Butch Harmon on Chipping

With all the reviews of Tiger's chipping and pitching problems, I decided to simply publish a brief academic video from Butch Harmon. (Claude Harmon III is also in it.) This one is about a way to hit a low spinning chip shot.

I'm no longer going to say lots about this video because it's quite self-explanatory. This one demonstrates that "hinge and preserve" approach that Phil talks approximately all of the time, but I assume Butch makes it an awful lot easier.

Okay, you twisted my arm. Let me point out two short things:

• Butch doesn't want you to exaggerate the "hold" in the followthrough. Note that the club shaft and lead arm form a fairly straight line when they stop. This will help you keep from digging so much with the leading edge of the wedge and also help you use the bounce a bit more. Butch's student isn't taking divots; he's just roughing up the grass a little.
• Near the end of the video Butch tells his student to slow his stroke a little. Note also that Butch says this technique is from Jose Maria Olazabal, and that you just want to "put your hands ahead of the ball." The idea is that you don't have to swing hard to get the chip up in the air with enough spin to take a hop and stop.

When you try this shot, just try to stay loose and don't stiffen your arms anymore than you have to during the stroke. A soft grip will give you better feel for the distance, and that means better results.

The excellent factor about this method is that it'll give you a shallower approach into the ball, no longer the "too steep" technique that Tiger's struggling with proper now.