A pretty common trait we see amongst most golfers is they want to help the ball into the air when chipping. We tend to see players using too much bottom-hand through impact as they try to generate height with their hands rather than letting your body and club do the work.
A good drill to keep the hands and wrists more passive is to place an alignment cane alongside the shaft and take your normal address position for chipping. You should have a narrow stance with a little more weight on the front leg and the ball positioned just slightly back of centre. As you make your action, you will notice that as you approach impact and post impact, the alignment cane doesn’t allow so much hand and wrist action as the cane meets a little resistance with your upper body. Instead of the hands getting too active, it will encourage the body to be more involved. This drill is excellent in giving you the feel of more passive hands with your chip shots and instant feedback to what you’re aiming to feel.
Too much wrist action tends to cause problems with the contact and your trajectory, which, in turn, means it’s very difficult to chip the ball close and be consistent. Once you start to use the body more and get less hands involved, the strike will improve as well as your trajectory which will see an improvement in your ability to get the ball close.
Try this drill next time you’re out practicing to help you become more consistent when facing those awkward chips around the green that requires a meticulous amount of touch and control.
Head down to the Leadbetter Academy at JA The Resort to pick up some tips to help you lower your scores next time you’re out on the course.
