The longest and straightest
golf shots in the world are totally ineffective unless
you can get the ball into the hole in regulation figures
or better, so it is important that you acquire
the skills to finish off the perfect fairway shots.
Therefore it is time to look at the part of the game
of golf which requires the golfer to be able to strike
the ball correctly and land it with accuracy on the
green.
If
you can master the art of chipping and pitching the ball, you will see your scores drop
by a few shots per round.
If you want
to be able to chip and pitch the ball with precision there are three things you must learn:-
1) At the address position you must focus your eyes on the back edge of
the golf ball and literally watch that point on the golf ball until the precise
moment the club head makes contact with the ball and
then maintain you focus on the spot the ball was resting
for a millisecond after the ball has been struck.
(
You must practice over and over
the action of watching the back edge of the golf ball
and fully focus on this point, right up to the precise
moment the club head strikes the ball - with every
golf shot.
Until you reach that point, you will
struggle to be a very good chipper of the ball - you
must focus on the point where the club head strikes
the ball and keep the focus of your eyes on that point for much
longer than you can imagine.)
2) You must learn to strike the ball with a downwards stroke. (The old saying " you got to hit down on the ball to get it to go up" is absolutely correct.)
3) At the precise moment the ball is struck, the hands must be held in the original address position until after the ball has been struck, then move towards the target area after the club head.
Chipping requires
the golfer to use a selection of golf club, depending
on the length of the shot required to enable the golfer
to chip the ball so that it lands on a particular part of the
green and run the remainder of the distance to the
hole, remembering that any club you use to chip, the ball will normally run on the green the same distance that the ball was in the air.
However to key to very good chipping is that when it comes to playing the actual shot -- you must play the actual shot with the same speed and tempo as when you took practiced swings, do not have second thoughts about the length of the back swing movement.
The basic principle of all iron shots is that you must strike the ball with a descending blow to make the ball go up -and this principle is equally important when chipping the ball from around the green.
Experiment on the practice area and at first exaggerate the downwards strike of the club head into the top back edge of the ball and gradually you will achieve a bit of finesse and soon you will be able to control the flight and the strength of the chip shot required.
At all times, when pitching or chipping the ball you must ensure that you rotate the shoulders to make the back swing movement, do not fall into the bad habit of simple lifting the arms to complete the back swing movement, I can assure you from experience that failure to rotate the shoulder will result in erratic golf shots.
Chipping.
(A chip shot is used to cover a very short distance, for example when you are adjacent to the green, anything longer is a pitch shot.)
To correctly perform a chip
shot, the shoulders, the arms must be held together
as a solid unit and remain so throughout the action.
As you only make a short back swing movement for chipping, it needs to be a controlled movement of the compact upper body unit.
Set Up.
First of all slightly open your stance then put all of your weight onto the left leg and keep the weight over the left leg throughout the chipping action..
Place a ball in the middle of your stance and then address the ball.
At the address position hold the golf club with the hands slightly ahead of the golf ball and ensuring that the left arm and the golf club are seen to be a straight line.
Begin the chipping action by slowly rotating the shoulders and the arms for a very short distance, but keeping the left arm as the controlling factor.
( On a short chip
the wrist will only slightly cock.)
Make a back swing that you think is correct for the distance you intend to hit the ball --- now whilst holding the whole body in the slightly twisted condition and keeping the upper body passive to the movement of the hips use the rotation of the hips to rotate the whole twisted body so that the club head strikes the ball.
At the precise moment the club head strikes the ball, the hands remain static until after the ball has been struck, then the club head swings past the ball position and the hands follow.
Remember, the weight of the body must remain over
the left foot, you must ensure that the head is firmly held in the original
address position, this will assist in you performing the chipping action
without the body swaying back and forth and you must watch the ball throughout the chipping action so that actually see the ball moving away as it is struck.
If you perform the chipping action correctly, after the ball has been struck you will see a black image on the ground where the ball was originally resting -- the image is only visible for a milli-second but it will confirm that you watched the ball right up to the point of contact.
To perform the perfect chipping
action it only requires a slow half
back swing movement, but it requires your absolute
focus on the back edge of the golf ball so that you literally see the club head strike
the ball with a descending blow, but ensuring that the club head strikes the ball before making contact with the ground.
When you first begin to try to chip in this manner, you will probable hit the ball too hard, but after a short while you will soon be able to judge the correct downwards pressure of the golf ball to send the ball a particular distance.
But importantly the hands must move towards the target area at the same speed that the club head moves through the contact area, thus maintaining the left arm and the golf club in a straight line as set at the impact position, until well after the ball has been struck.
Therefore to achieve the desired result you must focus
on using the club head to strike down on the back of the ball.
The chipping movement is a seamless action created
by the rotational movement of the upper body unit coupled with a flexible wrist action,
therefore it is vital that you maintain your focus
on the back of the golf ball at all times.
TIP (for Chipping)
The key to mastering the art of chipping is to keep
the weight of your body predominantly on your front
foot, (Which is the left foot if you are a right handed player.) and the head
absolutely dead still whilst the whole twisted body rotates around the central core of the spine, but importantly, you must focus your
eyes intensely on the
back edge of the golf ball, ie, the part of the ball you can see - this is where the club
head must be aimed.
