For the sake of simplicity, all advice on swings and drills is provided froma right handed perspective; lefties …. well, you know what to do 🙂

In my email today I received my RDGA GHIN Handicap Revision Update, as well as a chipping tip from a high profile golf instructor.

In the tip, he said that for tight lies play the ball back in your stance to insure that you don’t hit it fat.

Then I saw another article from another professional instructor claiming that this tip was dead wrong. He took issue with the positioning of the ball and the resultant forward lean of the shaft, because in that instructors opinion, it would cause the leading edge of the club to dig into the ground do to the extreme shaft lean.
Both of these guys are famous teachers, one is old school, one is of the more modern variety. You’d recognize at least one of the names – but I’m not giving either of them up.

Here’s my take on this chipping method cyber-disagreement.

First of all, it’s probably wrong to absolutely characterize a tip as “wrong” because of the many different methods used to swing the club. As I’ve said many times before in this newsletter, there are a lot of ways to skin the cat in golf.

Personally, I think that you only should play the ball way back in your stance if you have a terrible lie.  If, however, you decided to play the ball back in your stance, you should not blame a fat hit on the leading edge of the club digging into the ground. That’s a faulty stroke issue – most likely a weight distribution problem, or possibly
a premature release of the impact angles in your hands and wrists, which would make the club long prior to impact.

If your weight is forward and your stroke is good, your strike should be good – period.

Extreme forward or rear ball positioning is unnecessary except for extremely unusual lies.

Here’s the simple chipping method that I teach.

First of all, I have the student set up in a narrow, slightly open stance, weight well forward, and hands forward – as in over the front thigh.

Then I have the student take several short chipping stroke practice swings to see where the club is brushing the grass.

Then I have the student position the ball just about where the club was first touching the grass, which is usually just about the center of their open stance.

This ball position allows for “ball first” contact.

Then I have the student rock the club back, up, and slightly inward, then turn their body to initiate the gentle but firm downward, forward pull and turn through the shot, with firm hands.

The hands and wrists stay in the impact position through and beyond the strike.

If the student needs to hit the ball lower they can play it back further in their stance.

If they need to hit it higher, they can move it forward in their stance (lie permitting), open their stance slightly, and open their clubface slightly.

The swing method remains the same, and their setup remains the same, especially their weight being well forward.

This is simple and it works, give it a try – you’ll like it.

Enjoy your golf,

Tom