Article #9
Featured Teacher: T-Ball Taylor
To meet this week's teacher, or to purchase a copy of MUNIE ~ The Jitterbug Collection, go to www.bobbysteiner.com
Grab yourself a wedge and have a look at it. See all them grooves runnin' horizontally on the face of the club? Well, if you're chipping properly, them grooves is what make contact with the back of the ball.
Now, put your finger on that sharp blade-like area at the very bottom of all them grooves. They call that the "leading edge," and for too many folks, the clubface disappears, and that leading edge is all there is to hit with.
Flippy Wrists
For most, the disappearing clubface is a product of too much wrist action. Here's how you can tell: Just hit a chip shot and hold your finish. If the grip end of the club is pointed at your body at the completion of your chip shot, there's no denying that you flipped your wrists.
This flippy finish position likely produced one of two shots: You either hit the ball with the leading edge and scud missiled it across the green, or you fluffed under it and didn't hit it anywhere.
Here's the fix:
Without a golf ball, take some practice chip strokes. At the completion of your stroke, simply make sure that your glove hand is closer to the target than the clubhead. Believe it or not, that's all there is to it. If you can do this, you can hit good chip shots.
Just one more thought: Notice that when you do as I'm describing, the clubface is very upright through the hitting area, not laying back away from the ball. Only from this stacked, upright position can you hit consistently solid chip shots.
Work on this a little while, and you'll know more about chipping than anyone could ever teach you.
T-Ball