Now while these are the best shots of the year, they are also far apart and not that frequent
I realy want a consistent chip from the edge of the green , those nice little grabby check spin shots.. and those nice laggy rollouts
I havent figured it out yet!
The thing i am told, similar to snooker and pool, the less you grip the club, the more action you get from the face.. so definitely looking at that..
If you have seen any of my "on course" videos, you know that chipping is my weakest area right now... so 2023, all about the chips, and making an eagle..
Anyhow, here is the "best of" 2022 around the green, would love to hear your feedback, tips, tricks, drills (Yes @Tom Saguto I will get to that chapter in the school soon.. been a year still working through lesson 3 lol) and any advice you can afford me!
Thanks fellow Saguto Golfers
may the course be with you!..
@Bazza Clarke working on your short game will improve your scoring, for sure. There are lots of tips on YouTube as I'm sure you know.
Here is my take on chipping. About 15 years ago I went to lead hand low chipping ala Veejay Singh, and Matthew Fitzpatrick. I was fighting a debilitating chipping yip. Before that I was fighting a putting yip and solved that by going to a lead hand low putting grip. I had seen a tip about using your putting grip when chipping and standing the club up on its toe (as recommended by @Tom Saguto in his chipping course). Well since I putted lead hand low I tried chipping lead hand low and the difference was immediate. I no longer flinched with the right hand and cut the miss hits (skulling and chunking) by at least 90%. It takes some practice to dial in the amount of swing necessary to propel the ball the proper distance with whatever club you decide to chip with, but some practice with different clubs and different amounts of back swing will work that out. You can vary the height of the chip and therefore the roll out by where you place the ball in your stance. The basics still apply with the lead hand low grip. Weight forward, weight forward, weight forward. The farther back in your stance the lower the trajectory of the shot. Experiment with ball position and find the best ball position that provides the most consistent contact. You can also vary the club you use, but you have to practice with each club until you get a consistent strike and then you can and should chart the carry and roll distance for each club, each ball position, and each amount of swing you use. My chart is quite extensive but it is reasonably consistent. When doing this it is best to chart the shots at the same green each time as roll out will vary with green speed, slope, wind, green hardness, the alignment of the planets, etc. LOL! But seriously, once you get a favorite chipping club charted you can get most of chips pretty close most of the time. I find that my stock chip motion (back swing to 8 o'clock, feet two club heads apart, ball positioned on the big toe of my trail foot) with a 56* wedge tipped up on the toe slightly and face opened about 5* to a flat, dry green, with medium speed goes about twenty paces (25 - 30 feet) with 10 feet of carry and 15 feet of roll using a urethane coated ball. Once you have that dialed in you adjust for uphill (less roll) or down hill (more roll), and any other factors that influence the overall shot.
I don't make every chip, but I do chip in now and then. Most important though, I rarely have a two chip hole and get it within 3 feet under stock conditions. The more I have to adjust the bigger the resulting radius of miss, but when I'm putting good, I get up and down about 70 to 80 % of the time. I miss the green probably 7 or 8 times a round so getting 4 or 5 of those up and down really saves a good score.
Good luck on your journey to great chipping.