How to Hit a High Chip Shot in Golf (Tips, Proven Drills & When to Use It)

Being able to execute different golf shots will help you be more versatile and consequently lower your scores. While we all wish we could hit 300-yard bombs, the facts are that mastering the high chip shot will be much more beneficial to your game.

Course design these days demands the use of a high chip shot. Greens are faster, trouble lurks everywhere, and pins can be placed in some very daunting positions.

To lower your handicap, you’ll need to learn how to adapt to these conditions and the first step is being able to hit high chip shots on demand.

If you’ve never hit a high chip shot before, then study the tips below, which will give you all the information to get started. If you are familiar with a high chip shot but want to improve, then skip right to the drills.

How to Hit a High Chip Shot (Key Takeaways)

To gain a general understanding of how to hit high chip shots, focus on these key takeaways. When you’re ready to see serious improvement, utilize the tips and drills below.

• Optimizing your setup to allow for more height starts with a more forward ball position and weight distribution.
• Purposely open the clubface to add loft on any club, not just the lob wedge.
• Optimize wrist action throughout the stroke to eliminate any unnecessary movement.
• Accelerate through the impact zone with a short backswing and long follow-through for consistent ball contact.
• Use your body’s rotation for improved consistency every time a high chip shot is needed.

6 Proven Tips to Hit High Chip Shots Consistently

Hitting high chip shots is a result of using the proper short game formula and only requires a few adjustments to your usual chipping routine.

But these tips will help you transition easily so you can call upon a high chip shot whenever necessary.

Adjust Your Setup

Hitting higher chip shots starts by positioning the ball more forward in your stance, just ahead of center, to help the clubface deliver more loft at impact. Allow your hands to be closer to your body, with the shaft slightly flatter.

Your weight should still favor your lead side (about 60%), but less exaggerated than for a bump-and-run.

Maintain a relaxed posture, with your feet closer together, which promotes better control and mobility. Use a softer grip pressure and feel the club sliding underneath the ball, brushing the grass.

• Ball more forward in stance
• Flatter shaft angle
• Weight 60% on the front foot
• Lighter grip pressure to feel the weight of the club head

Use Wrists Effectively

Your wrists will play a pivotal role during high chip shots. Using Hackmotion is the best way to ensure your wrists are providing value in your swing and not doing any harm.

The delicate sensors will direct you to keep a flexed lead wrist during the backswing, which maintains the loft you’ve set with your grip.

There are various drills on the app for perfecting wrist action in chipping. If you don’t have Hackmotion yet, you can still achieve this the old-fashioned way by checking your lead wrist in the mirror to gain the correct feeling.

Using this swing plane drill will also help keep your wrists from flexing or extending too much. While this may not help on longer chips if you don’t have Hackmotion, it will give you a solid foundation to build on.

Choose Your Club Wisely

Sometimes, a shot simply calls for a different club. You don’t always need to employ fancy technique or complicated mechanics to chip the ball higher. Taking a club with more loft and applying basic fundamentals is all you need.

Let the club do the work for you as much as possible. We are allowed 14 clubs in our bag, so take advantage and plan your set accordingly.

Many courses in North America put a premium on high chip shots, so it may be worth it to ask Santa for a lob wedge and not worry too much about changing your swing.

Short backswing, long follow-through

A higher trajectory with your chip shots requires clean contact, more so than other shots. That’s why accelerating through the impact zone is crucial, and you can make that easier by keeping your backswing compact and extending your follow-through. This will help you avoid common short game mistakes.

• Backswing – Avoid a short and abrupt movement by incorporating good tempo while only taking the club back the bare minimum for the shot at hand. Your backswing should be half of what your follow-through will be.
• Follow-through – Instead of determining the power needed by how far back your backswing goes, decide on how far you can follow through. Once you’ve created the maximum allowable follow-through, just cut that distance in half, and that will tell you how far your backswing should be.

Swing with Your Core, not Your Arms

To further aid the quality of your contact and to create consistency when hitting high chip shots, put the responsibility in your core. Similar to putting, you want to encourage your shoulders to rotate and take the arms out of the equation.

The goal is to promote a pendulum motion, which helps keep your club face open and allows the other adjustments to hit high chips shine.

Swinging too much with your arms makes it hard to develop a smooth tempo and can cause the dreaded chunked chip shots. Using your big muscles to drive the swing helps you hit high chip shots day in and day out.

Specific Drills to Practice High Chip Shots

The only way to improve your chipping and learn how to hit high chip shots is by having a short game practice plan and routine.

Start with these basic but effective drills that require minimal time but will produce significant improvement if done correctly.

Chopsticks for Chipping

Producing clean contact is a surefire way to hit higher chips on a consistent basis. To do this, your body, arms, and wrists must move in unison.

By using the alignment sticks, you can train your body to move correctly, and if used with Hackmotion, you’ll have hard data that shows you what you’re doing right and where you can improve.

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Tee Grip for Wrists

This is a simple drill that has been around for decades because it works. It helps you identify how your wrists are moving during the swing and can be done during your practice session, before a round, or even at home.

Ensuring correct wrist action is crucial to hitting high chip shots. Don’t skip this drill thinking it’s too easy. Many skilled golfers use this drill regularly to maintain proper form and avoid developing bad habits.

• Video Timestamp: 4:58-7:59

Ladder Drill

Hitting high chip shots won’t be much use if you can’t control the distance they travel.

The delicate art of the short game lives and dies by demonstrating complete control over your ball, and while height is important, equally as important is the carry distance and rollout.

This drill also acts as a fun game that allows you to keep score and keep trying to best yourself. You can also play with a partner or two in a spirited match that will add some pressure, which replicates on-course play.

Trail Arm Only Drill

This drill helps you achieve great tempo while also maintaining loft on your wedges to hit high chips easier.

It’s a specialty drill that should only be used on practice days and with short chips. It will create the proper sensation of correct swing plane, body movement, and trailing wrist action.

FAQs

When is the best time to use a high chip shot?

The best time to use a high chip shot is when you have very little green to work with. If you need the ball to stop quickly and avoid excess rollout, hit a high chip shot and use gravity to control the release after it lands.

When should a high chip shot be avoided?

A high chip shot should be avoided when you have a lot of green to work with and you are near the edge of the green.

This shot would call for a low chip shot to get the ball on the ground and rolling. High chip shots come with a higher risk and should only be used when absolutely necessary.

What club should I use for high chip shots?

The best club to produce a high chip shot is the lob wedge. But golfers can use any of their wedges and open the face to gain height when more distance is needed than a lob wedge can provide.

Avoid using anything stronger than a pitching wedge, as 9 and 8-irons are useful for low chipping; they are not beneficial when a high chip shot is needed.

Final Thoughts

High chip shots are a necessity on golf courses all over the world. You never know when you’ll find yourself in a position where height and stopping power are needed, so preparing yourself for the inevitable is the best way to avoid high scores.

Hackmotion helps you develop this shot by monitoring your wrist movement and suggesting specific drills based on your unique data.

It will help you develop the timing and tempo needed to create high chip shots and improve all other aspects of your game as well. The Hackmotion system is a powerful tool that amateurs can use to get results quickly and lower their scores immediately.