Golf Tips » December 1998: Learn to Practice Your Chipping at Home

Last month we covered practicing your putting at home. Another aspect of your short game that you can work on indoors is chipping. One of the big keys to chipping is “feel” If we can develop this during our down time, we will perform well when Spring comes around. Wouldn’t that be nice?!

Picture #1

In picture #1 I have set up a spare piece of carpet (that way the wives won’t come after me for a carpet repair bill !) I place a small piece of paper (in this case a business card) out about 10 feet away to mark my landing spot. I now do my practice swing looking at the card to get the “feel” of how hard I need to hit the ball.

Picture #2

In picture #2 I have chipped the ball, while attempting to land the ball on the card. If you can do this consistently, come springtime you will be able to land the ball where you want. And if you understand the Air time/Ground time ratios of your clubs, (see article in November 97 on chipping) your chipping will definitely improve and the resulting scores will be lower too. Make sure to get your bets in early this season, because your handicap will come down pretty fast once you are chipping them dead!

Goals:

1. To get the execution of the chipping stroke perfected.
2. To develop feel in order to hit the ball in the air the required distance.