Why 90% Of Golfers Struggle Chipping Around The Green

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Transcript Summary- You know, chip shots around the green can cause real anxiety for a lot of my students. And it’s no surprise—out there on the course, you’re not getting perfect lies, are you? You’re getting bare lies, scabby lies, deep rough… and golf asks you to get the ball out of those tricky lies, onto the green, and stopping it pretty quickly by the flag. That’s no small ask! The main issue my students face is making solid contact every time and having enough control over flight and spin.

So, in this video, I want to share with you a four-shot system that totally transformed my own short game. I learned it from one of my mentors, Graeme Walker—he coaches Tommy Fleetwood, who’s widely regarded as one of the best short game players in the world. And now, I’m using this exact same system with my students, and it’s working wonders. It’s helping them strike the ball more consistently from all kinds of lies, but even more importantly, it’s giving them the ability to control trajectory and spin with confidence.

Before we dive in, if you’re new to the channel or if this is one of your first lessons with me, do consider subscribing. I release videos like this every week to help you improve your game. And the best bit? You don’t have to remember a thing—I’ve put everything into a free downloadable practice guide linked in the description below.

So, this four-shot system is brilliant. It gives you a progression. If you ever lose your chipping, just go back to shot one, rebuild the basics, and then gradually work your way up through shots two, three, and four. It builds confidence, coordination, and skill. Let’s kick off with shot number one.

Shot number one is all about developing coordination between the club, the hands, and the body. This is what Graeme calls “putt with loft.” It’s the simplest of the four, but so important. You’re basically taking your putting stance, lifting the handle just a little, and allowing your arms to hang naturally. From there, you make a putting-style stroke, but with a lofted club. The key here is to feel the base of the club bruising the ground—no wrist action, no rolling the club. Just a smooth, coordinated stroke using your body and arms together.

Now, quick but crucial point before we move on: you need to adjust your grip when chipping. Instead of your normal grip, get your thumb right on top of the shaft, just like you would for putting. This gives you a clear feel for where the clubface is throughout the stroke and helps prevent it from opening or closing unnecessarily. It’s a small tweak but makes a huge difference.

On to shot number two. This is for when you’ve got plenty of green to work with and want the ball to come out a little faster and maybe check up a bit. This is the famous “hinge and hold,” inspired by Phil Mickelson. You move the ball back in your stance, shaft in line with your lead armpit, and you strike with the leading edge of the club. Add a little wrist hinge going back, then hold that angle through impact. You’re still using your body and arms together like in shot one, but now you’re adding just a bit more pop and control to get that hotter flight.

Shot number three—this is the one for those tricky lies in the rough or where you need a soft landing. We call this one the “fish’s tail.” You’ve already learned how to hinge back in shot two, but now we let that hinge go through naturally. We’re using the back section of the club to strike the ball, and to do that, you move the ball up opposite your lead heel, grip down with the thumb on top, and let your wrists gently work back and through—like throwing a ball. Just be careful not to fall back trying to help the ball up. Stay committed and let the motion do the work.

Now for the final shot—shot number four: the lob shot or the “parachute shot.” This is the one that really gets your mates talking! It’s a high, soft shot that lands gently on the green. We’re using the far back edge of the club here, so we set up with the ball opposite the instep of your lead foot, open the clubface slightly, and lower the handle. As you swing, you want to feel loft being added early, almost like you’re lifting the club up without rolling it inside. Trust that the club is going to do the work. It’s a committed shot—you’ve got to go for it. Once you’ve built the confidence from shots one to three, this becomes so much easier to execute.

So there you have it—four progressive shots that give you a reliable system around the greens. Big thanks to Graeme Walker, an incredible coach based at the Oaks Club in York. If you enjoyed the video, give it a thumbs up, maybe share it with a golfing mate, and don’t forget that free downloadable practice plan down below. And if you’re looking to level up other areas of your short game, check out this next video right here. But until next week—have a great golfing week!

