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| Chipping |
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| Three-Iron Chip Tip (Joe Buttitta) | |||
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Part of a golfer's confusion about the skill of chipping is what club to use. Far too many players automatically choose the pitching wedge when the ball is sitting just off the green. At times that choice is correct, but far too often it is dead wrong. Here's why. Chipping is the art of ‘running' a ball toward the hole. That differs from pitching which is the art of "lofting" the ball toward the hole. Different skills require different clubs. Pitching wedges by design produce a lot of backspin. To run the ball effectively you need to use a club that produces less backspin. That's why a lot of good players opt to use a 6-7-or-8 iron to get the ball onto the putting surface and let it roll home. I've had tremendous success in my teaching with the use of, oddly enough, the 3-iron from around the green. This little-used long iron produces no backspin at all when used for chipping and encourages top-spin which makes the ball roll on a much truer path. Furthermore, the use of a 3-iron from the edges of the green doesn't demand a great lie. Part of the value of using a 3-iron to chip is that the lie can be downright rotten, and the straight face will get the ball rolling very well. If the ball is sitting down in the grass (but not buried), pop down on it and watch the 3-iron run like a wild horse. Just make sure you have enough green to ‘let' the ball roll toward the hole. From a normal lie, the golfer needs to choke down a bit, open the stance somewhat, play the ball toward the middle of the stance with hands slightly ahead, and use the 3-iron like it was a putter. The little bit of loft on the face will lift the ball over the green's edge and when it hits the surface, it'll run like the dickens. A bit of work on the ‘feel' of this shot will produce impressive results. By having the 3-iron as an option when chipping from the edges of the green will decrease the golfer's confusion about which club to use. It's usually not the pitching wedge. |
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