How To Play The Spinning Chip Shot

Golf Monthly

21/06/2025

Advice from Golf Monthly's Top 50 Coach - Trey Niven

Transcript

00:00So the spinning chip shot from 20 yards, this is a shot that a lot of people crave to hit.

00:05We're going to talk about how to do it, a couple of things that we're going to talk about in the

00:09motion and also give you a drill to help you play the shot a bit better. So firstly let's talk about

00:14how we create spin. Now we've got a shot here with 20 yards with a bit of a flat part up near

00:20the green. It can be a good idea for us to land it on that flat part and get the ball stopping

00:24with a bit of spin. So firstly how do we create spin? Spin loft is a term that we use when we

00:30reference the difference between the dynamic loft, so the loft that we produce at impact

00:35and also the angle of attack or the angle of descent or ascend into the ball. If we separate

00:42these two that's when we create and we can increase the spin loft and that number there is going to

00:48really benefit us when we're trying to produce some spin. Now a couple of things that I typically see

00:53when people are around the greens and they're trying to create spin, they really think that

00:57they have to hit down. So the ball position goes back in the stance, they lean forwards

01:01and they get this stabby motion here and that's when the leading edge can really dig into the ground

01:07and the ball will then launch higher up the face. This probably isn't a good idea when we want to

01:12produce spin, we want to try and get that strike right down the bottom of the golf club. And also what

01:18I see is that people really deal off that golf club so they get their hands leading forwards

01:23and that really takes all the loft off the golf club. Remember we want to separate the angle of

01:28attack from the dynamic loft so we want to try and produce some speed and some loft at this golf ball.

01:34So the setup is a really key part to that. So when we're taking our setup here, really good idea,

01:40let's get the ball position right in the middle of the stance. We're going to keep a very neutral

01:45shaft position here, we're not going to try and lean it too far forwards. And then if we talk a little

01:50bit about the motion now, the motion we want to produce is almost like you're lighting a match on

01:56the way through. If I drag the club slowly, we don't create much friction. We want to speed the

02:03club up and really keep our pivot going through the ball. That's going to really help us produce

02:07some speed, which is going to help us produce some spin. So let's talk a little bit more about playing

02:13it now. So I'm set up, ball's right in the middle. I've got some loft on the club, the handle's back

02:18and I'm really going to try and see if I can control where the golf club is striking that ground.

02:26Let's see if we can get this one. Back, pivot, stop. You see that launch a little bit far there,

02:34but we saw a little bit of grab at the end and we can see when we look at the ground there,

02:38there's no divot. So I'm really controlling where the bottom of my arc is in this golf swing. We've got

02:45one really good drill to help you do this. If you take one T-peg and you can pop a ball on the T-peg

02:52here. And now what we're trying to do with this drill now, we're trying to clip the ball off the

02:59T-peg without actually moving the T-peg. If we get players with a ball back hitting down, you can see

03:05the T-peg's moved and the golf ball hasn't moved very far. What we're trying to produce is a golf

03:12ball that comes off that T-peg, but the T-peg's still in the ground. Let's see if we can control

03:18this one now. So same set up, feet close together, a little bit of weight left, very neutral shaft

03:23and we're going to try and see if we can clip that ball.

03:28There, so T-peg kind of flitted around the ground there, but what I really did there to strike that ball

03:34well and get a decent result was control the lowest points of where that golf club was at the bottom

03:40of the arc. Keep that body turning, make sure you've got the strike, make sure you've got the speed

03:46and you'll hit great golf shots just like that.

How To Play The Spinning Chip Shot

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