A Guide on How to Hit Short Chip Shots

Leaving yourself with a short chip shot is not ideal. If you are going to miss the green, you would much rather have a lot of green to work with so you don’t have to try to stop the chip shot so quickly to get close to the hole. However, having a short chip shot is going to happen from time to time, and you will need to know how to deal with it if you are going to get up and down and save your score.

In general, there are two options for your plan of attack when you are faced with a short chip shot –

  • Fly it onto the green. This option will usually require some kind of a flop shot to get the ball up in the air quickly and have it stop near the hole. If you fly the ball onto the green with a lower trajectory, it will likely bounce and roll too far and leave you with a long putt. In order to pick this option, you need to be confident with your lofted wedge and be able to control your ball flight on short chip shots.
  • Bounce it through the rough. Obviously, this is the go-to option when you don’t want to fly it onto the green. This shot can be easier to execute because you don’t have to lob the ball up into the air, but there are more variables in play. If the grass around the green is very long, or very wet, you won’t be able to use this option with good results. When you see a short chip shot in front of you that has firm turf and rough that is on the shorter side, bouncing the ball onto the green becomes a viable option.

You would be smart to practice both of these options before you start your round to see which is working better on a given day. Find the practice chipping area and set yourself up with a short chip shot. Try hitting a few chips where you land the ball on the green, and a few that you bounce onto the putting surface. Whichever option is performing better based on the current conditions of the course is probably the one you should use that day if the situation were to arise.