Full Transcript- Chip shots around the green can be a real source of anxiety for many of my students partially because you know what you don't get perfect lies do you you get bare lies you get scabby lies you get really deep rough lies and and you've you know golf asks you to get it out of that lie up onto the green and stop him pretty damn quickly near a flag Now the problem is a lot of my students struggle with this They struggle with understanding how to get solid contact every single time and they really struggle to control their flight and get enough backspin In this video I want to share with you a fourshot system that one of my personal mentors Graeme Walker shared with me a couple of years ago It's been transformative for my for my own game Graeme coaches Tommy Fleetwood one of the best short game players in the world I'd love for you to learn the exact same system I'm using because it's really helping many many of my students become first of all more consistent with their strike from every single uh lie but more importantly once they've got their strike they're now able to control the trajectory and the spin And it's making a massive difference from everywhere around the green not just from the perfect lies Before I get into the video look if you're new to the channel your first lessons of mine please consider subscribing I release videos just like this one every single week to try and help you improve your game Plus you never have to remember a thing Everything we do here I'll put into a free downloadable practice guide in the description box below So this four shot system is absolutely brilliant What it does for my students is it gives them something that if they ever lose their chipping they can go to shot one develop their coordination and strike and then can gradually move to shot two three and four as they gradually develop all their shots around the green It's so so good So let's start with shot number one So shot number one the purpose of this shot is the most basic chip shot but the real purpose of this is to develop a coordination between the club hands and body A lot of the times when people are struggling with the chip shots their head their body's moving all over the place It's that the body moves like this I mean there's a variety of things right going on So the stage one is to get the club the hands and the body working together Now you'll notice here two things I'm doing at setup The ball position is just ahead of center Look just here Now what I'm doing is is Naam here is to strike the ground this time with the base of the golf club right here We're not striking with the leading edge We're not striking the backhead We're striking with the base of the club And this first shot is what Graeme calls putt with loft So all you're doing in theory is you're taking your putting stance I'm just raising the handle just a little bit here letting my arms hang down here Now I'm making a stroke and I'm really just feeling I'm putting I'm feeling the base of the club striking the ground It is as simple as that Or is it i get my students to do this to start with and because it's chipping the there's two things that tends to happen when people start to make a stroke because it's loft they start to move their bodies slightly backwards here shifting the low point behind the golf ball and they start to kind of almost try and help it up in the air The feeling that most of them say they get when they do this is is almost like here the lead shoulder is going down This is how ultimately look my body is working with the club head I am not taking the club away with my hands I'm taking it away Look my body this shoulder's rocking back here I'm now staying there as I'm coming back down to the golf ball And then look I pick it up on the way through No stage Look as I am turning off or leaning backwards right so just be aware of that So nice and simple Get yourself set And we're just going to try to coordinate One two three Coordinate the body and just putt with loft And I'm really feeling here the base of that club just bruising the

ground Just like that Okay So nice and simple You'll notice there's no wrists in that at all Everything's just working together It's just putting with loft So before we move on to shot number two I missed a really important ingredient and that is you need to change your grip when you're chipping And this is it is really really important So when you set up here unlike normally I would grip the golf club with my hands over here So the thumb sits just to the right of center with chipping I don't want that at all I want the thumb sit right on top of the grip like this just as it would do for putting Now my students love this because what it does is it gives them that thumbnail gives them an indication of where the club face is Now a lot of problems with chipping come when people roll the club inside like this Well when that thumb does that you're going to feel this here Look I know that uh face is square I know it's square at impact and I know it's square on the way through So I use that lead hand here as a real guide for that club face My trail hand is ultimately just my throwing hand which we're going to come into in a second So with that now put into the system let's move on to shot number two So shot number two we have a lot of green to work with here which is great So but we want the ball therefore not to come out slowly We want to come out a little bit fast faster and we want to maybe check up on the green To do that we use hinge and hold which is a great favorite of Phil Mickelson So we put the ball back in our stance here and we put the shaft in line with our lead armpit Now what we're doing here is we're using now a different part of the golf club The aim now is to feel like the front section of this golf club right there the front leading edge section is going to strike the ball then the ground Okay afterwards and this will produce like that hotter flight hopefully with a little bit of backspin So everything else remains the same Now notice here what I'm going to do is I'm going to hinge my wrist just a little bit here So we're still look this is putting me loft but now what I'm going to do is I'm going to add a little bit hinge now And I'm now going to hold that hinge Really I'm holding the loft on that uh on that ball So it's slightly delofted It's going to strike down on the golf ball and produce a hotter flight But notice how we're layering the skills here We're still putting with lo so the arms the club and the body are working together but now we're adding a little bit of hinge And we're going to hold that So it looks something like

