Peter Cowen has worked closely with the likes of Henrik Stenson and Danny Willett over the years and is one of the world’s elite teaching professionals. His latest exclusive Worldwide Golf tutorial teaches readers the fundamentals behind chipping, which is part of the game that separates the standard from the sublime.
Quality of Strike
The quality of strike is everything when you’re chipping. One of the biggest problems I see when teaching is that players position themselves too far away from the ball and they get too much rotation with the arms and hands, which prevents them from getting any down-force on the ball. This also affects the timing of the shot. Rotation and manipulation constantly fight against natural forces, and this is where the problem lies when it comes to consistency. The repetition of a movement allowing natural forces to move freely is what you are looking to achieve.
Natural Forces
If you lift any club out of your bag and drop it, it will fall to the floor and return to a vertical position. Therefore, the same principles should apply when you swing a club back. This becomes an issue for players if your club is parallel to the target point as it will fall behind. This affects
the strike, as the player naturally returns the club and manipulates their hands to try and address the problem. Once your hands move, your swing path, clubface and rotation becomes unnatural. This means you lose control of the flight, spin and direction of the shot.
How to address the problem
The closer you get to the natural force position, keeping the club vertically consistent in the swing, you will have more control when chipping. If you are struggling with your chipping, you should get much closer to the ball and let your arms extend to a full length so you have a constant from your shoulder position to your clubface. Then, when you swing you should just let the club fall so you strike the same point every time. Let natural forces help you play the shot.
Bad Lie
If you’re in a bad lie you should have the heel slightly off the ground with the toe pointing slightly downwards. This will give you a much higher percentage of a clean strike and not trapping the ground between the clubface and the ball. Your shots may go lower, but it will eliminate the misscues that are easily made when you are attempting to be too delicate around the greens.
