One of the most critical factors to chipping well is how well you evaluate your lie. Each golf shot must be attacked differently depending on the lie. We dropped two golf balls in the rough right next to each other and they ended up in very different lies.
The first golf ball was sitting on top of the grass. There was very little grass behind the golf ball and a lot of air underneath it. In this situation, the proper technique is to sweep the ball off the grass in a motion similar to a putting stroke. The club head should remain relatively low to the ground on both sides of the swing and you really don’t have to do anything too fancy.
The second golf ball was sitting at the bottom of the grass. There was all sorts of grass surrounding the golf ball. It almost looked like it was sitting in a bird’s nest. In order to hit this shot properly, I had to do a few things differently. I needed to swing much more steeply. This involved more weight on my left leg and sharper wrist cock in the back swing. I also needed to swing with more speed to account for the excess grass around the golf ball. All of these adjustments made for a very different swing than I made at the ball sitting on top of the grass. If I had attacked this golf ball the same way as I attacked the first, I would have been very disappointed in my result. I would have had an impossible time making consistent contact with the golf ball and walked away thinking I needed to work on my technique.
The truth is that your lie is everything around the greens. If you don’t evaluate your lie properly, you have very little chance of chipping well.
Evaluate whether or not you can hit the ball cleanly, how much grass there is around the ball, the type of grass, everything. Take enough practice swings to evaluate how your club will react in the grass. Every shot is different. Adjust accordingly for best results.
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