Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.
I’d always heard that Parker McLachlin, aka the Short Game Chef, was a genius around the greens, but until last winter, I’d never witnessed it firsthand. Then, I got a five-minute lesson from the man himself that completely transformed how I approach short-game shots.
It was last December at Cabot Citrus Farms down in Florida, and the brightest minds in golf instruction had assembled for the annual GOLF Top 100 Teacher Summit. As a game-improvement editor, my role during this conference is to capture content with teachers that we then roll out on GOLF.com over the following year. Once I saw that Parker was attending, I knew I had to film some content with him.
Check out the video below where I get a short chipping lesson from the Short Game Chef himself.
Having a variety of shots in your bag around the greens is all well and good, but for most recreational golfers, having a stock, dependable chip is much more important. If you can get really good at one simple go-to shot, you’ll start to get up-and-down more and shoot lower scores.
So, how can you develop this stock shot? I posed a question to Parker, and his answer was not what I expected.
“How I like to look at it is I compare the putting stroke, the bump-and-run, and the pitch shot — they’re all in the same family,” he said. “It’s the same family of release.”
In essence, all of these shots share a similar motion. Your trail hand is the dominant hand and you are using your body turn to do most of the work. When building a simple, stock chip shot, this is a crucial fundamental to keep in mind.
Next, Parker laid out four clubs on the ground in front of me: a 5 iron, 7 iron, 9 iron and gap wedge. My goal was to learn how to hit it close to the pin with all four of these clubs.
Now, I’m not someone who looks to the bump-and-run very frequently, but under Parker’s guidance, I started to understand why the shot is so reliable. All I needed to do to hit a predictable shot with each of these clubs was use the same feels as I would with my putting motion.
“If you practice this drill right here,” Parker said, “You’re gonna get really really good and you’ll start to get more comfortable.”
How to generate spin
Using your big muscles and relying on a putting or bump-and-run motion might not seem like it would be conducive to generating spin, but much to my surprise, it actually made it easier than ever before. All it required was a simple tweak in my technique.
If you’re anything like me, when you need to hit a short-game shot with lots of spin, you use your wrists and hands to generate speed. This technique can work for certain shots, but it’s completely unnecessary on a stock pitch shot.
After watching me hit a couple of pitch shots, Parker noted that I was making a big backswing with a huge wrist hinge and then decelerating on the follow-through to control the distance. The technique has worked for me in the past, but it’s not the most consistent way to hit the shot. Instead, he recommended I continue using the pitching technique akin to the putting stroke.
When hitting these shots, Parker instructed me to use my body as the engine of the movement. Essentially, the feeling should be to hit the shot by turning your body rather than just swinging your arms and hands. After I started focusing on this feeling for the shot, I was amazed at how much extra spin it produced on my shots.
“[You’ve] started to deliver some speed in the right spot,” Parker said. “And for a short shot like this, delivering speed is super important to having access to spin.”
Just like that, the lightbulb went off. In order to generate spin, all I needed to do was take a shorter backswing and then really accelerate through the impact zone, using my body as the engine to produce the speed.
ShortGameChef.com, created by PGA Tour winner Parker McLachlin, provides golfers with a comprehensive resource to improve their short game. Through personalized tips, drills, and expert insights, Parker helps players of all levels gain more confidence and a deeper understanding of their short game to lower their scores. You can browse membership options here.
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