Knowing How to Hit a Chip Shot Will Improve Your Game!
One of the most common questions we get is from guests wanting to know how to hit a chip shot in different situations. This free golf lesson focuses on the three distances of chip shots (long, mid and short) and why you’d want to use each one. Matt then goes on to demonstrate them in action and shows you how to perform them on your own consistently.
MATT DILLMAN, PGA PROFESSIONAL>> Hi, my name’s Matt Dillman, head golf professional here at Thousand Hills Resort in beautiful Branson, Missouri. Today I’m going to talk about how to hit a chip shot.
You really have to know how to hit these to keep those scores low and keep your game good. What I’m going to start with is, I’ve got my sand wedge. We’re just going to talk about the 3 types of chip shots you’ll need to hit around these greens which everybody knows is not flat in the Ozarks. I’m going to talk about the low shot, the medium shot, and the high shot. We’ll start with the low shot.
The low shot, the way I’m going to set up over the ball–the ball is going to be in the back of my stance with the club square to the target – hands in front. You always want to keep your hands in front to keep that club delofted as you come through. That will project the ball low and let it roll. You’ll need to use this shot when you have a long pin and a lot of green to work with. Let’s see how this works out.
I think that one worked out pretty well, let’s talk about the medium chip shot.
Same thing in the setup, you want to put the ball in the middle of your stance now–not the back. You want to square your club face to the target. We’re going to let the club do the work now, this is what’s going to get the ball in the air. Keep your hands on top of the ball meaning you’re not way in front or way behind. Come through normal, everything’s normal, mid-trajectory shot.
Now you can see how that ball was a little bit higher than the first one. That was what we were wanting. You want to use that shot when you have a medium green. Now we’re going to talk about the high shot.
The high shot is when you have to hit it over a bunker and the pin is close to the edge. You short sighted yourself and you’re in trouble. What do you have to do? You have to hit it over the bunker and hit it so that the ball will stop when it hits the green. The way we’re going to do that is you need to open your club face just a little bit, you need to put the ball more in the front of your stance. And you need to make sure to keep your hands on top of the club face. Again, not in front, but not behind as you’re coming through the ball. Let me hit this and see if we can show the difference in the trajectory.
Now you see how that ball was much higher and stopped much quicker. That’s the shot you’ll need when you need to get that ball to stop real quick.
Hopefully these shots will help you out when you’re playing golf in the Ozarks, we hope to see you at Thousand Hills!
Hopefully you now know how to hit a chip shot and you’ll be ready for whatever you find out on the greens. If you’d like to learn more, be sure to watch one of the other dozens of Free Golf Lessons from Thousand Hills Golf Course.
