Thanks to the skill displayed on television every week, many average players are finding themselves wasting a ton of strokes around the greens by chipping with the wrong club.
Sure, those guys on the tube are chipping everything with their 60 degree wedge. But they are also chipping out of high rough on to some very fast greens.
For the rest of us who play on slower greens with almost nonexistent rough, we need to learn to chip with less lofted clubs.
I suggest that you use only two clubs for chipping. Of course you will want to use your most lofted wedge as one. For most this should be a 56 degree sand wedge. Most players should leave the 60 degree out of the bag all together, but that is your choice.
Leave your 60 at home the next couple of times you play to see how much you really need it. I suspect you will save yourself a couple of shots.
You should also learn to chip with your 8 iron for those shots that don't require a lot of air time or spin. You will find it a lot easier to control the overall distance of the shot.
The big secrets to controlling the distance on a chip shot with a less lofted club is to control the trajectory and the spin. The trajectory control will come from your own experience with the club.
The spin, however, is controlled by the angle the clubhead approaches the ball from. A steeper approach will put more spin on the ball. Spin that can only throw the ball off line when it lands on the green and unpredictably affect the speed at which it rolls.
When chipping from low cut grass, the club should pass through the hitting area traveling level to the ground. No descending blow is required or desired. Simply sweep the ball off the turf.
On grass that is above half the ball, you will need a slightly descending blow to avoid hitting the grass first and chunking the shot.
On short shots from rough the lofted club is usually a good choice, but on longer shots with more green to work with the less lofted choice is preferable.
It is much easier to hit a target ten feet in front of you with an 8 iron and watch the ball roll than it is to hit a spot 15 yards away with a 60 degree wedge while trying to predict the roll.
