Stop Chunking Chip shots

I don’t think anyone will disagree that the most maddening mistake in golf is to chunk a simple greenside chip shot. Just a little swing with a 9-iron, the hole is about 40 feet away, couldn’t be easier, and you lay up sod three inches behind the ball. #@9!!

Even the pros do this (Hunter Mahan in the 2010 Ryder Cup) though they do it much less often than we do. Here’s how to reduce chunking to a once-in-a-blue-moon mistake -- instead of something you worry about every time you chip.

I figured this out at the range a few weeks ago. Whenever I go to the range I am always looking for ways to make 2 and 2 equal four. The hard part is in realizing that 2 and 2 are right there in front of you so you can put them together.

The chipping stroke is by necessity quite precise. You should always take two practice stokes before you hit your shot. And we do that. It’s just that after we take two good practice strokes, we think, “OK, hit the ball,” and use a different stoke, one that brings the chunk into play.

My practice strokes throughout the session had all been identical. I mean identical. I practice this shot a lot, so I know what I’m doing. Each time, the sole of the club brushed top of the grass in the same place and at the same depth. What more needs to be right?

I realized that day whenever I moved on to hit the actual chip, I started thinking, “Hit the ball,” and my stroke would change. It took me a while to notice that’s what I was doing.

Then I realized that if I stayed with my practice stroke and played "Brush the grass" instead of "Hit the ball," I would hit these beautiful chips, one after the other, and chunking was never an issue.

I mean, I’ve chunked chips before, but I’ve never chunked a practice stroke. When I started re-creating the stroke that brushed the sole of the club against the grass just in front of the ball, my chipping got better and more consistent right away.

2 plus 2 equals 4.

Now this is nothing you’ve never heard before. Swing the club and let the ball get in the way. But do you do that? That’s the question. Can your mind ignore the ball? Can you just swing the club without thinking of hitting the ball or making it go somewhere in particular? That takes a lot of mental discipline.

That’s how to chip. Hit the ball with your practice swing. Simple. But, again, is that what you do?