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Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Eric Axley on Chipping

I wanted to do a post on Robert Karlsson's swing, but it'll have to wait until tomorrow. Instead, I found this chipping tips video by tour player Eric Axley. It caught my attention because he shows how to adjust for three different types of chip and flop shots.



The thing to note here is that he has to make multiple adjustments to play different types of chips:
  • Ball position: forward in the stance for flops, back in the stance for low chips
  • Hand position: behind the ball for flops, ahead of the ball for low chips
  • Clubface position: open for flops, square for low chips
  • Length of stroke: long for flops, short for low chips
  • Amount of wrist hinge: lots of movement for flops, keep them firm for low chips
Granted, this is just one player's short game method. But it may give you some idea of just how much you need to adjust to play the chip shots that give you the most trouble.

Oh, and one extra note not mentioned in the video: If you intend to play flops off a tight lie the way Eric does here, you'll need a wedge with very little bounce. Otherwise, the front edge will be too high when you open the clubface and you'll skull your flops. (That even sounds painful.)
Posted by Mike at 4:00 AM
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5 comments:

  1. This is the fun part of the game to me. I love playing around with opening and closing the club face, moving the ball forwards or back in the stance, square stance or open stance, long swing or just a little pop... Let the imagination take over.

    In my bag, I carry a 60* Scratch wedge with low bounce, and Srixon 52* wedge bent to 54* that has about 9 or 10 degrees of bounce. That way, I have plenty of variety available. The Scratch wedge has a very small flange, so if I'm going to a place that has fluffy sand, I'll take a Wilson TW9 60* wedge with a wide flange and a little more bounce for the bunkers, and a different 54* wedge with a flatter sole.

    Gotta love golf - so many toys !

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  2. Wedges are so personal, aren't they? I have a low-bounce 60° wedge that I use for all kinds of short shots, and a high-bounce 54° wedge that I just love from anything other than a tight lie.

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  3. There's no sound after he introduces himself:( I love my 52* gap wedge. I probably use it for every shot from 120 yards and in. I even had to use it to putt one time after I threw my 2-Ball Odyssey putter into the adjacent lake. Just kidding:-)

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  4. That's weird. When I woke up this morning the video was working again. Now I have something to work on today:-)

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  5. It must have been a glitch at YouTube, Dex... although there's been a little stutter in the video everytime I've checked it.

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