Golf Practice Blog

I am a 7 handicap, and never shanked my chip shots for 35 years until I moved to Arizona.  Now once or more a round I will be chipping, usually with a little length or where I have to swing a little harder than normal, sometimes from very tight lies, often with a 60 degree wedge and the ball squirts low and right, usually resulting in a lost shot or two.  I have tried chipping from my heals, using a lighter grip pressure, trying to stay dead still, but nothing seems to work for very long.  Do you have any advice?

It’s never fun to have shanks pop up in your round and they really do hurt the score.  This is a hard one to diagnose without watching you do it.  However a couple of things come to mind:

You may want to try a different wedge.  Your 60 degree wedge might have too much bounce for the tight Arizona lies.  It’s possible that the heel is digging in and the face is coming open, causing the shank. Take a look at the Momentus Short Game Wizard.  They offer several different lofted wedges, the club itself uses similar technology to the training clubs and they are USGA approved.

Another thought I have is maybe you are bringing the club inside too much on your backswing, causing you to come too far from the inside and hitting the hosel at impact.  A very good training aid for chipping is the Chip-N-Pitch chipping trainer.

I hope this helps a little.  If not, I would suggest a short game lessong from a PGA/LPGA professional.  You can locate one in your area at www.findalesson.com.

Elaine Crosby is a 19-year veteran of the LPGA Tour and a member of the Women’s Senior Golf Tour.  If you have a question for Elaine, please email us at mailto:info@practicerange.com?subject=Ask the Pro.

On hitting the ball or on my follow through, I am having problems with the top of the grip brushing/hitting my right forearm.  It sometimes gets so bad my arm is sore after a round.  Sometimes I only do it very rarely and other times a lot.  It can happen with any club but strangely, the result of the golf shot is often acceptable.  I have had a few lessons, but to no avail.  I am a 9 handicapper and right hander.  I am looking forward to your suggestions/remedies.

That sounds a little painful.I would say that you are cupping your wrists through impact.  That is the only way the grip end coud hit your arm.  At impact the left wrist should be flat and pointing down the target line, a little toward the ground, but not entirely.  Basically the knuckles of your left hand will be pointing down at the ground.  My first guess is that when this happens to you, your left hand cups, causing your knuckles to point up.  I really believe this is the case because you say you still get good results.  My next guess is you normally hit a very high straight shot with your irons.

The problem is easier to diagnose than finding a solution. First make sure at the top of your backswing that you are overly cupped there.  You also want a fairly flat left wrist…the Tac-Tic Wrist training aid can help with this. Also, look at a couple of pictures of pros to see what their hand position looks like at the top and try to mimic.

Second, over exaggerate getting your left hand knuckles to point to the ground when you release the club at the ball.  I think that both of these fixes might help.  A slow motion video, or Swing Analysis Software package, would certainly show if cupping is the problem.