For decades Phil Mickelson has wowed fans — and even his fellow Tour pros — with his incredible short game. From simple chips to shots that defy logic, Lefty can get up and down from just about anywhere.
He has occasionally shared tips and wisdom about his prowess around the greens, but a few days ago he dropped a short-game masterclass — and we all got the invite, by way of an hour-long chipping Mickelson clinic on the HyFlyers Youtube channel that you can watch here or below. Like most things Phil does, it burned up the internet, already amassing almost 400,000 views.
It’s called “The Art of Chipping,” and it is truly a work of art. It’s like watching Da Vinci paint the Sistine Chapel or Shakespeare pen Hamlet; I can’t believe it’s free.
Every shot Mickelson breaks down is worth your time, but for now, I want to talk about his chipping basics.
“It is probably the most important part, because everything that we go on and talk about thereafter will be predicated on that and will be a small variation of that,” Mickelson says.
I don’t know about you, but if building this foundation is the first step on the road to wielding wedges even half as well as Mickelson does, I’m in. Below are Phil’s three chipping basics from his hour-long clinic. Practice his keys to develop a better short game.
1. Weight on your front foot
Mickelson’s first chipping basic is to keep your weight forward.
“You have to have your weight on your front foot because we have to keep the leading edge down,” he says, “Once the leading edge comes up it goes right into the ball.”
As he explains, keeping the leading edge down is what helps you to enter impact on a more descending angle and allows you to make contact with the ball or the ground first.
“When our weight is forward, that tends to drive the club down. If our weight gets back the leading edge is working up,” Mickelson says.
You might be wondering, how do I decide how much weight to put forward while hitting these shots? Mickelson says to base it off the turf interaction.
“If the ball is sitting up, and the the ground is soft, maybe 55/45 or 60/40. Not that much more forward,” Mickelson says. “But if it’s really firm, tight compacted sand, hard pan, we’re going to have 100 percent on our front foot. We’ll just drive it down into the ground.”
If you’re not sure, and the rules allow it, use your practice swings to get a good feel for how the turf is reacting to your clubhead. Is your club bouncing off? Is it cutting through nicely? Or is it getting slightly stuck?
Reading the lie is essential to executing your shot successfully.
2. Hands ahead
Mickelsons’s second key is to get your hands ahead of the clubhead. Similar to the previous adjustment, this slight modification will help you keep the leading edge down and avoid inconsistent contact around the greens.
“Once our hands are back [behind the clubhead], the club flips and the leading edge comes up and goes right into the ball,” Mickelson says.
He explains that he likes to achieve this by forming a straight line with his lead arm and shaft. Then, he says, he likes to let his wrists break a little bit off the ball.
“That gets my hands ahead of the club,” Mickelson says. “The reason that’s important is, at any point I can stop my backswing and I can move forward.”
This change in direction is so key to being successful around the greens, because it allows you to make shorter swings when necessary, and increases your chances of making consistent contact every time.
If Mickelson’s method feels awkward for you, there’s another option you can try. Instead of creating a straight line at address and hinging your wrists in the takeaway, Mickelson says to try breaking your wrists before taking the club back — creating an inverse straight line (where the clubhead starts behind the hands).
Once your hands are ahead of the club, Mickelson says you just need to make a slight shoulder turn to execute the shot. Similar to the chipping move we see from Tour pros like Zach Johnson or Steve Stricker.
Mickelson explains both ways are effective because they do two things:
1. They keep the leading edge down
2. You can stop the backswing at any point and are in a good position to transition down
With these two keys, you’ll be able to adapt the yardage of your shot by changing the length of your swing — leading to better distance control around the green.
3. Never play the ball in the middle of your stance
Mickelson’s third, and final, chipping basic is to figure out if want to hit a low or high shot. It might sound simple, but this is an integral step. It determines crucial setup adjustments that will make or break your shot in the moment.
“We have to make a decision if we’re going low or high. That helps us commit to the shot, but it also helps with our ball placement,” Mickelson says.
For example, when Mickelson wants to hit it high, he plays the ball around his front foot. But his ball position won’t be the same for every high shot — that is entirely contingent on the trajectory he envisions for the shot at hand.
“It just depends on how high we want to go, how extreme,” he says.
The inverse is true for low shots too. If Mickelson wants to hit a low shot, he’ll play it somewhere around his back foot. For moderately low shots, maybe it’s closer to his toe, but if he wants to hit it really low, he’ll move it back.
There is one ball position you’ll almost never see Mickelson use from 30 yards and in: playing it in the middle of his stance.
“I say, never hit a chip with the ball in the middle of your stance, because you haven’t made a commitment on what shot you’re going to hit,” Mickelson says.
