Do you have good touch around the greens?
In other words, do you have a good short game? It’s pretty easy to spot a player who does have good touch around the greens. Their rhythm is fluid, and their demeanor remains calm.
Nothing is more important than learning to remain calm while you are chipping the ball. Staying calm allows your hands to remain soft on the club, which in turn allows for softer contact with the ball.
A great exercise to help build a softer touch around the green is to toss a few balls underhanded towards the hole. Imagine tossing the ball softly enough for a child to catch the ball with their bare hands. Better yet, imagine softly tossing a water balloon to somebody while attempting to keep it from breaking.
This seems fairly simple, right?
The challenge now is to chip your golf ball with the same softness so that somebody can catch the ball bare handed. This requires soft hands and a fluid swinging of your golf club.
Your club should swing with the same rhythm that your arm swings while lobbing a ball with your hand.
Think about this for a minute.
If you were to take a bucket of balls and toss each one softly towards the hole, you would eventually figure out a perfect landing spot based on how softly the ball is landing. If it’s possible with your hand, then it’s possible with your golf club.
The next time you decide to work on your chipping, try to spend some time tossing the ball with your hand to develop the necessary feel for a soft chip.
Once you switch to your club, imagine chipping the ball softly enough for a child to catch the ball bare handed.
If you do this enough, you will eventually develop amazing touch around the greens.
