Imagine you’re standing by your ball, just short of the green on the fairway. A slight uphill lie with trees framing the green. There are several feet of fairway and then the pin is in the middle of a beautiful simply sloped green. You grab the high lofted wedge you always hit these short distances, and visualize this arching shot landing just before the pin, spinning and stopping with just the easiest of tap-ins. As the club contacts the ball, the hard rock feel tells you all you need to know… you watch as your ball sails over the green. FUCK! You grab another ball, now noticeably irritated, but you know you can’t thin it twice. And you are right, as this time the club slides beautifully through the turf… if only several inches before the ball. It then rolls gently onto the very front edge of the green. That Titleist logo just staring at you… so close you can still read the damn thing. It’s such a short shot, why is it so hard?
If you are someone reading the story above and go, why did they not hit a “bump and run”… congratulations you are bumped up to the head of the class. But do you know why this type of shot is easier to hit than the other? It may not be for the reason you are thinking.
Many clients and golfers I have played with use the same club for chipping, no matter where they are around the green. 1 yard off the green and very little ground to work with… 60 degree wedge! 1 yard off the green but this time lots of green between them and the pin… gimme that same 60 degree wedge please! Why not take a much less-lofted club, bump the ball onto the green and let it roll to the hole. A small motion with an 8 iron to get the ball rolling is going to have far less deviation for where the ball will finish. Whoa, slow down, what’s that mean? It means that many chips with an 8 iron is going to be a much tighter grouping than the same number of chips with a high lofted wedge. This is because a chipping swing with an 8 iron is going to be much smaller than a wedge to get the ball to the same distance. So with less swing speed, the club can’t dig into the ground even hitting a little behind the ball… and even if you do blade it thin… it certainly isn’t going to go careening over the green!
Chipping is not hitting the ball perfect… its about getting the club that is easiest to duff close to the pin! It’s a hard fucking game, and making huge swings for no reason just makes it so much harder. I’ll fully admit to accepting a tap-in after duffing an 8 iron in that exact situation just a few weeks ago. But a pro never admits to duffing a chip close! ;)