Chipping ?

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By jim g

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  1. Lou G

    Lou G
    San Diego, CA

    I read some of Dave Pelz' articles on distance control.

    I know a full swing with a 48 is 105 yards, a 52 (at 53) is 90, a 60 (at 58) is 70 and a 62 is 60. Full swing pitches are 75, 60, 45 and 35. Half swing (about 8:00) are 50, 40, 25, 20. 1/4 swing 35, 20, 15 and 10. The only ones I use for chipping are the 48 and 52 and I can take a 6" backswing.

    With a full swing, choking down on the club 1/2" reduces distance 10 yards. Half swing is 5 yards and 1/4 swing is 2.5 yards.

    What you use depends on the ratio of green to grass. In most cases over 50% green is PW, 35-50 is SW and less than that is LW.
  2. Lou G

    Lou G
    San Diego, CA

    Also something I forgot to mention. I practiced one shot where it was better to use the 52 and aim short of the putting surface vs using the 60 and landing it.
  3. Lou G

    Lou G
    San Diego, CA

    Also depends on course conditions. I know one course where I use the 48 or 53 mostly because the greens stick and another I use a 62 a lot because the greens are hard.
  4. Allen L

    Allen L
    Clarington, OH

    That is an interesting training method for chipping. I usually use a 7, 8, or 9 iron depending on distance and lie. Once in a while I'll use a 50 degree for a little loft but find that less predictable.
  5. Lou G

    Lou G
    San Diego, CA

    The one course where I use the 48 mostly has sticky greens. Some of the greens are 2 tier so I have actually used a 9 iron for pitching and chipping on these holes.

    I treat the 8 iron and 9 iron as "low loft wedges"

    There is a practice green at a nearby military course and it has several mounds around it. It also has a deep bunker with hard sand. I'll stand at the lip of the bunker and chip downhill. Severe downhill lies are the trickiest.
  6. jim g said:

    I was at a 1 day short game school. There ,we were taught chipping by using one swing motion and changing clubs according to steps to the flag. My pw was 18 steps and 9i 22 steps and so on, about 4 steps per iron.... is this a common method? Or would you rather use one or two clubs and use feel to get the ball close to the hole?

    Ken Venturi did an article in one of the golf magazines on this chipping method.
    When Ken had just joined the tour, which was the same time, Byron Nelson was winding down his career. There was a gentleman that played that had the best scoring record on the tour for chipping and putting and unfortunately I can’t remember his name but I do remember Ken saying they called this guy Mr. up-and-down. This is who he learned the one swing multiple club technique from.
    I think from many of the comments I have seen here,People are missing the point. If we think about professional golfers, they master the two lever swing and the one lever swing and then they go out and hit tens of thousands of balls to figure out how to shape shots and calculate distancing. We know when we watch the pros on television or if we happen to go watch a tournament they know full well what distance they can hit their irons. The chipping method is exactly the same. You take a club and you learn how far you can hit it with a nice simple swing from 8 o’clock to 4 o’clock. There are variables, such as how short, the grass is, how wet it is, whether it’s uphill downhill side hill lies, but it’s all based on the flats, and you can judge things accordingly. Can you imagine a pro golfer saying OK it’s 150 yards that’ll be may be around nine or eight iron. They know exactly the distance their irons should fly.
    I used for 25 years the chipping with two irons and chipping by feel method and found it to be very inconsistent. I found once I mastered the swing and calculated the distances I would get off of each iron. I took 10 strokes on average off of my game, because I know exactly how far that chip is going to go. Whatever works for somebody. Whatever they’re comfortable with is fine but I guarantee if I had somebody out there that was chipping by feel they wouldn’t get it as close to the hole on the same regular basis as they would by using the same swing and knowing how far they could hit their clubs.
  7. I just feel it out with a 60° wedge around the green and when I’m close up I like to use a 56° to bump and run
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