Do you hit your chips fat or thin? Do you dread a tight lie for fear of rolling the sod over it? Fear no more because we have just the thing to cure those chili-dips.
These are the 2 reasons you chili-dip your wedges
It’s important to first understand why you hit poor chip shots. Often, it’s caused by having too much lean in the shaft and the handle, which is caused by bad advice. If you have been told to ‘lean left, ball back and hands forward,’ that is the major reason you struggle with chipping. That advice, at best, leads to a low shot with no variety. At worst, it creates the dreaded excessive lean in the handle and shaft which traps the club behind the hands and makes the low point stay behind the ball.
But there is good news. We can change these bad habits in a heartbeat with some simple set-up changes. These changes will harmonize some key components to get the angle of attack down and the path to the left, which will help you pluck your chip shots off any lie and produce ample spin.
Check out below for five set-up keys for eliminating a chili-dip.
Setup
- Keep your feet close together and body open at address, including shoulders.
- Hold your hands in line with pants zipper to reduce shaft lean.
- Put the ball position forward of center a low point ahead of center.
- Set up with you shirt buttons ahead of ball, also encouraging a forward low point.
- Put your lower-body weight on the right heel and upper-body weight over left toe (this is very important!)
These set-up ingredients are all designed to reduce lean and lead as well as get the low point ahead to encourage clean contact.
Hitting the shot
Now all that’s left is the execution. Below are a couple of tips for hitting the shot.
- Keep the right elbow attached to ribs and gently fold it. You can use a headcover under your arm to help. Do not use too much wrist hinge as it is hard to generate consistent contact this way.
- Let the club drop on the ball as you rotate your belt buckle through, straighten your lead leg and ‘go left.’ A little timing needed is all that’s needed.
If you can execute on all of the above points, you will be hitting consistent, crisp chip shots in no time — and you can kiss your chili-dips goodbye.
