I need some help pretty drastically with my chipping

I gave the game away for a couple of years as I had lost my love of playing golf.
Took the game back up last year and I struggle with chipping. I seem to be chilly dipping the ball and hitting it only a few feet. I have no idea what I am doing, I can’t even see myself hitting the ball yet when I hit a driver I can almost see the ball being hit. I need help quickly with my chipping as it is driving me insane

I am setting up wtih my hands ahead of the ball and nothing is working

I am sure wiser heads will offer the right answer, but in the meantime…

I’ve found my chipping has improved a lot lately by letting the club swing reasonably freely without much wrist action. So only use a little cocking / uncocking, most of the club motion is a pendulum with the arms and shoulders moving back and through, a bit like an extended putting stroke. I’ve found this helps me pop the ball up nice and high with my 52 or 56 deg wedges. When I get too wristy the ball tends to squirt out unpredictably.

You will still need to have a little bit of lag in the shot, i.e. hands leading the clubhead. Even if you touch the clubhead down in front of the ball the lag helps keep the clubhead moving through, instead of stabbing into the ground and slowing down abruptly.

I had a similar problem until a playing partner told me to concentrate on getting the back of my left hand through past the ball – stopped me stopping on my chips

I remember Jack newton said that the first thing you lose after time away from the game, is your touch/feel.

Post a video of your swing cos that’s the only way to determine your faults.

play the ball back in stance and accerate through chip. The only way you will improve is to practice your chipping. The short game takes time to get back….

is it technique or mental?

If you can’t play a basic chip shot at all then a little work will sort you out.

If you can chip but struggle under pressure you need to work on the mental side.

I remember Jack newton said that the first thing you lose after time away from the game, is your touch/feel.

Esepcially if you only have one arm.

The beginner instruction I got basically went like this:
When standing over the ball, your arms and club should form a lower-case ‘y’ shape. If you swing by rotating at the shoulders, maintaing the ‘y’ shape (with no wrist movement at all if you can’t control it), and apply a downward stroke to the ball with an accelerating clubhead, the ball should pop up in the air.

Some argue that with this stance you’re de-lofting the clubhead, but I haven’t found that a huge problem with a 60 degree wedge, and the upside is you’re imparting backspin on the ball with a shot like this anyway.

The most important thing I found for me with the ‘y’ shape and shoulder rotation is that by using it I was able to bring the clubhead back to the same place time and time again, and rarely send the ball flying across the green. I’m even starting to get a little wear spot in the middle of my lob wedge, it’s great.

The golfdigest.com ‘Breaking 100-90-80-70’ series also had one excellent image for those breaking the 90s for chipping on tight lies. By maintaining the same swing path and action, but opening the face of the club, you are able to change the trajectory of your chip shot. That was something I’d not seen illustrated so well before, and it’s already paid off for me a few times. Highly recommended.

is it technique or mental?

If you can’t play a basic chip shot at all then a little work will sort you out.

If you can chip but struggle under pressure you need to work on the mental side.

The technique of chipping is essentially easy to learn. But even if you have it, it’s no good without the right feel.

I’ve seen alot of duffed chips, mostly my own.. but the most frequent observation i make is that alot of players try to take the club back the same distance regardless of whether it’s a 10 ft chip or 30ft one.
My chipping improved when i restricted my backswing only taking the club back the minimum amount possible. This causes acceleration through the ball resulting in a crisper more predictable result, also, because the club doesn’t travel as far their is less potential for error’s caused by weight shift and miss hit’s.
Also make sure your head is infront of the ball, it creates a downward attack angle and prevents drop kicks and thin hit’s associated with coming up on the ball.
When you start getting a few away it does wonders for your mental game, i try to hole my chips now rather than just tring to get them somewhere near it.

My chipping improved when i restricted my backswing only taking the club back the minimum amount possible.

I would second that observation, I’ve found it’s better to have a shorter backswing than the follow through. Some delicate greenside chips hardly need much back lift at all, but you have to be sure not to jab at the ball – keep the motion smooth – low speed chips can still do useful things, but the ball won’t pop up very much.

The one thing that has not been mentioned , try placing most of your weight on the front foot About 70% &follow through with the shot. most chips are missed because of lack of confidence. since I learnt to place my weight forward I chip like an A grader, unfortunately the rest of my game is d grade.

Also, be aware of the lie of the ball and learn what is possible for you off tight lies, partial divots, in the rough, vs fluffy lies where the ball is sitting up. Also uphill / downhill, and low running chips vs high flops.

So there you go Brendan, only about 15 things to keep in mind.

Get out that bucket of balls and start playing with different grips, nil / low / high wrist action, shorter / longer backswings, different lofted irons and wedges, uphill / downhill lies, weight centred / forward etc etc. Maybe a lesson or two will accelerate the process, but you will probably still have weeks of practice to cure your yips.

Once you have ingrained a range of chipping options in practice, the rest of the process is mental – positive visualisation out on the course, and calm commitment to the execution.

On top of everything here, remember…

When chipping trust your putting.

There is no surer way to stuff up a chip than by creating undue pressure, believing if you don’t put it to 2’ you will miss the putt. You are better off 20 foot past and on the putting surface than 10 foot short and still off the green.

Believe that all you have to do is get the ball on the green and you can sink the putt.

Work out where to land the ball, and aim for that spot.

Use your putter more times than not around the green. You will get up and down more times than not.Leave your ego aside.

Read the article on chipping in the Golf School on this site.

It helped me a lot recently particularly the reference to having the heel of the club lifted off the ground at address and through the chip.

Also eliminate wrist action so your effectively putting it with a lofted club.

I agree on the wrist action comment from happyhooker, I gave that advice to my mate and it’s sliced half a dozen strokes off his game, and stopped him topping the ball across the green.

I’m going to stick with the ‘no wrist action’ method for a while yet until I feel really comfortable and consistent, then I’ll graduate to chips with a wrist action.

Here’s Tiger chipping style, using wrist action:

That’s looks like a high flop shot, like a mini pitch shot – something to aspire to when you can execute the basic chipping motion with confidence.

High risk / reward shot for most players, i.e. for chipping over bunkers with little green to work with.