How to Chip a Golf Ball - It's Not Fishy
By Norman Stanley
How to chip a golf ball is a skill that can be learned and when you have, you will cut strokes off your game.
There are an awful lot of golfers out there who never pay attention to the golf short. It saddens me to hear all the discussions in the club house that purely revolve around which driver is the best,how much it cost and who can drive the furthest.
The golf short game is where the most strokes are played, where the most strokes are wasted and where the most strokes can be saved. Golf in essence is a short game.
The secret in how to chip a golf ball is control. The ball should land as soon as possible and roll out to the hole, effectively a putt with a hop at the start.
To play a chip shot the stance is very important, if your set up is wrong you will never be consistent. Address the ball with your feet quite close together and your weight mostly on your forward foot, if it is on the back foot you will have a tendency to scoop the ball.
Lean slightly forward so your sternum is forward and put your hands in front of the ball. This is essentially the impact position, it feels slightly off balance but practice until it feels right.
The backswing decides the distance the ball will travel, not hitting harder. The movement has to be smooth and consistent to get the feel of how far the ball will go.
Play the golf ball from in front of your right toe, this will ensure a downward strike on the ball and take a small divot. Voila! a perfect chip shot.
Practice with a variety of clubs from a three iron up to the sand wedge, the different lofts will have an effect on the height the golf ball jumps and on how far it rolls out. With a good even tempo on all the clubs you will learn to judge the right club for any given shot.
Phil Michelson is the number one short game player in the world but he has recently produced a DVD on it and even he has said that making the DVD has improved his chipping because he had to go back to the basics.
If Phil can still be improving then just think what learning how to chip a golf ball will do for you.
Norman writes for golfamateur.co.uk. The site for cheap golf bags and discount golf equipment
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