Hitting chips off toe of club

[jpvegas1]

Chipping is not a strong part of my game and this winter I decided to something about it. I've spent a lot of time chipping at a couple of the local courses and my chipping has improved, slightly. But one thing I have noticed when practicing is I'm getting a grass stain towards the toe of my club and not on the sweet spot. I've tried standing closer to the ball, further from the ball, playing the ball forward/back and still the same thing.

Any suggestions on what causes the toe hits and what I can do to correct this?

 

[mjstrong]

You might be surprised how many good players hit chips off the toe. Whether it's done on purpose or not, I've had a lot of low-handicap and scratch students that can hit the sweet spot all day long with irons, and hit all their chips off the toe, at least a little bit.

Are you consistently hitting your chip shots off the toe? Or is that just what happens when you mishit those shots?

 

[Chip Putterman]

Lie angle. More upright.

 

[Kevin Shields]

JP, unless you need spin, hit em off the toe. He's right, alot of top players have a little grass scuff near the toe.

 

[mgranato]

Don't hate on the toe. Lots of advantages with the toe chip - "deader" roll, allows for a little longer stroke, lets me get the heel up a little which reduces the amount of club contacting the grass.

 

[suns11111]

Well I will go on the other end of the spectrum, Im guessing he doesnt like the toe shot feel or is hitting it short. Rich3Jack did a nice review of the Taly, but the feel of using that type of device is eye opening, like working on flying wedges. Also Bman has a nice PGA.com short game video -> pivot and using mid sole (in forum) of the club. Also from my experience I have to remind myself impact position is not address position......my 2cents.
JeffS

 

[jpvegas1]

Thanks for the replies.

The toe hits are pretty constant with all chips, good and bad.

The main difference I see between the really good players and me is they are trying to hit their chips off the toe of the club and succeeding. I'm trying to hit the chips off the center of the club and hitting them off of the toe instead.

As long as it is nothing to be concerned about, I'll continue with my practice and see what happens.

 

[Kevin Shields]

If you're standing real close to the ball sometime the heel stands up a bit. How's your address? High hands?

 

[Richie3Jack]

I think it depends how much off the toe. Personally, I always prefer to hit the sweetspot if I can because my stroke is geared towards hitting the sweetspot and feeling that I have made a stroke appropriate enough to carry the ball and spin the ball like I expect to with a strike on the sweetspot.

But, it's not easy to hit the sweetspot with chips for reasons Kevin and others stated.

If you are way off the toe, you might be over-accelerating the hands and creating way too much shaft lean instead of using some pivot with your chip stroke and more naturally hitting the ball with just a little forward shaft lean.





3JACK

 

[joep]

I was taught this yrs ago. It works especially well in high grass off the green. All I do is lift the heel of the club and make a hard putting stroke,the ball pops out lightly and straight. The heel never gets caught in the grass. Works for me......

 

[Tball88]

As mentioned above, nothing wrong with chipping with the toe, in fact, this was strongly advocated by "little poison" Paul Runyan, who quite possibly had the best short game ever on tour.



I don't use it all the time, however, if I'm feeling nerves or getting a little handsy, I'll go to it. Also good on real tight lies.

 

[2mongoose]

JP,

Very ironic timing of your post because I've noticed this exact same thing in my off season practice.

Below are two pictures of my wedges - a 60 and 54 degree. The (crappy) balls at the indoor facility I practice at leave a residue on your club and you can clearly see where I've been making contact.

Are your findings similar to these?

I think I'll have the lie angles checked first and go from there.....

 

[birdie_man]

I used to do this.

I am pretty sure my lie angles really did not contribute.

Though it started happening when I went to lower hands.

I have done at least one thread on it. "Toe Hits" or "Toed Shots" or something.