Improve Your Chip Shot with Dan Davis, PGA Pro at Thousand Hills Branson Golf Course
Improve your chip shot with the following video from Dan Davis. Dan is the PGA Professional at Thousand Hills Branson Golf Course and today he’s working on the chip shot with world famous entertainer, Buck Trent. For more information, visit our Buck Trent Show page.
>>DAN DAVIS, PGA PROFESSIONAL: Hi my name’s Dan Davis and I’m the PGA Golf Professional at Thousand Hills Golf Resort in Branson and today we’ve got a special guest with us. We’ve got Buck Trent!
>>BUCK TRENT: Oh yeah!
>>DAN: Buck has been a staple in Branson for the last, how many years now?
>>BUCK: 20 Years or so.
>>DAN: 20 Years. Buck’s got some exciting stuff going on this year. He’s at a new theater, at Clay Cooper’s new theater here in town.
>>BUCK: Yeah, morning show’s at 9:30.
>>DAN: 9:30 in the morning, great way to get out and see a little bit of legendary Branson entertainment.
Today Buck’s here with us and we’re out here at the chipping block at Thousand Hills and we’re going to go over a few pointers to possibly help improve your chip shot and we’ll see how it goes.
>>BUCK: Oh yeah, you’re gonna tell them how good I am!
*laughter*
>>DAN: He’s not too bad, believe me.
Ok, we’ve been working on this for just a little bit. A couple pointers we want to make sure that we’re in a couple of positions before we hit a shot. What we’re talking about here is a chip and run. The difference between a chip and a pitch: a chip shot’s going to stay on the ground a little bit longer than it is in the air. Buck’s got a 9 iro here – a good choice because we’ve got a little bit to carry here to get us on the smooth surface and we want the ball to roll the rest of the way.
So on this shot, the technique that we will use is-we want Buck to have his weight more on the front foot and we’re going to take something like a putting stroke. That’s what you told me Buck, right?
>>BUCK: That’s right, it’s just like putting. You’re putting a 9 iron.
>>DAN: Ok. Very good!
>>BUCK: Is that in the hole?
>>DAN: It’s pretty close.
*laughter*
>>DAN: What we did there, we also made sure that we’ve got–Buck has a real nice acceleration through the ball just like on a put. We do not want to deccelerate ever. So he’s taking a shorter backswing, accelerating through the ball, and that just hops it over that rough area and lets it roll the rest of the way to the hole.
Buck, can we demonstrate that one drill I showed you just a minute ago?
>>BUCK (Demonstrating): Oh yeah, this here; it’s just like this, as if you had your grip right here.
>>DAN: Gripping down by the hosel. And then if you go ahead and put it in a dress position down here. What happens, we want to keep this wrist flat; if you flip the club at the bottom this shaft will do what?
>>BUCK: Slap you in the side.
>>DAN: Slap you right in the side. So that’s what you want to avoid. We want to keep those hands forward, weight forward, give it a little acceleration. And just like Buck Trent here, hit it up there within a foot from the hole.
>>BUCK: Oh yeah!
>>DAN: All right Buck, thanks a lot for coming out.
>>BUCK: Hey, thank you!
>>DAN: We appreciate having you every day. Thank you.
>>BUCK: Oh yeah!
See Dan’s article on Chip Shot Golf for more tips to improve your chip shot. Or see more of Dan’s Golf Instruction tips
