Hi, I’m Rick Sessinghaus, PGA coach and coach for Collin Morikawa.
Chipping … I believe there’s a philosophy around it. And what I mean by that is there are certain people that like to use just their favorite club for everything, or they’ll use multiple clubs, depending on how far they’re away.
So the first one I like to teach is actually, let’s use different clubs. So I have a fairly mid-range chip shot. I could go high, I could go low, but I actually would prefer to go with a nine iron and put the ball back in my stance as a normal chip shot. And execute.
Now, other people who have not used that philosophy of using a seven iron, eight or nine iron and just doing the same setup and allowing the club to do the work, they tend to have their one favorite club.
For many people, that could be your 56 degrees sand wedge. Now the issue here is that loft is not always optimal for every shot. So what I advise is if this is your favorite club, start to learn how to use it differently, mainly through ball position.
So I’m going to hit one shot with the ball position back, which drives it lower. The next one is a little bit more in the middle, which of course, would create a little bit higher trajectory. And then finally, I have a ball position forward, which is going to make it go higher and not run out as much.
So I didn’t really change the length of the swing too much. I didn’t change the tempo. All I changed was the ball position. And then that can help me now dictate how far I want that ball to travel.
So understand what’s best for you. This is always an integral part of your golf mental game. Knowing what approach toward the golf mental game you will take and it starts by listening to yourself.
You could have multiple clubs with the same set up or one club with different setups to create the shots you want, so you can hit it closer to the hole.