Some tips on pitching and chipping

Following on from the assortment of advice on chipping in an earlier thread, I dug out my copy of ‘Shark Attack’ by Greg Norman. I’ve owned this book for many years and I still return to it from time to time. Anyway, this is Greg’s take on playing the chip and pitch shot. This is masterful in its simplicity and I hope a few of you get some value from it.

Alignment:
First, narrow your stance and open it up, so that your feet, knees, hips and shoulders are aligned about 20degrees left of square and your heels are close together. On a chip shot, your heels should be no more than eight inches apart. The narrowness will help you minimise your weight shift and body movement which can sabotage your touch and control. The open stance will help you get a good look at the target.

Grip:
Grip down at least an inch on the club and much more if you like. Shortening the distance between your hands and the club head puts you in closer touch with the ball and that enhances your feel whilst also enabling you to make a good crisp swing without worrying about hitting the ball too far.

Ball Position:
For a standard chip shot your ball position should be about the same as for a long-iron shot, just off the left heel or a hair behind that. With the open stance, it will seem that the ball is further back and that’s fine because you want to have a bit more weight on your left side and you want to keep your hands ahead of the ball, both at address and throughout the swing.

The chip is essentially a mini-swing. I don’t try to do anything fancy or make any special moves. It’s just a short back swing controlled by the arms. The longer the chip I have, the farther I bring the club back, but it’s rare that my hands swing as far as waist height. To my mind, the chip shot is as natural a movement as throwing a ball onto the green under-handed. If your wrists break, then so be it, but don’t try to keep them stiff and don’t try to flick them. Let the wristcock occur naturally. On short chips you’ll have no wrist action at all and on longer chips you’ll have quite a lot. Don’t think consciously about it, just let it happen.

Be crisp and aggressive on even your shortest shots. Lead through impact with your hands applying a slightly descending blow to the ball. If your hands don’t reach your left knee on the follow-through before the club-head you need to work on your chipping.

Which Clubs to use?
Visualise the ideal shot in your mind before you select the club. This should show you the point at which the perfect shot will hit the green and the amount of roll required to get the ball up to the hole. Some players opt for playing chips with one club only. To my mind that is making things too difficult because it demands that you stretch the capability of the club to play the shot. The way I see it there are 7 or 8 clubs in the bag capable of playing the shot. I play my chip shots with anything from a 3-iron to a sand wedge, depending on the demands of the situation. If I am on the fringe and have 70 – 80 feet to work with I will take a 3-iron and hit what amounts to a long putt using my normal putting stroke and letting it roll out all the way to the hole. For a forty footer, I might use a 5 or 6-iron, for a thirty footer an 8 or 9-iron and a wedge for the short chips. For uphill chips on multi-tiered greens, I will often use a mid-iron.

Pitching:
Outside 25 yards you are now pitching. Use a similar open, narrow stance with the ball off your left heel, hands forward and weight slightly on left side. The stance will be a bit wider for a pitch and your stance will be less open (10degrees). Grip down an inch on the club. You use a long chipping action letting wrist break occur naturally. I have found there are only two effective ways to vary the length of pitch shots. Either vary the length of the swing or grip up and down on the club. Varying the pace of the swing, does not work, because you lose your natural tempo. Generally the shorter pitch you have, the shorter back swing you take. As you get closer, grip down too. However, you must strike the ball positively; make a firm aggressive swing.

With any pitch shot, planning is vitally important. Pick your spot and appreciate that with a hard, fast surface that spot might be just short of the green, whilst with a soft uphill shot, it could be quite close to the hole.

My chipping has been not too shabby recently. The difference has been that I now grip the club a lot closer to the start of the grip (in effect, shortening the shaft).

Nearly 100% lovely, crisp strikes now, Obviously, the other constituents are required, i.e. narrow, open stance, descending blow, etc., but the shortened shaft appears to have been the missing link for me.

Great article Noshankingtonite
I was particularly taken with this comment "Varying the pace of the swing, does not work, because you lose your natural tempo. "

I keep saying it but tempo is so important in the short game. Keep your tempo consistent and your touch for distance control is made so much easier.

One thing a pro pointed out to me is make your practice swing (if you take one) as close to the real swing as possible. He pointed out the difference in tempo of my practice swings to my real swings and it was laughable. The practice swing was so slow and meek compared to what the actual stroke was. Committing to how aggressive your actual strike has to be in the practice swing makes committing to the actual shot a lot more easy. I noticed when I went to the Scottish Open recently how much the pros actually 'scud' the ground with practice swings and it really reinforced what I had been told.

I'm suffering at the moment with my chipping so much so that whenever the ball is sitting even remotely decently, out comes the putter!!

My problem is that I hit the ground before the ball which results with either a full on duff or sometimes thinning the ball. I suspect I'm being too wristy through the chip but would appreciate any guidance from anyone who has been similarly aflicted and what they did to eradicate the problem.

Thanks.

