Here's the single biggest mistake I see amateurs make around the green: they choose too much loft — usually the sand wedge — and then try to manipulate their swing to make that one club do everything. Made worse when they play the ball off the back of their stance, which delofts the club and kills the bounce right when you need it most.
My system does the opposite. Keep the swing the same. Change the club.
Try Putting First
Before you even reach for a wedge, ask if you can putt. Including a shot I call the "hybrid putt" — using a putting stroke with a lofted hybrid instead of the putter itself, for tight fairway lies just off the green. Credit for the idea goes to Todd Hamilton's shot at Royal Troon in the 2004 Open Championship. A normal putt skids 12 to 18 inches before it starts rolling true — the hybrid's extra loft and hotter face extends that skid, so by the time the ball reaches the green, it's already rolling like a putt. No landing spot to pick. No margin for a chunk or a skull.
Grip down, ball forward, heel slightly off the ground at address, and use the same stroke length you'd use if you were actually putting that distance.
When You Do Chip: Vary the Club, Not the Swing
A chip is anything within about four paces of the green edge. Beyond that, it becomes a pitch and run. For true chips, I build one consistent motion and let the club — not the technique — control distance and rollout:
- Pitching wedge: short carry, minimal roll
- 8-iron: more carry, more roll
- 6-iron: maximum roll
Club up for an uphill chip that needs more roll to reach the hole. Club down for downhill.
The setup mirrors putting: grip in the palm's lifeline, not under the heel pad. Shaft in line with your forearms. Stand 8 to 10 inches from the ball, gripped down near the end of the shaft, ball slightly forward, with a slight pinch of turf at contact — unlike putting, which stays clean off the surface.
The feel I want players to carry into every chip: no body twist, no wrist break, distance controlled by imagining how hard you'd hit the equivalent putt, then transferring that exact force into the chip motion.
Why This System Works
Most short-game instruction asks you to learn a different technique for every distance and every lie. That's a lot to hold onto under pressure — and pressure is exactly when a complicated system breaks down. My system asks you to learn one motion, then make one simple decision: which club gets the ball rolling the way I need it to from here?
One swing. A handful of clubs. A decision tree you can run in five seconds standing over the ball. That's the whole point of calling it Clear and Simple.
Explore the short-game training aids built to reinforce this system — including LagMaster — at In-2-It Golf.