Phil Mickelson: Chipping 101

There are a variety of shots we can hit around the green. The short game is a lot of fun to play in practice, but it all comes from our foundation, our most basic

chipping

motion,

chipping

101, and that's what we're going to do today because we're not about a square face putter or something like that, there are a million different ways to hit a putter when you have so much coverage on the ball because the face is square, it's so easy to make contact and yet you can do it so many ways. In chipping you are dealing with a 60 degree wedge where the leading edge hits the ball first and so there is only one way to chip.

Everything we do in chipping is designed to keep the leading edge down and therefore as much as possible. The basic movement requires you to do three things: the first is where the position of your weight is, it should be on your front foot, because if it is on your back foot, the leading edge goes up, so your weight should be on your front foot, number two, your hands. it has to be a head your hands shouldn't be behind they have to be in front creating almost a reverse line you don't even want to be straight you want it to be turned where your hands are our head and the number three you have to decide if you're going to go down or up if you are going to go down the toes of your back foot if you are going to hide the toes of your front foot but it should never be between your feet most people hit with the ball between your feet and they have not decided what shot they are going for to do when the ball is between your feet you can't put your weight forward because you will go over it if you want to try Hit it high, you have to lift it up so you put your weight back to try to help it up.

You can't hit the ball between your feet, but people over and over again try to hit the ball between their feet, so the most basic. chip here we're going to go low balls from the back foot now we can vary depending on how low or high you want to go, but it's going to vary from the back foot it's not going to move from that my hands are forward my weight is forward and I'll do a little running low shot now that came out a little too hot and went over the hole, so I'm going to hit the next hello, a little higher and softer, the ball will be off my front foot my weight is still forward my hands are still forward you can see it went up a lot higher and stopped a lot faster now if I want the ball to stop more or less I can adjust the face but there are three things you have to do on each other you have to remove the ball from your front foot, the front foot to go up, you have to take it off the back foot to go down, your hands have to be a head and your weight is always on your front foot if you do it and you will achieve solid contact every time.

It's the easiest short swing in golf, but no one does it well. Very few people. If you do it right, it couldn't be easier. I hope it helps you.