Conquer Your Chipping Game and Drop Strokes

How you can use Trackman data to conquer your chipping troubles and drop strokes off your score.

Improving Short Chip Shots in Golf Using TrackMan

Overview

This material is a practical guide for golfers aiming to improve their short chip shots (20–40 yards) using the TrackMan system at an indoor facility. It covers setup, practice methods, and benefits of using technology to analyze and refine chipping technique.

Key Points

Challenges of Short Chip Shots

• Many golfers struggle with short chips (20–40 yards), especially after a missed approach shot.

• Common issues include controlling distance, spin, and shot consistency.

Benefits of Using TrackMan

• TrackMan provides data on spin rate, spin loft, and stopping power.

• Allows golfers to visualize and measure their performance.

• Helps differentiate between running chips, spinning chips, and flop shots.

TrackMan Practice Modes

Performance Center

• Set up custom chip shots to match on-course scenarios (e.g., 30-yard chip to a central pin).

• Visual feedback through target circles (strokes gained).

• Practice both running and spinning chips.

• Adjust shot length and monitor outcomes for fine-tuning distance control.

Target Practice Center

• Flexible setup for various chip distances (e.g., 12, 17, 29 yards).

• Option to add slope, wind, and change target location.

• Real-time feedback on distance from pin after each shot.

• Ability to track how close chips land to the flag (e.g., 4 yards = 12 feet from pin).

Practical Tips for Chipping Practice

• Use consistent methods to gauge swing length (e.g., clock-face references: 9, 10, 11 o’clock).

• Focus on muscle memory for power control.

• Experiment with different types of chips (run-up, spin, flop).

• Adjust practice variables (distance, slope, wind) for comprehensive skill building.

• Practice indoors to avoid weather constraints and maximize repetition.

Key Takeaways

• Consistent Practice: Regularly practicing short chips with TrackMan can improve distance control and shot variety.

• Data-Driven Improvement: Use feedback on spin, distance, and proximity to pin for targeted skill development.

• Flexibility: Indoor practice with technology allows for year-round improvement and convenience.

• Muscle Memory: Repetition builds confidence and consistency for on-course performance.

Using TrackMan at an indoor facility is an effective method for golfers to practice and refine short chip shots, leveraging technology for immediate feedback and structured skill development. Regular, focused practice on a variety of chip types and distances can lead to measurable improvements in on-course performance.

Full Video Transcript

I don't know about you, but in the summertime during golf season, I often struggle with those short chips, 30 yards, 40 yards, 20 yards. Coming on in here to Private Fairway and working on that with the Trackmen can really help you.

It can help you understand some things like how much spin you're getting on your chip, what the spin loft is, how much you're going to stop that ball. You can really work on whether you're going to run it up or chip it up close and allow it to stop. You can even hit flops if you want.

If you can hit a flop off the mat, you can hit a flop off the grass. So you can come on in here, work on your chipping. In this video, I'm going to show you some different ways to work on chipping. There's two cool things you can do in the Trackmen software, so I'm going to show you.

The first one is under the Performance Center. You can actually set this up for a little chip. So if we come here and we add a player, what we can do is create a shot similar to something that we might see out on the golf course.

So for me, I find if I end up short, if I duff an approach shot or something like that, oftentimes I have like a 30, 25, 30-yard shot, and I find I'm not that great at them.

So what we're going to do is we're going to come in here, we're going to turn off interval, we're going to set this to, let's make it 30 yards like that, and we'll pick a green, let's pick, we'll pick like this kind of long one.

We'll put the pin in the middle pretty much, and then we're going to just set this up for this little 30-yard pitch, chip, whatever you want to call it. So we have a 30-yard shot, and you can see that it's drawn now a smaller circle for my strokes gain if you've watched some of these Performance Center videos before.

And you can kind of take two approaches. So if you're more of like a run-it-up-there chip person, you can do that. So you can come in here and run it up. See how I hit that? Way too short, right? Felt good, but way too short.

And so what I can work on is not so much like looking at that image and deciding, but thinking about how much power I'm going to put into my chip. So that was a little bit more. So that's going to kind of run up, but it's still a little short.

And sometimes people use the clock like to 9, to 10, to 11, so whatever your method is, you can put that in. So you can see there, I'm still a little short. So at 30 yards, you know, maybe I need to think about some swing thought. That one's a little thin. It's probably going to work out, though.

A little thin, so it's past. So I can just kind of fine-tune this and get an idea. That one's better in terms of distance. That's a little better. That one should be about right, I think. So that's running it up, right? So I'm not putting very much spin. But if you wanted to maybe work on putting spin on it.

Ooh, too hard. Better? Might be even in the circle. Oh, just outside the circle. So you can use this performance center to work on approach shots, chip shots, whether you want to try to spin them up there or not bad. So it gives you kind of an idea. So as you see, you can kind of work on getting that in there.

Now, the other thing you can do that's kind of in some ways even more fun, if we exit out of here, I can come to, sorry, not courses, practice. And we can do on the target practice center, which is kind of fun. So we can set up a practice center. You can set it up to your altitude, all of those things.

What I like about this is this is you get to kind of set up a little chip shot and you get to watch it go in the hole or, well, hopefully go in the hole. But when you come to here, you just pick any distance. But what we're actually going to do is we're going to pick a different target.

So we're going to pick this target, this 157 yards. But then instead we're going to put the ball like right here. And so now we have 17 yards. Let's actually go back. There we go, 29 yards. That's close enough. So now we have a 29-yard shot. That is five feet uphill. And we don't have any wind.

We could put wind if we want, but we're not going to. And now we have a 29-yard shot. It's a little bit uphill. We're hitting it out of the fairway, so it's not really affecting our, you know, none of that's happening. It's just straight from the swing. There we go. So we can work on 29 yards.

Too bad, a little too hard. A little left. But you can see if I put the other thing I can do if I want is kind of fun. If I come here and I change one of these tiles. So let's take out curve and let's put in from the pin.

So now this data point here on the bottom, the bottom corner there is going to tell me how far each shot is from the flag. That one should be fairly good. A little too far. But you can see four yards from the pin, so 12 feet. So I have a 12-foot putt. So you can do that. You can also, you know, change the distance.

So, like, if we want it, we can move the ball up here. We can have just like an off-the-fringe chip. So now we just have a little 12-yard chip. There's a little slope in the greens. But same idea. So like that, I was trying to run it up. It's just a little too soft. How many times have we hit those? A million times.

A little thin. Too soft. Too hard. Too thin. It's going to work out, though. That's not bad. That one's good. Go in. Oh. There we go. So now we're getting kind of a feel for a 12-yard chip. A little too hard. But that gives you kind of the idea of what's going on, and it gives you the option to practice.

There, I rolled one up. So that's one of the ways you can improve your golf game is work on chipping. It's great. You can come in, do it at night. You can do it in a short period of time. You don't have to be out in the blazing sun. And it's just a little different.

You're just still working on that same muscle memory of how much power you're putting on each shot. So if you've been playing golf all winter inside, maybe you don't need to come in as much during the summer, but you should come in during golf season, practice a little, and drop some strokes from your score.