip,
13:32that's entirely up to you.
13:34It's personal preference.
13:35But just making sure that your feet
13:38are nice and close together.
13:39So, it's only about the width of the club head there.
13:42Little bit of pressure, just leaning into the left side
13:45so that you've got an ever so slight downward angle
13:48of attack, and we're just gonna put
13:49a little bit of a putting stroke on it
13:53and just roll it forward.
13:55And you can just see how that ball
13:56is reading the green for me.
13:58So, it's moved in from right to left,
14:02and now I've left myself, I don't know,
14:04six or three half feet maybe for my next shot,
14:08which is just all you wanna do.
14:09You wanna keep it as simple as possible
14:12so the next shot is very, very easy.
14:16Thanks Jed, lots of great information there
14:18for you guys to take away and implement
14:20into your own game.
14:22I hope you found it useful.
14:23I definitely have.
14:24But that's it from us here
14:25at Sandy Way Golf Club in Cheshire.
14:27See you next time.