What's your chipping club?

JerryHandbag

Ok so you're short of the green, as I often am, and have maybe 10/20 yards to the pin with most of it being green, what do you use to chip/pitch? I know it was suggested to me a 7-iron, I used to hit an 8 with relative success until recently when I'm getting very clumsy and knocking it miles past the hole :mad: A loftier club usually results in duffing it...
Would be interested to know what people use.

Trampas

JerryHandbag wrote: »

Ok so you're short of the green, as I often am, and have maybe 10/20 yards to the pin with most of it being green, what do you use to chip/pitch? I know it was suggested to me a 7-iron, I used to hit an 8 with relative success until recently when I'm getting very clumsy and knocking it miles past the hole :mad: A loftier club usually results in duffing it...
Would be interested to know what people use.

very general comment. really depends on the lie, whats between me and the hole. contours of the green.

I am usually a wedge person myself but can go down to 7/8 irons if a very long chip across the green.

Maybe take an extra club hitting into the green since you come up short a lot.

I was also always told this that you should use the putter when you can as a bad putt will always be better than a bad chip

copacetic

I try to use whatever club will bounce just on the green then roll out to the flag. eg if I have half fairway/rough and half green to go a pitching wedg would be right, if a yard off the green and 30 to the pin it might be a 6 iron. If not much green to work with or a bad lie I use 60 degree wedge.

Sometimes I do use the 60 when not strictly required as it lets me hit the ball pretty hard to spin/land softly. Say when pin is on a back tier and I want to fly it all the way, i.e being long is better than short. In those case I would nearly always aim for the pin, the best shots normally look like you have hit them too hard initially in those situations.

ShriekingSheet

Using a 7 or 8 irons to chip is very, very old school. In years gone by, pitching wedges had very little bounce and dug into the turf easily, making it easier to bump a mid iron along the ground.

Modern sets, especially nice, chunky irons by Taylor Made, Callaway etc, come with PWs that may not be delicate tools that a pro might use to chip with, but for the teen handicapper and up, they are quite easy to box through the ball and won't dig in like the old blades did.

Modern courses also don't lend themselves to the 7 iron chip-shot either, with raised greens, more bunkers and slopes - I'm not saying you need to hit flop shots with a LW all the time but your opportunities to use a chip-and-run are far fewer on most parkland courses.

My advice would be a happy medium - to use your pitching wedge. Even Tiger Woods admits while there's a club that on paper is the right one to use for certain shots, it's ok to chose a different one that you just like to chip with. For myself, 10/20 yards from the hole may be a text-book 9 iron or PW, but I prefer use my 54 degree SW. So I do. But that's down to a fair bit of practice with that club.

Whatever you chose, practice a bit with it when you can. Lower h'caps may use more loft (SW, LW) but if you're a higher h'cap it doesn't mean you have to go to the other extreme. Technically, a 7 iron can be difficult to get the distance right with.

So I would say a PW is your way to go but whatever you do, don't forget that it doesn't matter what club you use, you don't have to adhere to any text book or advice - if it gets the ball in the hole in less shots, that's the club for you.

Paulusmaximus

i use a gap wedge 52 degree everywhere i can. Narrow and open the stance, put the ball back to the back foot, put the weight forward, hands forward shutting the clubface and then hit quite hard on the back of the ball. From a fairway lie i hit down hard on it with a steep downswing and try to pitch it 15 feet short of the flag and let it grab on the second bounce. from rough i;d have a very similar set up but would not hit so hard on the back of the ball and allow for it to run out more. Contours of the green will also change the type of shot i'd hit but 90% of the time the set up is the same its whether i play with a steep attack or a flatter attack. Again this requires plenty of practise and i suppose a little bit of finesse.

ShriekingSheet

Paulusmaximus wrote: »

i use a gap wedge 52 degree everywhere i can. Narrow and open the stance, put the ball back to the back foot, put the weight forward, hands forward shutting the clubface and then hit quite hard on the back of the ball. From a fairway lie i hit down hard on it with a steep downswing and try to pitch it 15 feet short of the flag and let it grab on the second bounce. from rough i;d have a very similar set up but would not hit so hard on the back of the ball and allow for it to run out more. Contours of the green will also change the type of shot i'd hit but 90% of the time the set up is the same its whether i play with a steep attack or a flatter attack. Again this requires plenty of practise and i suppose a little bit of finesse.

after i knocked the shot into 6 inches i'd make a gun shape with my right hand and blow smoke off the imaginary barrell a-la Shooter McGavin

copacetic

ShriekingSheet wrote: »

Using a 7 or 8 irons to chip is very, very old school. In years gone by, pitching wedges had very little bounce and dug into the turf easily, making it easier to bump a mid iron along the ground.

very, very?? you see them used all the time on tour to this very day, shock horror.

