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Contact

Symptom

Blading chips across the green

The leading edge catches the middle of the ball on a chip or pitch and it shoots off low and hot, running across the green and well past the hole.

Fat, thin and topped shots are one problem seen from different sides: the lowest point of the swing arc is not where the ball is. Where it sits instead, and why, is what separates the causes below.

Common ways golfers describe this

  • Blade chip shot
  • Blading my chips
  • Why do I blade my chips?
  • Bladed pitch shot
  • Bladed wedge around the green
Divot running straight down the target lineA ball and its divot seen from above, with the golfer's feet drawn at the left and a dashed target line running up the page through the ball. The divot is a torn strip of turf starting just past the ball and running forward toward the target, running straight down the target line. It is brown soil showing inside a ragged edge, a divot of ordinary depth with the sod lying just ahead. The figure moves. The club passes through the turf at an even speed and the divot is cut behind it, starting where the club first met the ground and running forward, so where the cut begins relative to the ball is watched rather than stated.
  • Target line
  • Your divot
The mark left in the turf is the one piece of evidence that waits for you to walk up and look at it. Drawn here square and of ordinary depth, which is the reference yours is read against.

Narrow it to one cause

Each question is here because golfers answer it differently, and that difference is what rules a cause out. Nothing is generated while you answer: every question, cause and fix was written and checked in advance.

Start the questions

A few questions · no account needed

What you will be asked

  1. On a bladed chip, did the club touch the ground before it reached the ball?
  2. As the club came down, what were you trying to do?
  3. Hold your finish after a bladed chip. What has your body done?
  4. Stop at the end of a chip without moving your hands. Where is the clubhead compared with your hands?
  5. How did the backswing compare with the follow-through?
  6. What lie do most of your bladed chips come from?

Where this can come from

These are the causes this symptom resolves to, in the order they turn up most often. That order is not a diagnosis and it is not your answer: two of them can produce a shot that looks identical from behind. Each has a fix you can read now, whether or not you answer anything.

  1. Weight hanging on the trail foot

    Pressure stays on the trail foot through impact instead of moving toward the target. The low point of the arc sits behind the ball, so the club either bottoms out early and takes turf first, or is travelling upward by the time it arrives. Both misses come from the same cause, which is why fat and thin so often alternate.

    Read the fix

  2. Trying to lift the ball into the air

    An instinct to scoop the ball upward adds loft through impact and moves the low point behind the ball. Height comes from the loft already built into the club and from a descending strike, so the attempt to help the ball up produces the opposite: a thin or topped shot that never climbs.

    Read the fix

  3. Flipping or scooping through impact

    The lead wrist breaks down so the clubhead passes the hands before the ball and the shaft leans backward at contact. Loft is added, the low point moves back, and the shot comes out high, weak and short of what the club should carry.

    Read the fix

  4. Early extension

    The hips push toward the ball through the downswing and the body stands up out of its address posture. The hands and club are forced up and away with it, which moves the low point of the swing arc backwards and upwards. The result is a club that is still rising when it reaches the ball, which is why the strike catches the ball above its equator.

    Read the fix

  5. Handle pressed too far forward at impact

    Driving the grip end well ahead of the clubhead strips loft off the club and pushes the low point forward, presenting the leading edge to the ball. It is the opposite error to flipping and it is what turns a delicate chip into a skulled one.

    Read the fix

  6. Deceleration into impact

    The club slows down before it reaches the ball, almost always after a backswing longer than the shot required. Speed disappears at the only moment it matters, and the bottom of the arc becomes unpredictable, which is why decelerating produces both the chunk and the blade.

    Read the fix

Related symptoms

These are not here because they sound similar. Each one can come from a cause on the list above, which is why fixing one sometimes quietly fixes another. The closest matches are first.

What this rests on

If something here contradicts what a launch monitor tells you, say so. Corrections change the page.

Discussion

Golfers who have had this shot, on what it turned out to be and what sorted it. Read it as experience rather than diagnosis: the questions above are what narrow it to a cause.

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