Golf Chipping Tips - Golf is Hard TV

Marc: Welcome back to another great episode of “golf is hard TV- the golf show for the rest of us”. Dave: Having fun out here, finally we are outside and enjoying it. Marc: Yeah. Dave: And we just talked a little bit about chipping concepts, how to get the ball in the air. So now we are going to watch Marc do it, and see if -- give a tip or two as to some things to work on and go from there, and it's going to be a lot easier for everyone to kind of see, what's happening. So, again we just talked about the simple fact of getting the bottom of the swing out in front of the ball which means ball middle to back, you can even put it back to help ensure that this term is in front of the ball, here is the bottom of the swing. [Voice Overlap] Now, one thing you also want to do is want to make the club as short as possible for these chips which means bottom of the grip. You want to go right to the bottom of the grip. And that's important too because we really want to simplify and be able to control the rhythm and the force at which we hit the ball by making the club as short as possible, we can do that, which also means that will move in closer to the ball naturally which is fine. Marc: Yeah. Dave: That's excellent right there. So you can see that what I want Marc to work on is about 60-70, 80 % of his weight back left towards the hole so he should have a lot of weight here. His sternum is right here which means the bottom of the swing is here which is perfect. Back up just a bit, let your arms hang, bottom of the grip, right down the bottom. There you go, now let your arms fully hang, the club actually should be resting on the top of the grass not really sowed firmly behind. Because this isn't the bottom of the swing. Marc: Right. Dave: This is the bottom, that's where it's fully extended. So your posture should be high enough for your arms are hanging, where you are not quite reaching the ball. You will get down to it during the shot, so go ahead and let it swing. Right, just keep your chin up, let your arm just kind of hang. It's really important that you are feeling fully extended on these chip shots and you are sweeping it away, and there you go. And feel like you are hitting, you have got room to go down through the ball, you are not lifting up the scoop. So up higher, chin up higher, let the arms hang. Nice. How did that feel? Marc: I felt good. Dave: And you can hear, hopefully you can hear that nice solid little click. Marc: Yeah. Dave: And there really is not a lot of effort. You can see his hands in front of the ball which is good, he is going to return to that position at impact. Up a little higher, back up from the ball, just a touch, give your arms a little room to swing. Marc: Yeah, that feel -- that actually feels a lot of different. Dave: That's a pitching wedge, and that's producing about 10-15 feet in the air and about 10-15 feet overall, kind of flat shot. Marc: Good? Dave: Excellent. So again, we will review some of the concepts and we want to be -- we want to have the ball middle to back, weight left. It's going to allow the club to swing down. And again, one key thing that's different from what we talked about, and you can see from this camera angle is -- let me check the angle on that. I just want to make sure that we can see, that you can see that when I am setting up, you can see most of that there. Marc: Yeah Dave: Great place again to work on posture, when you are working on your short game. Bottom of the grip, this what it looks like, get that posture with your kind of butt sticking out, your chin is up, your arms are hanging, you could really see I can't extend any lower right now, and that's the addressed position. The club is about half inch off the ground and that's a great spot now because I want to be a little even, extend fully more down after the shot which is in front of the ball, that's what posture looks like. Bow down in a -- you can see that ball got right up in the air. Marc: Good shot. Dave: Yeah. Marc: Good shot. Alright. So we are starting to get chipping. What's next? I mean what are kind of some of the things, are there some drills or some games we should be playing to get better at it? Dave: Now we get to have some fun. So we got the chipping concepts and the basics. Marc: Yeah. Dave: And those are the same for any club that you chip with, pitching wedge, sand wedge, a 9 iron, or whatever it is. Now we are going to get some strategy. Marc: I have an observation we will wrap this up. So you said it a couple of times and it's starting to sync in, the posture is the same on pretty much any swing, you are closer to the ball base from the club and those things. But that posture, it turns out as the same across the border. Make Speaker: Yes. Marc: I don't know that a lot of people know that, I know I didn't know that and I have taken lessons and that's never come up. Dave: Alright, I will show you what that looks like right here. Okay, here is a pitching wedge, here is a full pitching wedge, hands at the end of the grip where they should be. So it's a full pitching wedge, here is my posture. Okay? Now I say, when we chip, we want to get to the bottom of the grip. So obviously I can't reach to that ball. It's going to make me get a little bit closer to the ball because the club is short or much easier to control and you can see on the camera that my posture is exactly the same. So you work on your posture here, it's great. Marc: I think that's a good tip. Same posture. Dave: Great. Yeah. Same posture, same grip, and the alignment is parallel left, same thing. Marc: Yes. Dave: It's greatest place to work on your fundamentals. Marc: Yeah. Keep it -- I like keeping it simple, and that's what “golf is hard TV” is all about. Thanks for watching. We will see you next time. Dave: Send your questions, yeah, send your questions. We are getting a lot of stuff. Want to say hi to our friends in Sweden? Marc: Oh yeah! Absolutely. Dave: It's snowing there still, we feel sorry for you guys but you will be out soon. And I am sure it's pretty nice time in Brazil. Marc: Yeah, I am sure it’s great in Brazil. Hey Carlos! Dave: Carlos, yeah. So, thanks for sending your questions in, and we will help you out.