Are you aware of the mechanics of your golf swing when chipping or putting?

The hardest part of golf swing mechanics is learning how to tune the golf ball around the greens. This is the least amount of time spent practicing chipping, pitching, putting and sand play before playing a round of golf.

For most amateurs, we don’t allow enough time to practice before hitting the golf courses. As soon as we hit the golf course, we jump out of our cars and head straight to the pro shop to take care of business first. Then we go get our golf clubs and shoes, and maybe do some quick practice putts, along with swinging the driver, and hopefully warm up.

What happens next most of the time turns into a horror show with rocky visuals. With our expectations now reduced to trying to figure out what to do next to survive. For most amateur or weekend golfers, this happens a lot during the first few holes before properly warming up.

The only way to combat high scores is to be able to have a proper short game to make up for mistakes made from tee to green. Most of the amateurs I play with hit the ball well enough from tee to green, but when they get within 50 yards of the green they seem to struggle. They’ll tell me, “I don’t have time to practice these shots, I’m not a pro, and they have all the time in the world to get up and work on these shots, so they develop consistency in their feel.”

The goal when chipping or pitching golf is to get the ball to travel the shortest distance in the air and roll onto the green. The problem with most golfers is that they anticipate their shots and have a habit of looking up too soon to see where the ball is going.

A major problem with this is that golfers will forget about the mechanics of the golf swing. As a result, what typically ends up happening is that when looking up, the wrist of the front hand bends, causing the golfer’s hands to go through the chip shot. The end result is that the clubhead rises too abruptly and a blade strike occurs that sends the ball on a more linear path.

The reason is that the wrists are bent or broken before making contact with the golf ball or the ground in an attempt to delicately place the ball on the green. The solution is to make sure your wrists don’t break, especially the front wrist, and that your follow through continues like a normal golf shot.

Chipping in golf is supposed to smoothly bring the ball to its target, unlike driving or playing with the iron, which is often accompanied by full strokes. Chips are supposed to be tackled delicately to produce loft and end results by rolling the ball along the green once it makes contact. Golfers will often try to slow down their swing and end up making physical errors that will have a negative impact on the outcome of their shots. Instead, try to keep your front wrist straight when you’re chipping. This will ensure that you maintain the same basic swing as your normal golf swing, but tone it down a bit to produce a softer feeling golf shot.

Once you’ve mastered the basics of playing around the greens, you’ll notice that your golf scores drop dramatically with each round of golf you play. From a 50 yard radius, he will play 60% of his golf shots. 50% around the greens. That’s why practicing your short game is even more important than going to a driving range and hitting golf ball after ball. The following are some golf tips that can help you improve your game on the green.

1. Most beginners will aim a foot or two before the hole and then get upset when they hit a perfectly hit ball that goes past the hole and out the back of the green. Yes, you hit a great shot, but you didn’t take into account how far the ball would roll once it hit the green. Very rarely do you have a straight, level path to the hole. Which means that the slopes and undulations of the greens will affect the roll of the ball. The faster the ball rolls and adjusts to those slopes and undulations, the better chance you have of making more chip shots. The objective should be to hit the green midway between the front edge of the green and the hole. You could even try hitting 1/3 of the way from the front of the green. Your aim will depend on the golf club you choose.

2. When using a pitching wedge, the ball will travel in the air about 60%-65% of the distance to the hole and roll about 35%-40%.(The reason is obvious as a pitching wedge has a higher degree of loft.) When using a 7 or 8 iron to chip, expect the ball to travel about 40% in the air and roll at least 60%. (These clubs have a steeper face and therefore will set the ball on a more linear path.) Going even lower, a 5 or 6 iron will travel about 20% in the air and roll at least 80%. These clubs require more practice, because unlike other golf clubs, you don’t bounce first and then roll. You should see a line shot that hits the fairway 10-20 yards short of the green and then starts to roll onto the edge of the green. One golf club I prefer to use when I’m just off the green by 10 to 20 yards, with flat, smooth terrain ahead, is the Texas Wedge. Your putter is the easiest club to control when chipping, and you feel like you have a better than 50% chance of putting the golf ball in or near the hole for a putt.

3. When approaching the chip shot, most of your weight should be on your front foot. This is important to help you not only keep your body stable during the golf swing, but also to help you impart the downstroke that is important in creating the backspin you want on any chip shot. As you descend, make sure your wrists are slightly bent. This is important as you need to lift your wrist to help punch down slightly through the shot. Note that during your backswing your weight is not shifting to your back foot at any point, there should be no movement with your lower body. You should keep your weight on your front foot even at the top of your backswing and keep your body still. This will help remove any chipping or thinning of the chips.

4. It is important that the rhythm of the golf swing is constant at all times. It’s no good swinging slowly through one shot and quickly moving on to the next. You will get very inconsistent results. Try to imagine a pendulum and how it swings back and forth at the same rate. Try to feel this on all of your chip shots. So it is important to end with a good follow-up. Make sure the tracking is directly on the target and not around your body. Don’t miss this shot or you’ll constantly come up short, or look up to see where your golf ball ends up on the green. This will have you dipping in chili, or running blades across the green.

5. For most golfers, overconfidence and nervousness play a major factor in a player’s game psyche. After hitting a well-placed golf shot, most average golfers will become overconfident and arrogant in a way that will hurt their performance for their next golf shot. When it comes to nervousness, golfers tend to value birdie putts more than par shots. That is why most golfers get very nervous and choke when there is an opportunity around the greens to go up and down for a birdie chance. The game of golf is all about performance, persistence, and consistency with regards to the mechanics of your golf swing. In essence, it is the golf mindset that dictates how a golfer will respond at any given moment on the golf course. With just a little practice to establish his distances and pace, he will find that playing these chip shots becomes much more fun. You’ll also get a lot of feedback from your fellow players like “Where did you learn to chip and putt all of a sudden?”