rickg
Money List Winner
Caution.......long winded "Homeresque" blog type thread......
So bear with me- this isn't a wind up.
I've struggled recently (actually always) with chipping around the greens. I've had a million lessons, tried a million techniques, but nothing has ever worked long term.......I'm the worst chipper at my club, probably on the Forum, probably in the universe!!
Coming from someone who was off 5.1 two years ago, you can understand my frustration and its what's always stopped me getting lower.
Yesterday was another poor day at the office......shot 3 over handicap in the medal, copped yet another 0.1 and most of my dropped shots were from mistakes around the green.
Great example was on our par 5 13th....523 yards....no roll and I'm 20 yards from the green in 2 .....certain birdie for anyone else....I walk off with a 7!
A chunk, followed by a thin and a 3 putt to put the icing on the cake.
Anyway, I had a couple of hours to kill today so went up to the practice area to have another go at finding something that works.....I decided that the best course of action would be to remove the disasters, so opted for my 27degree hybrid.... It's an Adam Pro dhy......lovely hybrid. I use it like a chipper and it virtually eliminates the fats........almost......although even with this club I still had some indifferent results....it was very wet underfoot (it's when I produce most fats and thins at it really exposes my (lack of) technique.......and I was still leaving lots of chips short...
It was at this moment I stumbled on something that even now I can't belive I'm writing about it as it sounds so bizarre and out of the box........
I was knocking the balls back to my bag from off the green one handed, some forehand and some backhand.......I noticed that the backhanded ones felt and sounded more solid and went further.
Anyway, I carried on chipping......it was from around 30 yards and it was a low chip and run shot, taking out most of the danger.....I hit around 20 balls, pretty much all of them were short, and even with the hybrid, I was still catching them a little bit fat on the wet turf.
It was at this point, just out of curiosity, I hit one left handed.....with the back of the hybrid........it ended up about 3 inches away from the hole...must have been a fluke.....tried another, and another.....4 inches, 5 inches......couldn't believe what I was seeing and feeling......they felt great, solid and not a hint of a fat.........
Looked at the back of the club and realised that because it didn't have a leading edge, it was impossible for it to dig in........
I moved from off the fairway into the rough, still hit great results....found myself the wettest lie possible...ball came out clean as a whistle, skipped a bit, then rolled beautifully.
I spent a good half hour chipping left handed and tried all sorts of lies....the results were miles better than I have been achieving, and more importantly, not one single fat or thin......the other thing I noticed, (and this is really the key) was that I wasn't flipping playing left handed....my leading wrist stayed firm throughout. When I went back to chipping RH, as much as I tried to not flip.....I flipped......
I had to go otherwise I think I would have stayed there all afternoon.
When I got back to the pro shop, my mate was there who I had seen playing by himself on the fifteenth...I'd waved at him but he ignored me...he hadn't realised it was me because he thought it was a left handed player.......he couldn't belive it was me playing left handed and he mentioned that he was impressed with this "left handed stranger" peppering the flag from all over the place... :rofl:
Here's some photos of the club, face and back. The other photo is my target flag...the balls short of the flag were all played right handed, and the really close ones were all left handed.......
I can't wait to get up to the course in my lunch break this week and after work to see if the encouraging results continue.....
This could be the start of a very promising (and very strange) friendship...
So bear with me- this isn't a wind up.
I've struggled recently (actually always) with chipping around the greens. I've had a million lessons, tried a million techniques, but nothing has ever worked long term.......I'm the worst chipper at my club, probably on the Forum, probably in the universe!!
Coming from someone who was off 5.1 two years ago, you can understand my frustration and its what's always stopped me getting lower.
Yesterday was another poor day at the office......shot 3 over handicap in the medal, copped yet another 0.1 and most of my dropped shots were from mistakes around the green.
Great example was on our par 5 13th....523 yards....no roll and I'm 20 yards from the green in 2 .....certain birdie for anyone else....I walk off with a 7!
A chunk, followed by a thin and a 3 putt to put the icing on the cake.
Anyway, I had a couple of hours to kill today so went up to the practice area to have another go at finding something that works.....I decided that the best course of action would be to remove the disasters, so opted for my 27degree hybrid.... It's an Adam Pro dhy......lovely hybrid. I use it like a chipper and it virtually eliminates the fats........almost......although even with this club I still had some indifferent results....it was very wet underfoot (it's when I produce most fats and thins at it really exposes my (lack of) technique.......and I was still leaving lots of chips short...
It was at this moment I stumbled on something that even now I can't belive I'm writing about it as it sounds so bizarre and out of the box........
I was knocking the balls back to my bag from off the green one handed, some forehand and some backhand.......I noticed that the backhanded ones felt and sounded more solid and went further.
Anyway, I carried on chipping......it was from around 30 yards and it was a low chip and run shot, taking out most of the danger.....I hit around 20 balls, pretty much all of them were short, and even with the hybrid, I was still catching them a little bit fat on the wet turf.
It was at this point, just out of curiosity, I hit one left handed.....with the back of the hybrid........it ended up about 3 inches away from the hole...must have been a fluke.....tried another, and another.....4 inches, 5 inches......couldn't believe what I was seeing and feeling......they felt great, solid and not a hint of a fat.........
Looked at the back of the club and realised that because it didn't have a leading edge, it was impossible for it to dig in........
I moved from off the fairway into the rough, still hit great results....found myself the wettest lie possible...ball came out clean as a whistle, skipped a bit, then rolled beautifully.
I spent a good half hour chipping left handed and tried all sorts of lies....the results were miles better than I have been achieving, and more importantly, not one single fat or thin......the other thing I noticed, (and this is really the key) was that I wasn't flipping playing left handed....my leading wrist stayed firm throughout. When I went back to chipping RH, as much as I tried to not flip.....I flipped......
I had to go otherwise I think I would have stayed there all afternoon.
When I got back to the pro shop, my mate was there who I had seen playing by himself on the fifteenth...I'd waved at him but he ignored me...he hadn't realised it was me because he thought it was a left handed player.......he couldn't belive it was me playing left handed and he mentioned that he was impressed with this "left handed stranger" peppering the flag from all over the place... :rofl:
Here's some photos of the club, face and back. The other photo is my target flag...the balls short of the flag were all played right handed, and the really close ones were all left handed.......
I can't wait to get up to the course in my lunch break this week and after work to see if the encouraging results continue.....
This could be the start of a very promising (and very strange) friendship...