this And watch this Now release a lot And up to the flag a little bit kind of to the right All right but much much hotter flight Got a lot more roll with that Now again remember what we said with step one Be be sure to stay in your posture here Don't lean back Don't start to move Look after that posture all the way Just putting me loft now with just a little bit of hinge in there and holding All right let's move on to shot number three So shot number three you can see here this is a very tricky shot I'm in rough ground I've got to get the ball up landing on the green Now the green's a slight downs slope So I've got to have the ball landing very softly The first two shots won't work for this one I need the ball up a little bit higher and landing very very quietly on the green Now to do that the third shot Graeme likes to call the fish's tail It's one of his favorites It's become one of my favorites And this time we've used the uh the middle we've used the front edge Now we're going to use the back section of this golf club And to do that what we do is we push now the ball opposite our lead heel We take put the club down and we point the club now towards our heart We take the grip with the thumb straight down And now you've learned the feeling of the body being coordinated You've learned now the hinge here on the way back And now what we're going to do we're going to let that club hinge on the way through So it now becomes look a fish's tail Now notice the way my wrists are working They're not rolling This is really really important They are working back and through almost like I'm throwing the ball like this Now some of my students prefer the feeling in their right hand Some prefer it in the lead hand Now from here look all I'm doing is I'm hinging on the way back coming back here and then I'm letting the hinge come through naturally on the way through So I'm picking it up with my body on the way through When people start adding loft this is when I generally see the leaning back So the sensation for a lot of my students is still the sensation You're still hitting Look downwards on that golf ball That lead should down I'm coming down on the golf ball here and I'm letting the hinge happen and then coming through What I'm not doing is leaning back to create it Does that make sense so let's have a look at this one in action Tricky shot this one Get myself set Feel that motion Get a rhythm with this I might just have a practice here Get the back of that club Feel that back of the club Just bruising on the ground Once I've got that sensation here go to the golf ball Don't waste too much

time And watch this one Just lands much much softer See on the down slope but that pops the ball up beautifully there And all I'm doing is literally letting that club hinge back on the way through here And that's it Super super simple It's lovely rhythmical one that one But remember it's so easy and I've guilty this myself many many times Falling back I see my students do it I do it as well now and then start to fall behind the golf ball Let's move on now to shot number four So shot number four is the love shot or the parachute shot It's a shot if you can learn to play this your mates are going to absolutely be in awe of you So ultimately it's a shot that goes super super high lands on the green really really softly Now we've used three parts of the club so far In the lob shot here we're going to use right at the far back edge of the golf club Now to do that remember you've built some confidence into in the first three shots The final shot now is ultimately get that ball now opposite the instep of your lead foot Now we said we want to add loft So I'm going to slightly wider stance now with um with this shot I'm going to have open the club face just a little bit Lower the handle a little bit here Then grip Put the thumb down the bottom of that grip Now all these things I've done I've added loft to the shot right immediately at setup Now all I'm going to do in the swing is I'm going to start to feel loft being added right at the start of the swing here So you'll notice here the butt end of my golf club is remaining pretty pretty stable at this stage This is me adding loft to the golf club Most people when they learn this for the first time trying to add loft by rolling the club in here When you do that the club gets too far behind you You start to fat it thin it you name it We want to make sure that that club is working upwards here up and then I'm as I'm coming down allowing the club just to swing look down to the golf ball here underneath my body here and fully commit to this shot Really really important So let's have a look at this in action It's a fully committed shot Distance control comes once you've learned to strike but it's a fully fully committed shot here Let's have a look at this one Pops it up there That's pretty good right so that's what we call the parachute shot Really landing softly Now you can imagine when people play this shot for the first time because it's height they're thinking height they always start to lean back They might start I'm coming down Coming down but right the last minute whoa they start to lean back You must trust Hold this I call it let this lead side in place here I'm coming down to the golf ball here It's the wrists that are working and then my body then comes through the shot It's a real committed shot but you've already learned some of those skills in shots one two and three So I really hope you enjoyed this system It gives my students something secure to always fall back on And I want to be have a big big shout out to Graeme Walk a wonderful guy based at the Oaks Club in York who gave me this and coached obviously Tommy Fleetwood I hope you enjoy the video Remember there's a free practice plan in the description box below If you enjoy this video give it a thumbs up Maybe share it with a friend And look if you're looking to improve other parts of your short game click click click this video right here But until next week have a wonderful golfing week.