Golfing Weekly Magazine - Issue #2

Last week we covered practicing your putting at home. Another aspect of your short game that you can work on indoors is chipping. One of the big keys to chipping is "feel" If we can develop this during our down time, we will perform well when Spring comes around. Wouldn't that be nice?!
	Picture #1
In picture #1 I have set up a spare piece of carpet (that way the wives won't come after me for a carpet repair bill !) I place a small piece of paper (in this case a business card) out about 10 feet away to mark my landing spot. I now do my practice swing looking at the card to get the "feel" of how hard I need to hit the ball.
	Picture #2
In picture #2 I have chipped the ball, while attempting to land the ball on the card. If you can do this consistently, come springtime you will be able to land the ball where you want. And if you understand the Air time/Ground time ratios of your clubs, (see next week's follow-up article on chipping) your chipping will definitely improve and the resulting scores will be lower too. Make sure to get your bets in early this season, because your handicap will come down pretty fast once you are chipping them dead! Goals: To get the execution of the chipping stroke perfected. To develop feel in order to hit the ball in the air the required distance
Mel Sole is a former South African Tour player with about 30 years of teaching experience. He is the co-founder of Ritson-Sole Golf Schools, which is rated one of the 25 best golf schools in the U.S. Mel's home course is Pawleys Plantation in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Other Ritson-Sole Golf Schools are located in Wilmington, N.C., Atlanta, Blue Springs, Mo., Harrisburg, Pa., and San Sebastián de Amola, México. You can visit the Ritson-Sole Website at www.ritson-sole.com.