Chipping the golf ball is similar to bowling. You toss the ball a few feet in the air, and it rolls the rest of the way to the pins.
In golf terms, a chip shot has a lower trajectory and rolls like a putt the majority of distance to the hole. You chip the ball when you are only a few feet from the green and the grass between you and the green is not smooth enough to putt the ball instead. Use a sand wedge when chipping to a pin that is closer to you and a 9- or 8-iron to a pin that is farther away.
The basic fundamentals of a chip shot are established by how you set up to the ball, making sure you hit the shot with a descending blow from the golf club. The motion of the chip is delivered by your shoulders and arms while keeping your hands and wrists quiet, pretty similar to a putting stroke.
The most common misses when you chip are the chunk and the skull. The chunk is where you hit the turf behind the ball first, and the ball goes nowhere. The skull is where the club travels up, hitting the middle of the ball at impact and never getting the ball airborne, causing it to roll out of control across the green.
Both misses are usually when your sternum, or center, is not in front of the ball at impact and you use your hands too much trying to lift the ball in the air. During a solid chip, you will strike the ball with a descending blow and allow the loft of the club to create lift.
A good set-up is the first place to start to avoid those misses. Set up with a narrow stance, the ball positioned left of center, but not too far back, and weight balanced on your lead foot. The goal here is to position the club handle and your sternum in front of the golf ball so the bottom of your swing arc will strike the ball first, then continue downward as it brushes the turf.
If you use your hands too much and try to lift the ball in the air instead of hitting down on the ball, you will feel your hands flip through impact. To avoid the flip, make sure the back of your lead hand and wrist stay flat through impact. Any breakdown of your lead hand and wrist will result in thin shots — the dreaded skull.
If you need to bowl a strike when chipping, make sure you’re set up correctly to descend on the golf ball and avoid the flip of your hands by feeling your hands stay quiet. Then listen to the roar of the crowd as you knock down all the pins.
Peter Harris is the director of Golf at the Fore-U Golf Center in West Lebanon. His column appears weekly on the Recreation page during the golf season.