Stop Chunking Your Chip Shots: 7 Key Tips You Need to Know
As an amateur golfer, you should expect to miss some greens in regulation. It comes with the territory.
However, when you chunk a chip shot you just took a missed green and turned it from a potential up and down par to a double bogey.
The chunked chip is a common miss. We will show you why you do it but, most importantly, how to fix it. Many times, the chunked chip is easier to fix than you may realize.
How to Stop Chunking Chip Shots (Key Takeaways)
To stop chunking your chip shots, there are a few key things that you must consider and then adjust to start hitting your chips cleanly.
- Wrist action in the chipping stroke is minimal but it is there and it does need to be done correctly, a little flexion at impact is important.
- Make sure the stance is narrow, with the ball positioned a little further back from this position. You can make that clean ball first contact.
- Bounce on a wedge is your friend; use it to sweep through the grass instead of letting the club dig into the ground.
Contents
1. What do you want to improve in your full swing?
Why do I Chunk My Chip Shots
Chunking chip shots happen for a few different reasons.
The more important part of this puzzle is fixing the chunk shots; here are the things that could be causing the chunk:
- Wrists are flipping, causing the club to strike at the wrong point.
- Stance is too wide.
- Swing plane is over the top or too steep.
- You are slowing the club down through the ball.
- The ball position is too far forward in the stance.
- Your weight is positioned on the trail leg.
7 Proven Tips to Stop Chunking Your Chip Shots
These 7 tips should help you to eliminate your chip shots for good. Each of these is designed to be a simple and quick fix.
You don’t have to spend hours on the chipping green to get great at the basic chipping motion. The things that take time are working on feel and distance control.
Improve your game in two weeks, even if 'wrist mechanics' sounds like rocket science.
1. Keep Your Wrist Flexed, Don’t Flip It
A slightly flexed lead wrist position is ideal at impact with a chip shot.
Those who chunk often find too much flexion and almost a stabbing motion down into the ground or a flip where the wrist moves into an extended position and causes the club to bottom out.
Think about your wrist at setup.
You should have a slight forward press and a slight flexion or bowing in the lead wrist position.
As you swing back on these shorter chip shots, that position should remain the same throughout the swing. Return the club to impact with a slightly flexed lead wrist position, and you’ll notice crisper and cleaner chip shots.
Wearing HackMotion can tell you exactly what your wrist is doing in your chip shots now and then guide you to what it should be doing in the future.
2. Get the Stance More Narrow
A wide stance for a chip shot is a major mistake.
When you set up wide your body thinks that it needs power. It’s setting up for a big shot hundreds of yards away. However, when you chip all you are really looking for is a few yards.
Narrow your stance.
I know plenty of golfers that chip with their feet almost all the way together. This is completely acceptable, and keeping the feet all the way together will still allow you that clean and consistent strike of the ball.
3. Move the Clubhead Through the Ball Every Time
Another major cause of chunking is stopping at the ball or slowing down through impact. To stop chunking it’s important to swing through the ball every time and accelerate.
The golf ball is not the end of your chipping stroke; it’s the middle.
One way you can do this is to take some practice swings, where you just take the club back and forth without stopping at the ball. Instead, you just go back and forth and get that feel for accelerating through the shot.
You also may want to focus on incorporating a bit of a lower body turn. This lower body turn also pulls the club through impact much easier than your arms, wrists or hands will.
4. Strike Ball First
You may hit some chunk shots in chipping simply because you are not sure how contact is supposed to look.
Make sure that you hit the golf ball first and then the grass. There is no need to try to get the club under the ball or hit it up in the air.
When you hit down and through the ball and brush the grass, you’ll hit ball first and get a much better chip shot.
Put a tee in front of the golf ball and focus on hitting the ball and the tee. You can also think about the bottom back half of the ball and making contact with this first in order to stop chunking.
5. Put Weight On Forward Leg
If your weight gets caught on your trail leg, it’s common to chunk your chip shot. Instead, when you set up, put about 60 to 70 percent of your weight on your lead leg.
As you swing back, a small amount of this may transfer, but for the most part, it will stay toward the lead leg.
From here, you can ensure you make that ball first contact and never chunk again.
1. What do you want to improve in your full swing?
6. Shallow Out the Backswing
A backswing that is too steep can be a major cause for a chunked chip.
Some people get a little too wristy and take the club straight up and then down. If you are doing this you may be sending the club into the ground at too steep of an angle, causing the chip shot.
Instead, work on shallowing out the backswing.
You won’t want to roll the club on the inside; instead, it feels as though you are keeping it more level and sweeping it over the grass. The shallow backswing is kind of a feel thing, as shown in this video.
A great analogy is to think of the golf ball being on a sheet of thin ice. You need to clip the ball off the ice without breaking it. The only way to do this is to shallow the backswing.
7. Use the Bounce On the Club
Finally, the bounce on the golf club will be used to hit cleaner chip shots. The bounce is there to be your friend.
It will skim across the grass and let you make contact with the bottom edge of the club to benefit from spin and the center of the face.
This video will show you exactly what bounce is, why you are probably not using it correctly, and how utilizing bounce should help you get rid of the chunked chip shot.
Drills to Stop Chunking Chips
Implementing any of these fixes above can make a real difference in your chipping game.
You’ll have to practice them on the chipping green before heading to the course. However, as soon as you get the feeling down, the results can be seen immediately.
Here are two more drills to try if you want to stop chunking chip shots.
Push the Tee Out of the Ground
We mentioned putting a tee in the ground before the ball to make contact with.
Here is another great option: putting a tee into the ground and using your wedge to try and pop it out.
Stay Under the Stick Drill
This video shows a drill for keeping the club a little shallower and stopping it from coming down over the top.
The stay-under-the-stick drill requires an alignment stick, wedge, and golf balls. It’s simple, and you can also use the concept for your full swing.
Final Thoughts
At this point, you have no reason to chunk another chip!
Your chipping stroke should be much cleaner and simpler with these drills and techniques. You’ll get the ball closer to the hole and be able to score lower.
Consider using HackMotion in your chipping routine. Once you have your wrists in the proper position, you can swing through each chipshot with confidence.
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