23 Short Golf Tips On Chipping

Chips are short shots, but are crucial to keeping your overall score low. I gathered 23 short tips on chipping so you can find the best ones that suit you and improve your chipping.

In most cases, you’re chipping because of a missed green and are aiming to go up and down to save par. These chips come in all different shapes and sizes, and you need to be prepared for all of them. Follow the tips below to get yourself ready for every situation you’ll encounter around the greens.

23 short golf chipping tips

1. Know your best style of chipping and default to it. If you’re a pitch chipper, take the pitch shot.
2. Have a few wedges. Versatility around the greens makes life easy.
3. Be able to hit wedges in different ways. Practice hitting high and low chips with each club.
4. Pick a landing spot on or close to the green. Aim to hit that mark rather than the pin. A good rule of thumb is picking a spot 1/3 of the way to your target or 1/2 of the way to your target if greens are slow. (depends on the wedge you have, this rule is for the sand wedge)
5. Walk up to the green on short shots. Knowing what’s ahead prepares you. (Not knowing what’s there is not an excuse)
6. One of the most common misses is because of dipping as you make contact. Keep your body still and move your arms.
7. You can chip with a hybrid or wood. Take a putt-like stroke and use their low loft to run chips up.
8. Use a lower iron club for situations where you can use a lot green. You can control the ball better when rolling it. Practice 9 iron chips that just carry the fringe and the roll all the way to the hole.
9. A sand wedge chip rolls the same distance as it flies (take into consideration that this depends on the green speed)
10. The shorter the chipping stroke, the less room you have to mess up.
11. The number one priority of a short shot is to get the ball on the green. If you’re chipping, success is your next shot being a putt. A chip doesn’t always need to stop within 3 feet of the hole.
12. You’re chipping because your last shot missed the mark. Take a moment or two to cool off if you need to.
13. Pursuit of spin leads to skulling the ball more often than you think. Don’t be afraid of a little roll.
14. If the ground is wet step a little closer to the ball and lean the shaft more upright. This way you will use more club bounce and you'll dig less into the wet and soft ground.
15. Bring your wedges to the range to work on mid-distance chips. Ignoring those 20 yarders will cost you unnecessary strokes.
16. If you have an unconventional style that works for you, go with it. (But also work on developing new methods to add on)
17. Decide whether the chip is going to fly high or run low and go with it. Be confident in your choice.
18. A slight forward press helps make contact in the middle of the face. Use practice time to figure out your sweet spot and keep your hands in front of the ball.
19. Keep your head down. The ball isn’t going too far, you’ll see it soon. If you pick your head up, the ball is sure to shoot across the green and you’ll need to keep the wedge out.
20. Soft hands are everything. Move too quickly and distance will be impossible to control.
21. Keep the ball in the middle of your stance. Moving it too far forward doesn’t help launch it high and moving it too far back won’t give you spin like the pros.
22. Don’t only practice in ideal conditions. Drop balls in the rough to figure out how hard you need to swing.
23. Last but not least, don’t chip unless you feel it's the best option for the best result. Putters can be used from the fringe and occasionally the rough.
24.  

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed the 23 short tips on chipping and that some of them are valuable for your technique. Beside all these tips make sure you practice chipping. Practice makes perfect and chip shot is one of the most important golf shots to practice.

Every distance, lie and position can be a different chip so make sure you practice random position on a golf course or a driving range.

If you practice on a driving range I have a great way of practice - take your basket of golf balls and just randomly throw them around the green in 20 yard radius. This way you will have a different chip shot with every ball - like on the golf course. 😉