Phil's 3 Chipping Basics (Video)

Here's a short video where Phil gives us his three chipping basics... but are they YOUR chipping basics? I'll help you decide after the video.



Here are Phil's three basics:

1. Weight forward
2. Hands forward
3. Decide: Low or High

But he says two other things which you shouldn't miss.

1. He chips with the front edge of the wedge.
2. You can't play with the ball between your feet.

To some degree that first one is always true, but that second one tells you his technique.

When Phil chips, he intends for that leading edge of the wedge to hit the ground. He plays with the ball at extremes -- in front of his lead big toe or in front of his trail big toe, never between his feet. He plays with his hands ahead of the ball at impact.

But if you intend for the bounce of your wedge to hit the ground, then you play with the ball between your feet. The leading edge will NEVER hit the ground in a normal shot if you use the bounce. And in general you'll never have your hands dramatically ahead of the ball at impact. They'll either be even with the ball or even slightly behind the ball (for higher shots).

One example of a good player who uses the bounce method is Paul Azinger. I have at least two posts about his method -- the first one describes the technique and the second one has a video he made.

Don't misunderstand me. There's nothing wrong with Phil's technique nor with Paul's technique. And there's no reason you can't learn to chip both ways if you want and use the one that gives you the best results for the situation you find yourself in.

It's just that you need to know which technique you're using, because if you mix the techniques you'll have trouble chipping. And to be honest, that confusion is probably the source of many chipping problems.

So remember that you can use the leading edge or you can use the bounce when you chip, either one. Just make sure you're using only one method at a time!