The landing area is probably the most important aspect of chipping once the ball leaves the club face. Hitting your landing area will determine the roll out, the line towards your target and club selection. There are many other factors that are affected by the proper landing area only if you hit your mark. In the past, I have set up grids with my irons to help improve my touch while chipping and it produced great results. However, there is a process that helps refine your skill of hitting your chosen landing area that is easy, simple and repeatable. Does this sound like fun?

The premise of the process is start with a large area and finish with a more refined target. It is important to use this drill from varying distances to garner better skills. However, I started at 5 paces and work my way back to 15 paces over a period of 10 minutes. Generally, I hit about 10 balls from 5, 10 and 15 paces in order to hone my chipping skill. I started with my PW and worked my way down to my 7 iron. Obviously, the height and roll out of my ball was different for each club and I think you can visualize the process.

I have shown this drill in the past. It is very simple. I started with the front two clubs at two paces (6 feet) as a landing area. You can use alignment sticks or even string if you want, but clubs work out well also. The distance from the landing area to the hole is about 10 paces.

I started at 5 paces back and selected various clubs so the ball would roll out and stop before and not hit the club 2 feet behind the hole. It took a bit of practice before moving back to 10 and 15 yards.

I think you can see the point. As I hit over 50% of my golf balls in the landing area, I made it small to one pace. This was very challenging, but it did help hone my chipping skill to hit a target. You can play with this drill varying everything from the size of the landing area to the distance to the green. There is no wrong answer here. Use your imagination.

As an extra tip, I wrote the following three points about chipping quite a few years back, but they are beneficial to help with your short game.

Keeping Your Head Still – Most mishits are caused by extra movement in the upper body. As amateurs, we have the tendency to try and help the ball to the hole. The extra movement in the upper body will change the contact position of the club on the ball (resulting in topping or sculling the ball), hitting the ball fat (club hits the ground before the ball) or scooping the ball (sometimes known as a chili dip). Keeping your head still will prevent additional upper body movement, thereby increasing the effectiveness of your chipping.

Weight Distributed on the Lead Foot – Having 80% of your weight on your lead foot is critical to solid chipping. The important aspect of this weight distribution is to keep your knees bent slightly and to have your weight distributed over the whole lead foot. Sometimes, amateurs will lean so the weight is on either the inside or outside of their foot. To build a strong foundation, keep the weight evenly distributed on the lead foot.

Keeping your Hands Ahead of the Ball – On contact, the hands need to be ahead of the ball slightly. Also, while following through, avoid breaking your wrists! It is important to let the hands lead the chip because it promotes crisp, solid and repeatable contact. Locked wrists also ensure that the ball is contacted first before the follow through, which allows for spin to be placed on the ball.

Improving our short game by focusing on the landing area is a great place to focus your efforts. If we can hit our landing area more often than not, chances are our up and down percentage will greatly improve. Thereby lowering our golf scores. And that result is really what we are all looking for…..right?

I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!