ShriekingSheet

copacetic wrote: »

very, very?? you see them used all the time on tour to this very day, shock horror.

I didn't mean they were obsolete. I just mean that in the old-school, the majority of a players short shots might have been chip-and-runs with mid irons. These days, they're in the minority and more lofted clubs are used more frequently.

I don't have anything to back that up but, for me, it's a safe assumption from watching Shell's Wonderful World of Golf, old clips of Nicklaus & co, and from playing with more senior members of my own club.

As for the reasons for this change, as I said, newer courses are gaurded by more bunkers and have more raised greens meaning higher pitches are required to get close. Even older courses are updating all the time and these are often the changes made. Examples are the likes of Courtown, Naas and Milltown which is currently undergoing changes. All very old courses which once had a lot of fairway-level greens, now raising greens and adding bunkers.

That said, there's no arguing with the fact that less loft = a safer play. I was just making the point that there's less and less opportunity to use these shots and for the OP, who I guessed is a teen+ handicap, getting the hang of a PW may suit more shots.

Mister Sifter

Paulusmaximus wrote: »

i use a gap wedge 52 degree everywhere i can. Narrow and open the stance, put the ball back to the back foot, put the weight forward, hands forward shutting the clubface and then hit quite hard on the back of the ball. From a fairway lie i hit down hard on it with a steep downswing and try to pitch it 15 feet short of the flag and let it grab on the second bounce. from rough i;d have a very similar set up but would not hit so hard on the back of the ball and allow for it to run out more. Contours of the green will also change the type of shot i'd hit but 90% of the time the set up is the same its whether i play with a steep attack or a flatter attack. Again this requires plenty of practise and i suppose a little bit of finesse.

I'd be very similar, but with my 56 degree. I'd say 80% + of my shots from 20 yards and in are made using it. I practice alot with it to try and be able to play pretty much every type of shot with it. Definitely a case of getting a feel for shots.

I'd pretty much never go below a 9 iron for a chip and run though. Don't feel i have the control, but that's just a personal thing i suppose. I have started putting a lot more from the fringes now though.

One thing i've noticed is that i'm perhaps more conservative with my chipping as i get older. As a kid i'd just open the face and flop it close.

kingshankly

I too have had trouble recently with the 10/20 yard pitch I have a 58 degree 8 bounce and find it hard to hit on a tight lie ok from the rough though have resorted to bringing the hands forward and using a 9 iron maybe just need to practice harder

Myksyk

I think the priority is to use the club you're comfortable with and have a feel for the distances various swings will send the ball with that club. But this relates to people who don't have 5 days a week to practice golf. If you do have the time you should really be looking at becoming proficient in chipping with a range of clubs from 7/8 up to LW. The primary skill here is knowing the 'run out' distances for these clubs and combine this with your knowledge of how far a particualr swing with a particular club will chip the ball to its landing spot. There's no doubt that given a reasonable amount of green ahead of you it's better to get the ball on the turf and rolling as soon as possible. Obviously other factors will present for consideration such as contours etc which may make you decide to fly over them rather than try to read them.

GreeBo

I went from using a variety of clubs when I was younger to only using a SW in recent years. The last few weeks Ive gone back to using an 8 if its more green than 50% and the SW for anything else.
I'm now much more consistent with the 8 for the same type of shot than I am with the SW.
I practice with both a lot and side by side my average bad shot will be much closer with the 8. The average good SW will probably be slightly closer than the 8.

mbren

I nearly always use a 52 degree gap wedge for my chips if there is nothing between me and the pin. Otherwise, I would use a 60 degree lob wedge.

The thing with the 60 degree lob wedge though, is that you have to really commit to the swing, so if you back out at the last second, you will usually skull it.

With the 52 degree wedge though, I always swing it like a putter and it usually works for me. I have never been happier with my chipping as I am now.

K4t

Lob wedge if I've been playing well.

