About 25 years ago, I was struggling on the Asian Tour. I had Q-School coming up in a week and was grinding on the chipping green.
I grew up in the Midwest, and I thought I was a good chipper—until I got to Malaysia and Thailand. The native grass there had broad leaves and loose roots. If you hit even slightly behind it or tried to use the bounce to slide the club under, you’d fat it. I became paranoid. Soon I was fating and skulling everything. It got so bad that I started chipping with a 6-iron or putting from off the green.
One day while I was practicing, a Thai pro walked by and muttered, “Not solid.” Back in Ohio, I was a confident chipper, so I stopped him and asked what he meant.
In his broken English, he explained that I was hitting the ball too high on the face. I told him it felt softer that way—like a solid shot. He shook his head. “True for long shot,” he said, “not for chipping. For chip, you hit on first four grooves. Should feel clicky, not soft.”
Then he explained further: if you strike it lower on the face with your hands leading through impact, there’s no way to skull it over the green. The only time you skull a chip is when you let the clubhead pass your hands at impact. That shot can be done, but it requires a perfect lie and a lot of practice to pull it off consistently.
Where I grew up in Ohio, the lies were almost always perfect. You could slide the club under with the bounce, hit it high, and get away with it. But those shots had no spin. And in the short game, spin is king. On firm tournament greens, a high shot with no spin just bounces and rolls out—the higher you hit it, the further it runs. Producing spin is what makes the ball stop.
After we talked, I started to work hard on my chipping. Here’s what I do now to produce a standard checking chip shot:
Setup
- Stand almost straight up and down. To feel this, I purposely lean slightly toward the target. After long full-swing sessions, I naturally tilt away from the target, so I counteract it by setting up with a tilt that is towards the target.
- Feet shoulder-width apart.
- Ball in the middle of the stance.
Stroke
- Minimal wrist hinge going back.
- Swing through with the hands leading the clubhead through impact.
Impact
- Make sure to strike the ball on the first four grooves of the clubface.
Result
- A lower chip shot that checks up with spin.
This is the foundation — the standard checking chip shot. Once you master it, you can vary your setup and produce many different shots using the same basic stroke.
👉 In the next article, I’ll break down the setup changes that can transform your short game and give you even more options around the green.