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Short Game

Try this drill from Padraig Harrington for more consistent chipping

Zephyr MeltonBy Zephyr Melton
March 18, 2020
Use this period of social distancing to work on your short game.
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If you’re like a lot of people, you’re looking for ways to pass the time during this period of social distancing. So what better way to spend it than getting in some short game practice? That’s exactly what Padraig Harrington has been doing.

He also posted a video recently with a short lesson you can use to improve your consistency around the greens. The tip revolves around getting your weight forward in your stance to promote a more consistent strike.

“A lot of people who struggle with their chipping, they all do this one thing consistently wrong,” Harrington says. “As they’re coming in, they want to try and lift the ball in the air. And their torso, specifically their center of gravity and their sternum, goes backwards.”

Falling back when coming into the bottom of the swing is a surefire way to get inconsistent results. The lack of balance makes it difficult to make clean contact, either because you hit the ground before the ball, or you flip your wrists at the last moment and blade the shot.

Harrington has a trick to solve this problem.

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“We want to ‘sit’ on the left-hand side,” Harrington says.

Take an alignment stick and place it inside your left heel. It should extend out three or four inches behind the ball. Then, hit your shots without making contact with the alignment stick.

“You never want to get in a situation where you’re backing off and hitting the stick,” Harrington says.

If you can consistently hit the ball without touching the alignment stick, it will promote ball-first contact and more consistency around the greens. You can watch the entire video below:

Harrington also shows that the drill can be practiced inside the house, in case you find yourself stuck at home these days. Just line up with your front heel on the carpet and try to make practice swings where your divot hits the carpet and not the floor.

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