How to Improve Your Chipping and Lower Your Golf Handicap

When you miss the green with your approach shot, and everyone does, even the best professionals, you can still get your par if you know how to chip the ball close. Here's how to give yourself the best chance to do that when you're just a few feet off the green.

First, pick the right club. Many golfers now prefer to chip with a sand wedge or even a lob wedge. This is risky and offers few advantages. Select a 5-iron or a 6-iron instead. These clubs have enough loft to get the ball over the relatively higher grass in the fringe and start it rolling on the green with no backspin.

That last bit is important. Backspin is the enemy of a good chip. It makes your distance control less predictable that it needs to be. We're going to do everything we can to avoid it.

Read the green before you address the ball. Read the green and as you step up to the ball align yourself to your starting line, just as you would a putt. Your goal should be to sink the chip, not just to get it close.

Stand with your feet no more than a foot apart, more weight on the left foot (right foot for left-handed golfers), and the club shaft leaning toward the target. Hold the club with your swing grip, not your putting grip, right down at the end of the shaft for better control of the clubhead.

Sole the clubhead so the toe of the club is behind the ball. Hitting the ball off the toe deadens the blow and creates minimal backspin. The dividing line between the rough surface of the face and the shiny portion of the toe is a good spot to hit the ball off of.

Don't break your wrists at any time when you chip. When you hit through the ball, keep the clubhead as low to the ground as you can. One way to think of doing this is to keep your right palm facing the target, and not let it swing upwards toward the sky. This is another way of preventing backspin.

Chip the ball hard enough to get it to the hole and a few feet past if it misses. Never up, never in. More important, though, is to make sure you have a level or uphill putt if you miss, never a downhill or sidehill putt. That might occasionally preclude an aggressive play for the hole.

About this Author

Bob Jones is a golf researcher who can show you the reason why you don't strike the ball as consistently as you would like to. It's a little thing, and anyone learn to do it right, in just minutes, right at home. Find out what it is in this FREE download at www.therecreationalgolfer.com.

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