Day Four: Chipping

Today, I spent one hour and fifteen minutes doing what I do worst - chipping.

I had a small patch of green that was probably 16 feet deep and about 20 feet wide.
I set up a marker six paces in from the edge of the green. I then put 8 tees in the ground that formed a three foot circle around my center marker. I set up a spot 25 feet from the edge of the green - so, from my spot to my marker was about 30 feet.

I had 12 balls and started chipping with my 60-degree (Titleist Vokey with a 10 degree bounce). I wanted to see how many balls I could land in my 3-foot circle.
It took me the first couple rounds to get down the feel and to learn how to strike the ball consistently.

The shot called for me to pop up the ball and try to land it around the 25 foot area (edge of the green/fringe) - any more juice and it would roll past the hole and out of my 3-foot range.

As the chipping practice went on, I noticed that if I opened up the face, placed the ball in the front of my stance, and shifted my weight more on my left side, I could get a good result - a nice, doughy, fluffy chip. The best chips had nice back spin that I could see as the ball traveled towards the target.

I also noticed how important a good rhythm was with the swing plane. Take the club back around 30% with a wrist hinge and then bringing my arms thru the ball. The better the rhythm, the better the shot.

After I hit about 100 chips, I was starting to get a good feel for this distance and shot. I was landing about 6 out of 12 balls in my circle and 10 or 11 out of 12 balls on the green. There would always be about 1 or 2 balls that I under/over hit that would fall short/long of the green. I think that as time goes on during this 80 day exercise, I will need to be chipping 10 of 12 balls into my circle. Obviously the goal is 100% to within 3 feet, but I could see leaving 1 or 2 just outside the 3 foot range, whereby I would need to make a 4 or 5 foot putt instead of a putt within 3 feet.

It will be fun to see my progress come day 70 - as this is currently the weakest part of my game.