FAULT NO.50 Chipping - stroke to 'wristy'

Once you can appreciate how to set up to the ball correctly, you must work on making your chipping action as simple as possible. Roughly translated, that means eliminating unnecessary and unwanted wrist-action in order to produce a stroke you can trust.

Poor chipping can invariably be put down to a 'flippy' type of hand action, where the back of the left hand and wrist can be seen to collapse through impact. This occurs normally as the result of trying to help the all up into the air, as opposed to allowing the loft of the clubface to do that for you. As a consequence, the backswing gets too long, the clubhead decelerates as the left wrist breaks down through impact and the ball is either thinned, topped or hit fat. Whatever the outcome, this relatively simple shot, that at times only has to travel a few feet, is normally botched.

FIX NO.50
Keep your wrists firm

Before we look at the nature of the stroke itself, there's an important adjustment that must first be made to your grip - strengthen your left hand (ie. turn your left hand slightly to the right of its normal position on the grip, showing about three knuckles on the back of your hand). This will help to prevent the left wrist from breaking down through impact, which in turn will enable you to more easily control the nature of the strike you impart on the ball.

Now the stroke. Keeping your weight on your left side, move the club back a short distance with a small turn of your body, keeping your wrists relaxed, but passive. Then, on moving forward, smoothly ease your knees laterally towards the target in harmony with the slight turning motion of your body as you swing the club through impact. The back of your left wrist must remain firm as you accelerate the clubhead into the ball, and the angle at the back of your right wrist should remain constant throughout the entire motion. Your follow-through must be relatively short to ensure a crisp strike.

Test yourself to see if your wrists have stayed firm during the shot. Move your follow-through position wholesale back to your address position. Are your hands and the clubface in relatively the same position as they were when you started? If so, your wrist action is correct.