Golf Tips For Chipping
The chip shot at face value seems like such a small part of a round of golf, but it’s amazing how much you find yourself a few feet off the green, or just in the rough around the green. A chip shot, if perfected can save a hole and give you confidence going into the next hole. A chip shot, not perfected can ruin a hole, making a score worse, or even stopping you getting a good score by ‘fluffing’ an easy opportunity to put the ball close to the pin. A chip shot generally has the aim of putting the ball within a few feet of the hole, hopefully leaving you with a one put finish on the hole. The problem with chip shots is that no matter how many different shots you practice there are always new problems on the course. A chip shot can be 10 ft to the hole, or 50 ft and can be in many different lies. The pin can be positioned behind some rough, or there might be a hill you need to get over on the green.
Chip shots are very delicate shots in which everything has to be taken into consideration. It is not like a drive or a fairway shot where you need to look and the lie, and hit the ball down the fairway, a chip shot you need to be aware of what is between you and the green, then how the green breaks from towards or away from the hole. Where you land your ball can often be very important because if you hit a downhill bump then the ball can go flying past the green, but if the ball catches an uphill bump it can stop dead. So once you have assessed everything that may affect the ball getting close to the hole you are ready to select a club and take your shot.
Club selection is vastly important with chip shots, and can often make a difference with how close the ball will get to the hole. You can be taught with 6 or 7 irons to play the chip and run shot, which is often the right choice if you have to clear a little bit of rough or fairway and you have a fair amount of green to work with to run the ball, using the contours of the green. If you have to clear something like a patch of rough, or a nasty slope, then perhaps using a lofted club might be a better idea. It means the ball would stop quicker and you can take out a lot of the breaks and hills on the green, pitching the ball just short of the hole. There are also specialist clubs to use for chipping, such as chippers, specifically designed to put the ball close to the hole. It is a little more lofted then using an iron but plays a softer chip and run shot, and can be used if the pin is perhaps no that far onto the green.
The perfect chip shot is about making the right decisions before you play the shot; it is possibly the only point playing golf, where actually playing the shot is the easy part of the process.
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