Best Way to Make a Long Chip Shot in Golf

To play a slightly longer chip of 15 to 30 metres, you need to alter your technique. The club will sit flatter on the ground, not so much on its toe. The feeling is of leaning slightly ahead of the ball and hitting the ball low and forwards towards the hole.

The feeling should be of getting the ball down onto the ground as early as possible. Don’t worry precisely where the ball lands. Just work at judging the overall distance. If the apron near the green is cut smoothly and is dry, you can easily chip at the ball through this fringe.

Take the 7 iron in your right hand and tip it forward slightly so that the club has the loft of a 6 iron. The top of the club has to point to your navel or very slightly left of it, so set your feet a little more ahead of the ball and the ball just behind centre.

Complete the address by leaning slightly to the left, completing your putting grip and tucking your left elbow slightly into the side. The club will now sit flat on its bottom – no longer on the toe. Check the grip. The logo on the left hand glove should still be hidden.

Keep your weight slightly on your left foot and concentrate on hitting the ball low and forward. Brush the ground but don’t dig into it. The left wrist should again stay firm. As long as you think down rather than up, the firmness should remain.

If throwing a ball or rolling a ball towards the target, you would find it very difficult to do so with your feet sideways. The same follows with this shot. To make it easier, start with your feet parallel to your shot but now turn your left toot out a little so that your knees seem to turn towards the target. This doesn’t mean aiming the line across the feet to the left. Simply turn the feet and the knees to make the action easier. Now the legs should just work comfortably towards the target as you swing through.

With a very short chip you should keep the feet perfectly square to lock down the distance. In this shot you need to encourage a little more distance and this foot position will do so.

With all short shots you want to encourage a slightly up and down action. Setting the hands forward and leaning to the left helps you to swing from slightly high to low, making sure you get a good contact. By using a 7 iron and tipping it forward into a 6 iron, it helps you get a contact of ball and then grass. If you simply set up with a 6 iron without pushing the hands forward, the danger would be of hitting the grass before the ball. To make this even easier you need to ensure that the shoulders sit correctly at address. The golden rule with nearly short shots is to keep a high right shoulder. Don’t let the right shoulder drop, or you finish up scuffing the ground behind the ball.

To help keep a high right shoulder, go through the process of addressing the ball with the club in the right hand first. Push it forwards, then add the left hand and as you do so feel that you keep the left elbow and the left shoulder down.

For advanced golfers, note that if you out both hands on the club too soon before pushing the hands forward, the right shoulder can get low.