Let’s all take a moment and remember the last time you made a chip shot across the green at the speed of light. Then discover that you are downhill on the short side of the green, facing the impossible shot with the possibility of the exact same thing happening again. Then what do you do? You try not to hit him too hard and then you slow down the downswing and hit him fat … he moves a few feet and now you have the same punch just a little closer.
Sounds familiar?
If you’ve read any of my articles over the years, you know that I talk about angles in the golf swing as much as anything else. Angles are the source of energy, or at least one of the main ones. The angles are responsible for squaring the clubface and are responsible for the angle of the clubface to provide a great trajectory.
Chipping errors can almost always be attributed to poor angles. This means that, even though you created a large angle as you stepped away, you have undoubtedly released that angle early in the descent and end up with the head of the club in front of your hands.
So let’s slow down a bit. What angle am I talking about? It is the angle from your right wrist to your right forearm. An inclined back position.
Try this:
hold the right hand in front of the face, the palm to the left, the thumb to the face, and the back of the right hand to the right. I understand? Now simply bend your right hand at the wrist towards your forearm. Note the angle you have created between your hand and forearm. This is the angle that we are going to talk about.
The bent right wrist is an angle that you will only see in better players.
Therefore, if the right wrist is bent back towards the outside of the forearm, what is the position of the left hand? For some, it may be easier to take note of the position of the left wrist than the right. .so the left wrist has a flat position .. that means the outside of the left wrist or the back of the hand is fully aligned with the left forearm. or slightly arched.
Please understand that I am talking about being on top of the backswing here.
Also note that it is a cupped left wrist that you will see on every driving range in the country … this is not the position we want. A cupped left wrist requires some adjustment on the way to the ball, it is because this position creates an open clubface and needs to be square or slightly closed for a good hitting position to occur.
I’m going to stop here. I know a lot of people won’t understand this … it’s okay. Some will. If you are sick and tired of running your chips around the green, you will find a way to put your wrists in these positions, it is not that difficult to do. So at least try … use little swings at first … hit a lot of balls with your wedges. Simply hit the ball with your wrist fully on one side. Right wrist bent or left wrist flat.
So, lift your wrists and close it. bring that to the back of the ball. You will find that you will not be able to maintain this cocked position at first, but soon you will. Then you will notice that your hands are in front of the ball in the impact position. When this starts to happen … you win! Hit them good