HOW TO STOP THE CHIP FLIP

 rick smith
/ l e ss o n t e e /
HOW TO STOP
THE CHIP FLIP
This drill will help you hit crisp shots around the green
Don’t
touch
To get a feel
for a good
chip, don’t let
the butt end
hit your body.
44
/
G O L F D I G E S T. COM
Too many amateurs hit poor
chips and pitches, but don’t
beat yourself up if you’re one
of them. The problem is that
the shot is counterintuitive. It
seems logical that to get the
ball airborne but hit it only a
short distance—as is usually
required with a greenside
shot—you’d have to make a
short stroke with the arms
only and then help the ball in
the air with a flick of the wrists.
But to hit this shot properly,
the opposite is true.
/
o c tob e r 2 0 0 7
The swing needs to be fairly
long, and the wrists quiet, then
the arms swing down as the
body rotates toward the target.
Honing this technique can take
some time, especially when
fighting the instinct to help the
ball up with a wristy swing. But
this drill will help speed up the
learning process.
Grip an iron about midshaft
so the butt end is pointing up
and just outside your lead hip.
As you take the club back,
hinge your wrists slightly so the
butt end of the shaft doesn’t
hit your side (above, left).
Now start your downswing by
rotating your body toward the
target, maintaining the wrist
hinge. The goal is to avoid
having the butt end of the club
touch your body (above, right)
during the swing. If the club
hits your side, you either let
your wrists break down or you
failed to make a body turn.
You can try this drill with all
sorts of things, including a pool
cue or a broom handle. It’s the
fastest way I know to learn
how to hit good short shots. ‹ ›
by Rick Smith
Golf Digest
Teaching Professional
Ranked No. 8 by his peers among Golf Digest’s
50 Greatest Teachers, Rick Smith is based at the
Treetops Resort near Gaylord, Mich., and Tiburón
in Naples, Fla. For more tips, click golfdigest.com.
P H OTO G R A P H S B Y
/
dom furore
lesson tee
hank
Haney
how to hit
the basic
sand shot
Get into a good setup,
and turn to the finish
T
Keep your body
turning through
the shot so your
chest is facing
the target at
the finish.
how i see it
McDowell
IS proof that
stats can lie
48
I
like to use statistics to
illustrate points about tour
players. But stats don’t always
tell the whole story.
Take Graeme McDowell. He
had an unbelievable year in
2010, winning the U.S. Open,
/
G O L F D I G E S T. C O M
/
March 2011
capturing the winning Ryder Cup
point and making long putts
down the stretch to beat Tiger
at the Chevron World Challenge.
McDowell didn’t play enough
on the PGA Tour to qualify for
official stats, but his numbers
place him outside the top 50
in driving distance and outside
the top 90 in greens hit, putting
H a n k H a n e y , a Golf Digest
Teaching Professional, runs the
Hank Haney International Junior
Golf Academy in Hilton Head.
and scrambling—categories that
usually show that a player is
having a successful year.
McDowell’s strengths are his
steadiness off the tee and a part
of the game that stats don’t
measure: heart. He’s not afraid of
the big stage. When he needed to
do something special last year, he
got the job done.
P H OTO G RA P H S B Y
/
dom f u r o r e
j.d. cuban
no quit
our players don’t
fear bunker shots the way
most amateurs do, but only a
handful of the pros get up and
down from the sand more than
60 percent of the time. What’s
the lesson in this? Learn the
basics, so you don’t fear the
sand, and adjust your expectations. Make sure you get out of
the bunker and give yourself a
chance at a one-putt, but for
the most part be satisfied with
getting down in three.
To get out safely, open the
clubface so the club can bounce
off the sand instead of dig. You
want to hit behind the ball to
splash it out on a patch of sand,
so play the ball forward in your
stance, up by your left foot.
The big key during the swing
is to follow through, and turn
your body to the target (left).
Most amateurs swing the
club into the sand, and when
they feel the resistance, they
quit on the shot. Plus, they’re
fearful, so they tend to lock
their bodies in place and just
wave at the ball with their
arms. Commit to turning to
a full finish, and you’ll get the
ball out every time. ♣
lesson tee
Best young
teachers
➞ TO SEE A VIDEO ON THIS LESSON,
CLICK GOLFDIGEST.COM/GO/TIPSPLUS
TIP
don’t get bit
Draw lines behind and
in front of the ball, and
imagine them as snakes.
Then get ’em outta there.
hate snakes? try this
Groove a good bunker swing with this killer image
I
f you tend to skull the
ball out of greenside
bunkers, you likely have
a reputation with your playing partners. They watch you
closely out of self-preservation.
Check your spine angle. It just
might save someone’s life.