(You must maintain this focus on
this point for a much longer period than you can imagine.)
It is absolutely vital that you focus on the back
edge of the ball right up to the precise moment the
club head strikes the ball.
( The extent of the body turn both back and forth, depends on how far the chip shot has to travel)
But the overriding factors that will enable you
to chip with perfection is to keep the head firmly in the original address position throughout
the chipping stroke, make sure the lower part of the body does not sway and equally important, make sure that your hands move past the original address position at the same speed that the club head strikes the ball with a downwards action.
Any lateral movement of the head, no matter how slight,
will result in a miss hit.
However when playing
a chip shot on the golf course, I can assure you that
most golfers take their eyes off the ball a fraction
of a second before the club head strikes the ball
and therefore prematurely begin to look to see where
the ball is going.
This results in disasters such as hitting the ground
behind the ball, thinning the shot or even shanking
the ball - watching the ball until the club head strikes the ball and learning to strike the ball with a slicing action will rectify the problem.
When carrying out a very delicate
chip shots, it often only requires a very slow swing movement, nevertheless
chipping the ball is a simple task as long as you
follow a few standard rules, which includes:-
1) Holding the shoulder,
the arms and the golf club firmly together as
a very compact and solid unit, holding the arms so
that the elbows remain as close together as it is
physically possible and with the right elbows tucked
into the waist, and with the club face square to the
target line.
2) Focus intensely on the back edge of the golf ball and
ensure that the club face remains square to the ball
as it strikes the golf ball with slightly descending blow and with a slicing action, but importantly, hold the hands in a static position until the ball has been struck
and only then allow the hands to follow the club head into the follow through
3) Keeping
the head firmly positioned slightly behind the ball and in the
Fixed Frontal condition
whilst the twisted body rotates around the central core of the spine.
It is vital that you learn to focus
your eyes on the ball and literally watch the back
edge of the golf ball until the precise moment the
club head strikes the ball, but importantly, the weight
of your body must be predominantly over the front
foot so that your head remains fixed in the original
address position.
Practice Swings.
The practice swings will give you
the opportunity to estimate how far you have to take
the club head back in the back swing movement in order
to create sufficient momentum of the club head to
move the ball the distance that you desire.
The practice swings are also important
for you to build up a mentally image in your mind
of the club head sweeping down under the ball without
any resistance from the golf ball.
But remember, at the precise moment
that the club head makes contact with the ball, the
shoulders, the arms and the angle of the golf club must remain
fully bonded as a very compact unit.
Make sure that every practice swing
that you make has a useful input to your memory cells.
All the tuition in the world cannot
teach you the delicate touch that is required during
the chipping process, only by practicing the chipping
technique on the practice ground will you be able
to develop these skills, but I can assure you that
if you can teach yourself to actually see the club
head strike the ball, your chipping will improve dramatically.
Pitching.
A Pitch shot is simply a shortened
version of the full golf swing.
Therefore to pitch the ball it
simply requires you to carry out exactly the same
swing movements that you would use for the full swing,
the only difference is that you only make a maximum
of a three quarter swing action and in addition, the
swing action is slower than the full swing.
Therefore the emphasis is on precision, because the
distance is determined by the length of your back
swing.
Although the pitch shot is a shorter
version of the full shot, in order to dramatically
increase your chances of pitching the ball in an accurate
manner it is absolutely vital that you :-
1) Learn to focus on the back edge
of the golf ball and literally watch the back edge
of the ball until the club head strikes the ball.
2) Keep the head firmly positioned
slightly behind the ball with "pin point accuracy"
at all times and in the Fixed Frontal condition.
3) Use the pivotal movement of
the hips to literally force the compact upper body
unit to follow its movement and rotate back to the
original address position and on into the follow through
movement - but concentrating on swinging the club
head to the bottom of the swing arc with
an "out to in" swing plane
(The downward movement of the club
head as it strikes the ball automatically moves the
ball upwards and forward for a distance that is dependent
on the loft of the club face and the speed of the
club head.)
However the same principle applies,
you must watch the ball carefully so that you strike
the ball cleanly with a descending blow, but importantly
you must watch the spot that the ball was resting
on whilst the club head swings to the bottom of the
swing arc.
When you are fully focused
on the ball and you maintain this focus until after
the ball has been struck, you will notice that after
the ball has been struck, the retina retains the
image of the ball for a millisecond, but magically
this image has been converted to a black image.
Therefore if you can detect this dark image directly after you have struck the ball, this will
indicate to you that you have correctly continued
to look at the position the ball was resting until
after the ball was struck.
Importantly, the head must remain
positioned slightly behind the ball and in the Frontal
Facing condition and the upper body angle must be
retained until well after the ball has been struck.
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Bunker Play
Focus intensely on a point just behind the ball and
ensure that the club face remains square to the ball, make a short flat backswing and swing the club head into the sand, just behind ball, but to get the ball out of the sand you must keep the hands in a static position as the club head swings under the ball. ( static poition =The hands do not move away from the address position until afer the ball has been struck.)
Once the ball has been struck you then allow the hands to follow the club head into the follow through.
