Playing shots around the green are inevitable. Regardless of your skill level, knowing the best way to get up and down for various shots is important to achieve lower golf scores. I like looking at older videos of golfing legends, like Sam Snead, to see if the techniques of the past are really any different than those of the present. Surprisingly, the concepts are the same, but the explanations are a bit different.
During Sam Snead’s video, he offers three different shots. His explanation is solid (not that I am judging) the results are unquestionable. After you look at what Snead has to say, I will offer a few suggestions on how what he is saying is translated to current teachings.
If you noticed at the beginning of the video, Sam suggested keeping our weight on our lead foot, keep our lead arm straight and to follow through with each shot. These foundational concepts are as real today as in the past. This is not surprising as the technique of chipping probably has not evolved much in the past 100 years.
Snead talks about trying to have our ball rolling out to the green. This too is not new in today’s game, but the focus or discussion point is on the landing area. Selecting a club that allows the ball to land where you want it too in order to roll out and finish in or near the hole. The concept of a landing area is a big deal in today’s teachings and I full support this approach to our short game.
Lastly, Snead emphasized that landing the ball on the green as much as possible when chipping is a key to a solid up and down game. Although he did not mention it, using different clubs around the green will help with getting home in two. This skill definitely needs to be practice and each of us should take the time to understand how various clubs finish around the green. This is a skill I still work on during my practice sessions.
Sam Snead offered three specific shot types when chipping around the green. His explanation equates to the same concepts we use today to teach chipping. It is funny on some concepts remain fundamental and rarely evolve. This is true when chipping and it will likely not change anytime soon.
I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!
The Grateful Golfer 
I’m always working on my short game and these are good tips. But I’m spending as much or more on my approach game because I know the best way to improve my short game stats has got to be improving my gir stats.
Like anything else in this game, the smaller the miss, the easier the next shot. And if we can limit those short game shots to little bump and runs from the fringes, our up and down numbers are going up.
Not using a tee on the tee box on par 3’s and basically any time I’m not hitting driver gives me a lot more approach game practice.
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Kevin,
You said a mouthful in a few short sentences. GIR is the king stat and when I am playing well, my GIR stat is above 50%. I guess that is a great indicator of what I need to work on. 😉
Cheers Jim
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My favorite short game guru is Dan Grieve. He has a lot of great videos on YouTube but also wrote a book called “3 Releases”
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Thanks, I will check it out.
Cheers Jim
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