How to Chip in Golf: A Beginner's Step-by-Step Guide

To chip in golf, set up with a narrow stance, lean 60-70% of your weight onto your lead foot, and play the ball back of center with your hands slightly ahead of the clubhead. Make a short, putting-style stroke that rocks your shoulders while your wrists stay quiet, brushing the grass and letting the loft of the club lift the ball. The goal is a low, running shot that lands just on the green and rolls to the hole like a putt.

What Is a Chip Shot in Golf?

A chip is a short shot played close to the green that spends more time rolling than flying. Unlike a full pitch, it uses a small stroke, minimal wrist action, and the natural loft of the club to pop the ball onto the putting surface, where it releases toward the hole. Think of it as a putt with a little air under it.

Most amateurs lose more strokes within 30 yards of the green than anywhere else, which is why a reliable chip is the fastest way to shave numbers off your score. If you are still building the basics of the full swing, our guide on how to swing a golf club covers the fundamentals that carry straight into your short game.

How to Chip a Golf Ball: Step by Step

Follow these six steps for a repeatable chip. The whole motion should feel small and controlled, not like a scaled-down full swing.

1. Narrow your stance. Set your feet about hip-width apart or slightly closer, with your toes turned a touch open toward the target.
2. Lean your weight forward. Put 60-70% of your weight on your lead foot and keep it there through the shot. This is the single biggest fix for chunked chips.
3. Play the ball back. Position the ball off your trail-foot instep, back of center, so your hands sit ahead of the clubhead.
4. Press your hands forward. Your lead arm and the club shaft should form a straight line leaning slightly toward the target, keeping the grip end pointed at your belt buckle.
5. Rock your shoulders. Make a short backstroke by rocking your shoulders, not by hinging your wrists. The triangle formed by your arms and shoulders stays intact.
6. Accelerate through. Brush the grass, letting the clubhead pass your hands only after impact, and finish with a controlled follow-through that matches your backswing length.

The most common breakdown happens on step six, when nerves cause a deceleration or a scoop. Keeping your golf swing technique principles in mind — steady low point, forward shaft lean — keeps the strike crisp.

How to Set Up: Stance, Grip, and Ball Position

Your setup does most of the work in chipping, so getting it right removes guesswork from the stroke. Stand close to the ball with your hands lower than in a full swing, which naturally makes the club more upright and easier to control.

Grip down an inch or two on the handle for more feel and a shorter lever. A neutral hold works fine here; if you are unsure about hand placement, our guide on how to grip a golf club applies to short shots too. Set your feet, hips, and shoulders slightly open to the target line while the clubface points at your landing spot. Ball back, weight forward, hands ahead — commit those three checkpoints to memory and repeat them before every chip.

Which Club Should You Chip With?

Choose your club based on how much green sits between the ball and the hole, not by habit. A lower-lofted club carries less and rolls more; a higher-lofted club flies higher and stops sooner. Many low-handicap players carry a single go-to wedge but vary clubs when the lie or distance calls for it.

Situation	Club	Flight vs. roll
Lots of green to the hole	Pitching wedge / 9-iron	Low flight, long roll
Medium green, standard lie	Gap or sand wedge (52-56°)	Balanced carry and roll
Short-sided, must stop fast	Lob wedge (58-60°)	High flight, minimal roll
Ball on the fringe	Putter or 8-iron	Almost all roll

A useful rule of thumb is to picture landing every chip on the same spot, about a yard onto the green, then let club selection control how far it rolls from there. This “land it in the same window” habit is far easier to repeat under pressure than trying to fly the ball different distances with the same club. For the finer points of contact and rhythm, our dedicated golf chipping technique guide goes deeper on strike quality.

The Chip-and-Run: The Highest-Percentage Shot

The chip-and-run is the shot you should default to whenever the ground between you and the hole is smooth. It flies low, lands early, and rolls out like a putt, which removes the risk of the high, spinning shots you see on television. Because the ball spends most of its time on the ground, small mistakes matter far less.

To play it, take a 9-iron or pitching wedge, set up with the ball back and weight forward, and make your putting-style stroke. Read the green for slope and speed exactly as you would a putt, since the ball will roll a long way. Golfers who practice putting distance control tend to chip well for the same reason, so the reps you log in our golf putting drills pay off directly around the fringe.

Common Chipping Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Most chipping problems trace back to a handful of setup and motion errors. Fix these and your contact becomes dramatically more consistent.

• Scooping to help the ball up. Trust the loft. Keep your hands ahead of the clubhead through impact and let the club do the lifting.
• Weight hanging back. Starting or shifting your weight onto your trail foot moves your low point behind the ball, causing chunks. Lean forward and stay there.
• Too much wrist hinge. Flippy wrists add height and inconsistency. Keep the triangle intact and rock your shoulders instead.
• Decelerating into the ball. Fear of hitting it too far makes golfers quit through impact, producing chunks and thins. Take a shorter backswing so you can accelerate confidently.
• Reaching for the ball. Standing too far away flattens the swing. Stand close, hands low, and the club works on a more upright, reliable arc.

Beginners working through these fixes will find they overlap with the fundamentals in our golf swing tips for beginners, since a steady low point and forward weight help every shot in the bag.

A Simple Chipping Practice Plan

Fifteen minutes of focused chipping beats an hour of aimless bucket-bashing. Structure your short-game reps so you build feel, not just repetition.

Drill 1 — Landing-spot ladder. Place a towel a yard onto the green and chip ten balls trying to land each one on it, ignoring the hole. This trains the “same landing window” habit that makes club selection do the distance work.

Drill 2 — One-handed lead-arm chips. Hit soft chips with only your lead arm on the club to feel the shoulders control the stroke and stop the scoop. Add your trail hand back once the motion feels quiet.

Drill 3 — Club ladder. From the same lie, chip three balls each with a pitching wedge, a sand wedge, and a lob wedge, and watch how the roll-out changes. This calibrates which club to reach for on the course.

Spend two or three sessions a week on these before you ever grind on the range. A dependable chip stops small mistakes from becoming double bogeys, and it is the part of the game where practice pays back fastest.

When to Chip vs. When to Pitch or Putt

Reach for the chip when you are just off the green with mostly clear ground ahead and no obstacle to carry. If you must fly the ball over a bunker or thick rough and stop it quickly, that is a pitch or flop, which needs more loft and wrist hinge. If the ground is smooth right up to the green, the safest play is often the putter — the “Texas wedge” — because a poor putt still finishes closer than a poor chip. Match the shot to the situation, and default to the lowest-risk option that clears the trouble.