Seriously, many golfers hit
these shots because they set
up with their spine leaning
away from the target—like on
44
/
G O L F D I G E S T. C O M
/
M ay 2 0 1 1
a driver swing. In the sand, this
leads to the club bottoming out
too far behind the ball. The farther back the club contacts the
sand, the greater your chances
of hitting the ball on the upswing and blading it.
My snake drill can help you
eliminate these shots. When
you practice, scrape a line in
the sand a few inches behind
the ball and another line a few
inches in front (above, left). I tell
students to pretend these lines
are snakes that you want to
knock out of the sand. (People
hate snakes almost as much as
they hate bunkers.)
Play the ball opposite your
front heel, and tilt your spine
two inches toward the target.
Swing back halfway, and on
the downswing try to hit the
first snake. If you keep the club
moving, you’ll catch the second
snake, too (right). And you’ll
execute a perfect explosion. ♣
tom stickney
Age 39 Lesson rate $200/hour
Facility Bighorn G.C., Palm Desert,
Calif.; The Club at Cordillera (Colo.)
Contact 970-904-2485
Background “I played for the
University of Memphis, then tried
the mini-tours but quickly got into
teaching. My first round as a pro got
me on track: I shot 74, and the guy
I played with shot 64. I said to
myself, I need to get a real job.”
Best lesson “I once worked for
a pro named Bob Kinard in Boca
Grande, Fla. He taught on a range
that was only 120 yards long. He’d
say, ‘They gotta be able to hit it here
first.’ Point is, you have to learn to
crawl before you can run hurdles.”
P H OTO G RA P HS B Y
/
ste p h e n s z u r le j
Learn to repeat your putting stroke
C
onsistently good putting
requires consistent action. Too
often, amateurs stroke putts using
only their hands and arms. This leads to inconsistent contact, which in turn makes it
difficult to control pace on the greens. It’s
effective sometimes but difficult to repeat.
Ideally, you want your hands and arms
working in unison with your chest and
shoulders to control the putter’s motion
and keep the face square to its path. Here’s
a great drill to hone a unified stroke. Take
an empty water bottle and position it between your right biceps and your rib cage.
26
/
G O L F D I G E S T. C O M
/
august 2 0 1 1
Set up to the putt as you normally would
and make a stroke while maintaining pressure on the water bottle. You should immediately start to feel a distinct connection
between the movement of your upper body
with the swinging motion of your hands
and arms. Keep using this drill, and you’ll
unify your putting stroke and consistently
hit putts more solidly. ♣
Dav i d L e a d b e t t e r , a Golf Digest
Teaching Professional, runs 26 academies
worldwide, including a headquarters
at ChampionsGate, Fla.
learn from the legends
Jack’s good
footwork
One of Jack Nicklaus’ greatest attributes was
his wonderful balance, which he got by keeping
his feet relatively quiet through the hit. You get
a sense of it in this snapshot of him through
impact. He has a very calm look in his lower body,
depicted by the way his right foot has rolled
inward. His quiet feet enabled Jack to match
his arm swing with the motion of his torso. This
was crucial for Jack’s full-swing consistency,
especially with the power he generated.
TIP
➞ TO SEE A VIDEO ON THIS LESSON,
CLICK GOLFDIGEST.COM/GO/TIPSPLUS
Leadbetter by Stephen Szurlej • Nicklaus by Dom Furore
david
leadbetter
lesson tee
Drill: Squeeze a water bottle to unify your motion
lesso n tee
Rick
smith
TIP
➞ FOR A VIDEO LESSON, CLICK
GOLFDIGEST.COM/GO/TIPSPLUS.
rhythm check
TAKE
YOUR
TIME
Don’t be in
a rush to hit
long putts
52
/
G O L F D I G E S T. C O M
/
m ay 2 0 0 9
Strive for a 2-to-1
ratio, the backstroke
twice as slow as
the through-stroke.
The problem many amateurs
have with long putts is that they
abandon their normal, steady
stroke. Their impulse is to make a
quicker, harder stroke to get the
ball to the hole, but this often
results in a breakdown of good
mechanics. A great way to preserve
your technique—and rhythm—
when facing a long putt is to count
in your head, One thousand one.
Take the putter back as you say
to yourself, One thousand, and
hit the ball as you say, one. This
thought will help you make a
controlled, accelerating motion.
Your backstroke should take twice
as long as your through-stroke. n
by Rick Smith
Golf Digest
Teaching Professional
Ranked No. 8 on Golf Digest’s
50 Greatest Teachers,
Smith is based at Treetops
Resort near Gaylord, Mich.,
and Tiburón in Naples, Fla.
P H OTO G R A P H B Y
/
J.D. Cuban