- Adam Bazalgette two-time
PGA Teacher of The Year Award winner
here in Naples Florida to today's subject
how to hit a chip shot on a tight lie.
So how to hit a chip shot on a tight lie
I'll show you what I think some of the basics are
the pitfalls I see people make
and give you my recommendations
as to how to handle the shot,
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So there's a nine iron shot off a tight lie,
I'll show you how tight in just a moment
they come in all shapes and sizes tight lies,
some are extremely virtually hard pan
some are just pretty tight with
a little bit of grass under the ball
you have to deal with them in a case-by-case situation
I'll give you some of those parameters
but one things for sure, let me hit one more ball here,
one things for sure there's good ways
and bad ways to go about it and I think if you'll follow
some of these things you can at least
make the shot simple enough to get out of
the hole you're playing without a bad score.
Let's have a close up look at the lie
because that's really the determining factor.
Right this isn't the worst lie ever
there is grass there but there is literally,
it's firm there is literally no real cushion
under that ball, so you can see my nine iron
you can see a little wear mark there
near the sweet spot, I definitely have to have
some forward lean to get that ball on the club face
but I'm not gonna lean it forward enough
to get it up to the sweet spot,
I'll be content with low on the club face type contact
it'll come off a little bit lower
and a little bit more dead but that would be plenty
of forward lean for me on that shot,
now obviously the tighter the lie
and the more loft you're using
y'know the more forward lean you'll need.
Alright I'm gonna strongly encourage you
to avoid an excessive forward press
it's a thing people just gravitate towards
when they get this shot they see no cushion
they lean the shaft forward
I think it produces a lot of bad results,
usually as they push the shaft forward
their upper body pushes backwards that's pretty common,
that's a tough combination right there,
even if you don't do that you've got so much angle
you can dig in the ground easily
I just think it's a very difficult way to hit the shot
as we've showed you, you've got to have a little bit
of forward lean just be content to have the ball back
a little bit of body lean and just enough
to kind of do that job.
Now there's one other way you can make this shot
a little bit easier, we'll look at that close up
then we'll come out and we'll really look
at the stroke itself, and I'll give you my recommendations.
So club selection, here's a seven iron
look at how that club leans up against the ball
with almost no forward shaft lean
here's a gap wedge I'm gonna have to have
a lot of forward shaft lean and consequently more dig
more precision needed there.
Now hey you can't always control the environment you're in
but I'm telling you more times than not
I see people just grab for a lofted club tilt it
try to squeeze down on the ball
when if they really thought about it
they could take a less lofted club
even a putter sometimes maybe play a little away
from the hole and just get it up safely
and get it down in two from there
get it down in three in other words
at minimal, minimal risk
and take that double or triple-bogey outta there.
Alright lemme give you the best two keys I can
to help you with this shot,
number one don't dig too much and if you start leaning
the club, we showed you that earlier in the video
and you start chopping down there
you'll hit it solidly once in a while,
although even then it's going to come off
too hard too hot, but you're gonna miss hit
a lot of balls, you're margin for error
for solid contact is minimal and it is easy
to stab it in the ground and chunk one
so don't dig too much.
Play the ball a little bit back as necessary,
certainly put your body forward
but avoid excessive shaft lean like that
I feel when I do that, I can get that ball
along those bottom couple'o groves
so let's take a practice go
I'll have to snag the ground a little bit.
that was a reasonably solid shot there,
so that's number one don't dig too much,
the other thing that's so, so important
is minimize motion especially with this golf club
the worst thing that can happen to you regards that
is to have the club too active and the wrists involved
right around contact, if you do that
you're just not going to be consistent
that's all there is to it.
So, this is a fairly short shot
I've got a nine iron, I don't need a lot of speed
I'm gonna get my body preset
feels just about like I wanna feel at impact
and I am gonna keep that club as stable as possible
and maintain the same amount of loft
in that critical couple of feet,
let's try another one here there's the ball
as my way forward just as stable as I can make it,
and that was another solid shot.
So if you do those two things, let's say three things
if you pick a club again that's a little more forgiving
off that lie only tilt the club and use your body
to do that as much as needed to hit it low on the face
avoid the dig, and then finally stable and minimal
minimize the motion and keep that club as stable
as you can as you hit it,
you gotta pretty good chance to hit a decent shot.
So hope that helped you with how
to hit a chip shot on a tight lie
hopefully gave you a few tools there,
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including one on chipping and of course
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thank you.