Otherwise the putter or a 7-iron.

callaway92

52 degree Taylormade wedge,,The new one

JerryHandbag

K4t wrote: »

Lob wedge if I've been playing well.

Otherwise the putter or a 7-iron.

Yep, its sometimes the putter for me if I'm duffing my chips! At least guarantees solid enough contact.

keepherlit

again it depends on what you are trying to do. my chip and run is a 7/8/9. but my favourite is the old 52* gap wedge and attack it. my general rule is fly it 2/3 rds of the way and let it run out the last third. the more aggressive the better i find. if i try and nurse it up i end up makin a balls of it.

mind you get the putter out on the links, no better club from 20 yards in my book.

WHIP IT!

I'm a SW man for pitch shots myself - 20-80 yards.... And as my ball-striking has desintegrated in the past two years, I've fallen in love - out of necessity! - with my LW and putter.

I certainly think that, for a high-handicapper who will have at least one shot on every hole - the rule If You Can Putt, Putt is some very sound advice.

JerryHandbag

Very interesting that a lot would go for the lob wedges than the bump-and-run for the shot, maybe I'm a bit "Old School" as someone said earlier Would only use the lofted irons on a short pitch if I had to go over a bunker or in deep rough, therefore resulting in me trying to do a Mickelson special!

Anyone ever try those "chipper" clubs that came out years ago? Dont think they ever caught on....

PhilipMarlowe

Sometimes if I am very close to the green, like maybe 1 yard off the fringe in light rough, I will use my hybrid/rescue club to play the shot. It is great if you have plenty of green to roll out on.
To play the shot, grip right down on the shaft, play the ball in the centre of your stance and use a putting stroke to play the ball - don't be tempted to hit 'at' the ball. I find that I play the stroke about the same weight as if i were using my putter. The ball will take off a little - just enough to clear the rough directly in front of you - and release out well on the green. It needs a bit of practice but is a very safe shot to take on, particularly if you are 'nervous' over chip shots.

ShriekingSheet

JerryHandbag wrote: »

Very interesting that a lot would go for the lob wedges than the bump-and-run for the shot, maybe I'm a bit "Old School" as someone said earlier Would only use the lofted irons on a short pitch if I had to go over a bunker or in deep rough, therefore resulting in me trying to do a Mickelson special!

Haha, I said that! But I agree with you - very lofted clubs shout be used only when needed IMO. The point I was making that new courses are designed in such a way that you need to hit higher shots around the green more often due to more bunkers and raised greens.

I'm not talking about ridiculous flop shots but there's definitely less opportunity to use the bump and runs on newer courses or old courses that have rebuilt greens.

It's one of the main reasons I use a 54 SW rather than a 56, so I can hit more chips with it that run along, or little checky ones, or higher ones and when needed, I have a 60. This is from someone who practices a lot so not exactly everyone's bag!

Benny Cake

I'm all about the sand wedge, i reckon myself its whatever you feel confident with, no matter what club you use you have to commit 100%......

Morrisseeee

ahem.......9iron is my chipping wedge !
I've tried it this year with great success, in fact i'd get a 'bump-n-run' shot closer now than a long put !

apkb

56 or 60 cleveland wedge it really depends on the amount of green i have to play with

Myksyk

This link sums up my own current thinking on chipping and the carry:roll ratios are useful guidelines.

Blunder

I use any club from 7 to Lob Wedge with the same set up for all shots. Choke down the club, Face square, centre of Stance, weight slightly forward(to make you strike the ball first) and a putting stroke, Short back and accelerate through. I was having terrible trouble with my game around the greens where I might get up and down maybe 1/2 times out of ten. Now its 7/8 times out of 10. May not work for everyone but it does for me!;)

Kimbot

The lads give me grief for using my "Laser guided putter" from around the green. If there is a good bit of rough then I hit the SW but more times than not I will hit the putter.

madds

Of late, I've been more tempted to go with the aerial route rather than the 'bump and run' due to the ground being so wet/stodgy from all this rain we've had recently. Back in the days when we had real Summers, bump and run was yer only man on the hard baked turf as you knew how the ball was going to react.

JerryHandbag

jonny24ie wrote: »

The lads give me grief for using my "Laser guided putter" from around the green. If there is a good bit of rough then I hit the SW but more times than not I will hit the putter.

I know where you're coming from! Like I said, you cant duff a putt!

Dublin Spur

have always chipped with a SW - always worked well for me - never felt the need to change.