Hone Your Game

Former Ryder Cup player Oliver Wilson discusses modern chipping techniques, replicating on-course scenarios and how you can use equipment to your advantage ...

Something to Work On

The drill I’ve found most useful over the years is taking my right hand off the club. I set up as normal with both hands, but then I actually split them by about an inch and have my right hand very light on the club, or off it. Doing this gives you better feedback and stops you leaning, and it will also help you get a better rhythm.

Developing Feel

It’s all practice. You can have fantastic technique and not be any good on the course because you need a bit of feel. It’s all well and good hitting chips from nice lies on the practice green, but when you get on the course, you have a tight lie and you have to hit a flop shot over a bunker, you need feel to get it close. And you generate feel through practice. It’s as simple as that. Don’t just put your ball in nice lies when you’re practicing. Give yourself proper lies and hit proper shots. Vary it up. Put yourself in every situation you might find on the course. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re a great chipper by going to the practice green with a bucket of balls, putting them all in ideal positions and hitting it close quite often.

One Size Doesn’t Fit All

Getting custom fitted for wedges is just as important as getting fitted for a driver and probably more so, because the lie angle is so important with a wedge, especially a lob wedge. If your lie angle is wrong, you’ll be useless, because you won’t be able to hit the ball straight and you’ll start making all sorts of compensations. We’re all made differently, so don’t just grab a wedge off the shelf. A lot of things look good, but that doesn’t mean they will be good for you.

The Right Club Selection

It’s so easy to duff shorter chip shots, particularly those from thick rough when you’re quite close to the flag. When this happens, it’s often because you don’t have enough loft, and subconsciously you don’t want to make the requisite acceleration through the ball. But if you have a lot of loft, you know in your mind you actually have to hit it to get it there. Really think about the type of shot and the club you’re going to use. It’s an easy thing to get right, but also an easy thing to get wrong. At the end of the day, it comes down to making sensible decisions.

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Written by Oliver Wilson

Photography by AFP

Click here to see the published article.

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