Symptom
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.
This usually traces to something already true before the club moves: grip, aim, posture, or where the ball sits in your stance. All of those are checkable standing still, which is why the questions ask you to look rather than to guess.
Common ways golfers describe this
Where should the ball be when chipping?
How much weight on my front foot chipping?
Should my stance be open when chipping?
Hands ahead of the ball chipping setup
How far should I stand from the ball chipping?
- Feet, in the footprints: square to the line
- Hips, cross ticks: square to the line
- Shoulders, round ends: square to the line
- Target line
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.
A few questions · no account needed
What you will be asked
- For a standard low chip, where does the ball sit in your stance?
- At address for a chip, how is your weight split between your feet?
- At address, where is the grip end of the club compared with the ball?
- How wide is your stance, and how far do you stand from the ball?
- How settled is the whole address position?
- When the setup is wrong, what does the bad chip look like?
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.
No repeatable setup or routine
Aim, ball position, stance width and grip get rebuilt slightly differently on every shot, so face angle, low point and strike location all vary with them. Address is the reference the whole swing is measured from, and a reference that moves explains misses that seem to have no pattern.
Read the fix
Ball too far forward in the stance
The ball sits ahead of where the swing arc reaches its lowest point. With an iron off turf this means the club is already climbing at contact. It also encourages the shoulders to aim left at address, which pulls the path further left and adds curve to the miss.
Read the fix
Ball too far back in the stance
The ball sits well before the low point, so the club is still descending steeply when it arrives and delivers less loft than the club actually carries. Flight is low and the ball meets the face while the path is still travelling right, which is why a back ball position so often adds a push or a hook.
Read the fix
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
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
Standing too far from the ball
Reaching for the ball moves balance toward the toes and pulls the strike toward the toe of the face, which costs ball speed and adds draw-side spin through gear effect. Posture usually collapses as the swing tries to find the ball.
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.
- Suddenly can't strike it at allBall striking that was reliable last month has collapsed on the range and on the course alike, with a new miss such as a shank, a top or a chunk that was never part of your game.Shares no repeatable setup or routine
- I never know where the ball should be in my stanceThe ball sits somewhere slightly different each time you set up, and the strike changes along with it.Shares ball too far forward in the stance
- I can't judge how far a chip will carry and rollThe strike is acceptable, but chips land somewhere other than planned and finish a different distance every time, often running well past the hole.Shares no repeatable setup or routine
- My setup is different every timeThere is no set sequence before your shots, so aim, ball position, stance and grip drift from one swing to the next, and you often arrive over the ball still unsure of the shot.Shares no repeatable setup or routine
- No distance control on partial swingsAnything 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.Shares no repeatable setup or routine
- Great on the range, lost on the courseYou strike it well ball after ball on the range, then the same swing starts topping and chunking it, or sending it sideways, as soon as the round begins.Shares no repeatable setup or routine
What this rests on
- Search for the Perfect Swing: The Proven Scientific Approach to Fundamentally Improving Your GameAlastair Cochran and John Stobbs, for the Golf Society of Great Britain, 2005 reissue, originally 1968
- 40+ TrackMan Parameters ExplainedTrackMan, accessed 2026
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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