Humpyd wrote:I'm suffering at the moment with my chipping so much so that whenever the ball is sitting even remotely decently, out comes the putter!!

My problem is that I hit the ground before the ball which results with either a full on duff or sometimes thinning the ball. I suspect I'm being too wristy through the chip but would appreciate any guidance from anyone who has been similarly aflicted and what they did to eradicate the problem.

Thanks.

Play it like a putt - a smooth stroke with no wrists. The natural loft of the wedge is all you need, but you still need to practice this to get pace and length - it's not a quick permanent fix.

Humpyd

I have been suffering with exactly the same ailment for months and I'm slowly getting over it. This is what I've been working on......

Concentrate on keeping your legs still through the swing, I noticed that my knees where sliding forward through the shot and this was altering my position when the club came back to the impact position. I also noticed that my backswing was getting very short leading to a jabby action through the ball as my brain was telling my hands to give it a bit more oomph. By concentrating on a longer, smoother swing I'm slowly getting my confidence back.

Hope this helps, I know how soul destroying it can be, I seriously considered giving up golf this summer!!

humpyd - see link, good response on this:

https://www.606v2.com/t10029-advice-for-a-positive-attitude-to-chipping-please

i'm a long way off being cured, but seeing definite improvement!!

In said previous thread i said i chipped using minimal wrist hinge and got absolutely hammered for it.
Good luck Merc!!
Oh, and good luck to this Greg Norman fella too who doesn't seem to concur with 'break your wrists as soon as poss' either

I'm ready for it...............

Thanks for the responses everyone. I can see I'm not the only one!!

Maybe we should set up Bad Chippers Anonymous. (I'm HumpyD and I'm a bad chipper!!) Although that might clash with my meetings of Bad Putters Anonymous!!

D4S, it makes so much sense to me to play the chip like a putt i.e. with no/minimal wrist action) so this is the way I'm going to approach it. It's like a lot of things, we each have our favoured way to do things and if it works then fine.

MustPuttBetter wrote:In said previous thread i said i chipped using minimal wrist hinge and got absolutely hammered for it.
Good luck Merc!!
Oh, and good luck to this Greg Norman fella too who doesn't seem to concur with 'break your wrists as soon as poss' either

I'm ready for it...............

Did you mean to mention me in that, MPB?

Mercurio wrote:Did you mean to mention me in that, MPB?

I did indeed sir
You advised a 'no wrists' approach, which reminded me of that earlier thread

I got a chipping and pitching lesson and the pro pointed out I was taking the club back way too quickly (and too much) to the inside. It was leading to thins, fats the lot. He got me swing a lot more out to in for these shots at the % of bad shots, or bad contact, has dropped dramatically. I was trying to control these shots too much with the arms and not allowing the shoulders and chest to turn as well.

Its so easy to get someone to video your chipping to check any funky swing paths. If it is a swing path issue then be prepared to have to work the club in entirely opposite swing path to bring the path back to a more neutral one!

MustPuttBetter wrote:

Mercurio wrote:Did you mean to mention me in that, MPB?

I did indeed sir
You advised a 'no wrists' approach, which reminded me of that earlier thread

Ah, right. 'Good luck' on the expected subsequent fall-out, you meant?

Mercurio wrote:Ah, right. 'Good luck' on the expected subsequent fall-out, you meant?

Exactly
Although you do have Greg on your side. I went it alone

I should just point out that I have been adhering to some of Greg's advice (it's marvellous how a book can sit on your shelf for years gathering dust and my chipping has improved dramatically). S' funny too, I've been really struggling with my putting this year and my old fella casually mentioned the other day 'are you keeping your head down and making a proper stroke or are you looking for it too early?' On all putts and short chips now, I read the line, pick a spot and keep my head down until the ball is well on it's way. On a putt of six feet or less I don't move my head until the ball is either in or past the hole. I've been watching what the pros do too and universally, those that keep their heads down and make a good stroke putt far better than those with the anxious stroke and head and body up following the ball.

Noshankingtonite wrote:I should just point out that I have been adhering to some of Greg's advice (it's marvellous how a book can sit on your shelf for years gathering dust and my chipping has improved dramatically). S' funny too, I've been really struggling with my putting this year and my old fella casually mentioned the other day 'are you keeping your head down and making a proper stroke or are you looking for it too early?' On all putts and short chips now, I read the line, pick a spot and keep my head down until the ball is well on it's way. On a putt of six feet or less I don't move my head until the ball is either in or past the hole. I've been watching what the pros do too and universally, those that keep their heads down and make a good stroke putt far better than those with the anxious stroke and head and body up following the ball.

Good to hear some improvements occuring, always found Norman to be right up there with his pitching.

Best tip I ever got about short putts, was wait to hear the ball hitting the bottom of the hole before looking up, if you don't hear it then look up

Maverick wrote:

Best tip I ever got about short putts, was wait to hear the ball hitting the bottom of the hole before looking up, if you don't hear it then look up

I'll be stood out there in the dark then staring at my shoelaces