Most conventional teaching has a player keeping the hands ahead of the ball at address to promote a crisp, descending blow. Unfortunately, many players try to do too much of a good thing and take that bit of advice way too far. I’ve even caught myself doing it.

It’s true – when addressing a chip shot, the hands should be ahead of the ball (closer to the target). But how much? I personally use the technique that Dave Pelz describes in his Short Game Bible. He recommends that the hands be aligned with the inside of the left thigh.

To recap his chipping address technique: stand with the feet very close together and the ball opposite your right ankle (for right-handers) and your weight slightly more on the left side (about 65%). The feet should be flared about 20 degrees toward the target. It’s helpful to align the ball to your right ankle before turning your feet toward the target, because the change of perspective makes it hard to tell where the ball is really aligned, at least until you’ve had time to practice. You should be standing close to the ball, enough to get the heel of the club slightly off the turf and you should be aligned parallel left of the target.

When considering how far ahead the hands should be, the key thing to consider is that the feet should be very close together. This means that even with the ball aligned with your back ankle, the hands aren’t all that far ahead of the ball.

Try an experiment: address a chip shot as I described above, and set your hands so that they’re aligned with the inside of your left thigh. They’re not all that far ahead, are they? Now, move your front foot toward the target maybe a foot or so so your stance is about as wide as you’d use for a finesse wedge shot. Make sure your hands are still aligned with the inside of your left thigh and your weight is still favoring your left side (about 65%).

See how much different that is? Your hands are waaaaaaay ahead of the ball now. I see players fairly regularly chipping like that. They take a much wider stance than necessary and set their hands too far ahead. Or, some will take a narrow stance but still set their hands much further forward, toward the middle or even the outside of the left thigh.

So what happens when you do that?

That will cause a much steeper angle of attack and you run the risk of bringing the club right down on top of the ball. Or, even worse, you may start to incorporate some body sway when you make a chipping stroke because your subconscious is astute enough to realize that you’re going to bring your wedge down on top of the ball and it doesn’t want that to happen, so you end up stubbing it into the turf. Either way, you’ll probably experience some inconsistency.

Remember that the club should hit the ball with a slightly descending blow. Address the ball as I described above and don’t let those hands get too far ahead and you’ll be on your way to making a much more consistent chipping stroke.

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