Chip Shot

The chip shot can save your score card in what is an otherwise bad round. The ability to fire in a shot from fifty or sixty yards to within a few feet of the hole is what separates the good from the ugly. This ability is not something that any one is born with but something that even Tiger had to spend hours, even years developing. You can develop it too although you may not spend as much time as Tiger.
The chip is a feel shot, you have to practice it, the more you practice the better your feel. The premise behind the shot is this: to make the ball airborne, say over an obstacle or even a patch of rough fairway and to land it as soon as possible and let it roll. These two conditions are known as airtime and release. How do you know what air time and what release you need for a particular shot?. That my friend is the easy part. You look at the shot and decide where is the nearest place you can land the ball, lets say ten yards over a bit of rough, then how far away is the hole? Lets imagine it's fifteen yards further on from your landing spot, now you need the ball to release that fifteen yards so you pick a seven iron and chip to your chosen spot and the ball lands rolls out fifteen yards and you have a tap in. Let me be clear here, accuracy is very important here, if you miss the landing zone the ball will still release that one and a half times (approximately) but if you are two yards over on the airtime you will be three yards past the hole. Not a simple putt back.
I'll be honest here, there is no way you are going to pull this shot off time after time unless you put the hours in. It's not hard to practice this anyway unlike say a drive where you need hundreds of yards, Tiger used to practice this shot in the family room, chipping over the coffee table, much, it has to said to the annoyance of his mother. So, there is no excuse, you don't even need any fancy training gear just the motivation to get off your butt and practice.
Ok, so what do we do? I'll give you three simple practice tips
1. Grab a tea towel or a small towel and chip from ten feet onto it. This will improve your accuracy and remember airtime should be kept to a minimum, let the ball roll to the hole.
2. Lay a ladder on the ground and starting from one end attempt to chip between each set of rungs in turn. Don't cheat if you miss one go back to the beginning. This will improve your tempo, a longer shot requires not a harder hit but a longer swing. Let the club do the work.
3. Lay a club shaft or even another ball behind your target ball and then swing without hitting the club/ball behind. This will develop a downward strike on the ball, effectively pinching it off the turf. This is especially important on those tight lies.
Do me a favour and practice these three simple tips and next time you hole out from forty yards say a little prayer for me. If you hole out from a hundred yards you better thank him upstairs. Happy thoughts