Short game

Symptoms in this group

Each one starts from something you can see for yourself. Open it to find what that shot can come from.

• 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.

• Chunking chips and pitches

  The club hits the grass before the ball on a chip or pitch, so the ball pops forward a fraction of the distance you wanted, sometimes only a few feet.

• No distance control on partial swings

  Anything less than a full swing finishes well short or well long of the number, so the in-between wedge yardages are the least predictable shots you have.

• I can't judge how far a chip will carry and roll

  The strike is acceptable, but chips land somewhere other than planned and finish a different distance every time, often running well past the hole.

• I don't know how to set up for a chip

  Ball position, stance width, weight and hand position change from one chip to the next because nothing about the address position is settled, and contact and trajectory change with them.

• Chipping yips

  A sudden jab, flinch or freeze takes over just before impact on short shots, producing chunks and blades that never turn up in a full swing.

• Chips and pitches start left or right of the target

  The strike and the distance are fine, but the ball sets off to one side of the flag, pulled left or pushed right, and finishes wide of the hole or off the green.

• Chips and pitches always come up short

  Chips and pitches keep finishing in front of the hole, either floating up soft and dropping dead or running out of pace on the fringe, even when the strike does not feel badly wrong.

• Chips and pitches won't check

  Short shots land and run out instead of grabbing, so the ball finishes well past the hole even when the strike felt fine.

• One chip fat, the next one thin

  Around the green one chip digs into the turf and dribbles a few feet, the next catches the ball thin and runs across the green, and almost nothing comes off the middle of the face.

• I almost never get up and down

  After a missed green, the chip or pitch rarely finishes close enough to one-putt, so the hole costs a shot almost every time.

• Ball resting against the collar of rough

  The ball sits on the fringe with thicker grass right behind it, so the club snags on the way in and the shot comes out stubbed, popped up or bladed.

• Chips from greenside rough come out dead or fly the green

  From the rough beside the green the ball either stays in the grass and moves a few feet, or jumps out with no spin and runs off the far side.

• Chips grabbed by grainy, sticky grass

  On Bermuda or another grainy grass around the green the club drags in the turf and the chip comes out dead short, or it skids off down-grain grass and runs through the green.

• Chips come out too low

  Every chip leaves the face on a low, flat line and runs out, so you have no shot that stops quickly when you are short-sided or have something to carry.

• Every short shot flies the same distance

  Different wedges, and different swing lengths with the same wedge, all finish at roughly the same yardage, leaving no club for the distances in between.

• Flop shots slide under the ball or get bladed

  The high, soft shot either pops straight up and travels a few feet, or catches the ball thin and races low over the green.

• Putts from off the green come up short or hop offline

  Putting from the fringe or the fairway, the ball bounces through the longer grass and dies well short, or you give it plenty to make up for that and it races past.

• Chips off greenside slopes go wrong

  Chipping from a slope beside the green, the leading edge sticks into the upslope and the ball pops up short, or the club skids off the downslope and the shot races past the hole.