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I’m PGA Teaching Professional Todd Kolb with USGolfTV, and in this segment of On the Lesson Tee we’re talking about proper ball positioning in chipping, and once again they’ve been given some bad information. They’ve been told to play the ball pay back in the stance. So for a right-handed golfer, they move the ball way back towards their right foot. Now what happens with that is that it causes them to hit down on the ball, which has some advantages to it; but typically—once again—it de-lofts the golf club.
One of the worst things you can do when it comes to chipping is to de-loft the golf club. So when you move the ball too far back and you leave your hands forward, the club has less loft on it; therefore the ball comes out lower. The club hits the ground; it kind of digs or grabs; we can chunk it, we can skull it; you can hit all types of shots. So the proper ball position is—I believe—to have the ball in the center of the stance. I like the ball in the center of the stance, with my weight slightly forward. If I can do that, I can control the bottom of the swing, I can control where the club comes in contact with the ground, and I can get the ball to pop up nice and high; and I can also have the wedge go through the turf nice and soft.
