Phil Mickelson: Just Do This and Become a Short Game Wizard

Phil Mickelson explains why you need to chip the ball with your weight forward at all times and how to control the trajectory of your chip shots by moving the ball forwards and backwards in your stance. Phil also says it’s imperative that you lead your chip shots with your hands forward so that you minimize the chance of hitting a shot fat.

Your weight has to be on the front foot. Okay? If your weight is on the back foot, the leading edge is coming up. Your weight has to be on the front foot. It is, it will vary depending on the lie, but usually it’s about 80 or 90% on the front foot. If the lie is really bad, it’ll be 100%. If the lie is fluffy or out of the rough or first cut, it might be 55 60%. But you have to have your weight on the front foot. That’s number one. Number two, you have to make a decision if you’re going low or high. If you’re going low, the ball will be placed off your back foot. And if you’re going high, the ball will be placed off your front foot, but you will never chip with the ball in between your feet. That’s an indecision. You haven’t decided what kind of shot you want to hit. Now, it might vary off the back foot a little bit. It might be even further back if you’re going really low. And it might be really far up if you’re going really high, but you have to decide what kind of shot you’re hitting, low or high, and play it accordingly. If you keep the ball in the middle of your stance, you’re not able to put your weight forward. You’ll go over the top of it. So, make a decision. And the third thing is your hands have to be ahead. You cannot chip with your hands behind because the leading edge is coming up. Your hands have to lead and stay ahead. So there should be an inverse line. There should not be a V this way. It should be the other way. If you watch Steve Stricker set up at a dress, he create he he breaks his wrist and locks it in before he hits. From that position, you can accelerate the hand into the finish. When your hands are back, you cannot go forward from this position. You have to wait until the hands get ahead. So you get too much back swing. You can’t make a short little chip shot and accelerate to the target if your hands are not already ahead. So, you have to do those three things. And if you do, chipping is pretty easy. I always try to chip a basic chip if I can. I always want to start if possible with a square face and usually off the back foot and my hands ahead because that’s the easiest contact. But that ball will have a lot of release. And when we play on greens as fast as we play on, a lot of times that ball won’t stop. I I need a lot of green for that ball to stop. So then I have to start saying, “Okay, can I play it off my back foot because that’s always easiest to make solid contact and open the face a little bit and maybe make it a little bit softer. It’s still low, but it’s a little bit softer. If I can hit that shot, I would prefer that. But if I simply can’t, if I have, then I have to go off the front foot. And then I have to start saying, okay, do I have do I have enough green to work with where I can do it with a square face if possible? that would be nice. But if not, if I need it to stop quicker, then I have to open the face and make the same movement. And if that’s not enough, then I have to start doing the uh the lob shot. Those to me are like a fill flop. Well, I guess you can call it a a flop shot, but what I’m doing there is I’m driving the club straight into the ground. Now, this is where people don’t understand about the lob shot, how technically how it’s working because most people try to help it up and flip it up. The leading edge comes up and you blade it. See, this is a fairly tight lie. And what I’m doing is I’m going to put the ball way ahead of my front foot. I’m going to have 100% of weight on my front foot. I’m going to lay the club flat. I’m going to drive it into the ground and let the firmness of the ground bounce it into the ball. And that’s how I’m getting it to pop straight up.