The long and short

What the heck is going on with my chipping these days? I have worked on getting better frorm on my chip shots within about 5 to 20 yards to the hole. Depending on what I want, I use my 9 iron, my P-wedge, or my S-wedge for these chips. I feel comfortable with each club for the most part, especially these days.

I discovered on my flubs from earlier that I was lacking confidence in my downswing and thus decelerating on it, leaving me short more times than not, some disastrously so. To compensate, I then began hitting them way too long, also a less than desirable outcome.

I’ve worked on both of these a lot to get the flight I want and to create a more consistent swing most of the time. The issue now comes with the slightly longer chips, say 25-40 yards. I am either hitting little pops with huge backspin that land terribly short, or I am getting way too much and jacking them 60 plus yards and overshooting my target. It is remarkable to me that the swing appears at least to be the same. I know the backswing is spot on the same based on my arms.

It isn’t like the old problem where I snub them by hitting behind or even midball by pulling my body up. My stance is much more stationary. On the overly short shots I am still getting under the ball where I want to; yet for some reason the hit is much shorter in length despite what I see as the same backswing. On the overly long ones I am smacking them, yet have the same backswing. They have a good flight but are 20 yards too long.

What the heck is going on? With the swing feeling good and my confidence up from before for 20 yard minus chips, I’d like to get this working also. I hope this is a minor adjustment, something obvious I am simply not looking for.

Any insights are welcome!

Cheers!

The reason your pitches are going different lengths is obvious: you use your muscles to control the speed of the downswing.

Try to swing the club without using arm and hand muscles, don't decelerate and don't break the wrists. This is what Dave Pelz calls "dead hands" and according to him is the only way to pitch and chip consistently.

yep, you dont want spin on chips so lose the wrists, no matter what length shot you are taking, *force* the club past your hips on your follow through. This will stop you quitting, swing back slowly, its easier to stop that way and makes you less likely to jerk the club down"
If you always follow through to the same point it makes it easier to let the backswing control the distance the ball rolls.
Also, consider using an 8 or 7 iron for the longer chips, there comes a time when you are hitting the wedge too hard to get it to roll without backspin, time to change clubs then.
Roll is your friend!

Intriguing comments, guys, and remarkably familiar as well. It seems that the vast majority of my problems from pulled shots off the tee to missed chips comes from my overwhelming desire to bring my hands into the picture when they shouldn’t be, that and over muscling the ball. Two and a half years later I have controlled much of this but obviously not as much as I need to in terms of consistency, and not as much as I thought I had.

So I am using my muscles to control the downswing on my chips and this is generating inconsistent results, as you say Peter. This makes a lot of sense for my chip shots over water (any amount of it), as these shots tend to be much longer, the result of my increased anxiety. I guess I am tensing up too much in my arms in anticipation of hoping not to mess up. The flip side is on the shots where I don't want that result, leaving me shorter.

Okay, so cutting out the hands and wrists entails my rotating at the shoulders more to make things more consistent. Am I getting that right? I hit the range for an hour today. I'll see how that works.

It is interesting that you should mention using and 7 and 8 iron, GB. I suppose I do already to some degree, as my 7 iron is my hazard chipper out of trees or out of the rough when I miss the fairway for instance. The only difference I suppose is exactly what you are implying—basically that I will get a lower flight and more roll on impact. Would you choke up more on this shot off the fairway, however, or would you maintain the same stance and use a shorter backswing for control?

Cheers for the feedback, guys!