How to Stop Chunking Chip Shots: The 3 Fixes That Clean Up Contact Fast

Chunking chip shots is one of the most annoying failures in golf because it makes you feel like you’ve never held a club before.

You’re ten yards off the green. You tell yourself, just land it on, let it release, no hero stuff. Then you smash the turf two inches behind the ball and advance it roughly the distance of a depressed house cat.

Good times.

The good news is chunked chips usually come from a few very fixable problems, not some deep spiritual flaw in your golf game.

Why You Keep Chunking Chips

For most golfers, it’s one or more of these:

Too much weight on the back foot
Ball too far forward
Trying to help the ball into the air with your hands
A swing that’s too long and too wristy for the shot

That combination moves your low point behind the ball, which is exactly where chunk city lives.

On basic chips, the goal is not to “lift” the ball. The loft on the club already does that. Your job is to make a short, controlled strike that catches the ball first or brushes the turf just barely after it.

The Setup Fix That Solves Half the Problem

Before we even get to drills, do this:

put 60 to 70 percent of your pressure on your lead foot
move the ball slightly back of center
keep your hands just a little ahead of the ball
narrow your stance
stand a touch closer so the handle doesn’t hang way out

That’s it.

A lot of golfers chunk chips because they set up like they’re about to hit a full wedge. That’s dumb. A basic chip is a small strike, not a miniature full swing.

If you want a simple checkpoint, your sternum should feel a little ahead of the ball and stay there.

Fix 1: Stop Scooping It

This is the big one.

When golfers see a short shot, they panic and try to help the ball up. That little scoop move adds loft, throws the bottom of the swing behind the ball, and turns a simple chip into an excavation project.

Think of the club brushing through the grass, not flipping under the ball.

A useful feel is that the back of your lead wrist stays fairly quiet through impact. Not locked, just stable. If the clubhead passes your hands too early, you’re asking for fat contact.

Drill: Towel Behind the Ball

place a small towel 3 to 4 inches behind the ball
hit 15 chips trying to miss the towel completely
if you hit the towel, your low point is too far back

This drill is brutally honest. It also works fast.

Start with a pitching wedge or 9-iron and tiny swings. Don’t make it harder than it needs to be.

Fix 2: Shorten the Motion

A lot of bad chips come from a backswing that gets too long for the shot.

Long backswing means extra timing. Extra timing means extra panic. Extra panic means your hands take over and the bottom falls out.

For a basic chip, think:

shorter backswing
chest and arms moving together
small finish

No need for cute wrist action unless you’re hitting something specialized.

If you’re trying to learn good contact, boring is your friend.

Drill: Waist-to-Waist Chips

hit 20 balls with your hands staying below waist height on both sides
keep the tempo even, like a long putt with loft
focus only on solid contact and predictable rollout

This is especially useful if you already read our chip shot technique guide around the green but still get handsy when you’re nervous.

Fix 3: Keep the Pressure Forward

You don’t need a dramatic weight shift on a simple chip.

In fact, too much moving around is usually part of the problem.

Set pressure slightly forward at address and keep it there. If your chest drifts back or your trail leg starts taking over, the club bottoms out too early and you’re cooked.

Drill: Lead-Foot-Only Chips

set up normally
lift your trail heel so only the toe touches lightly
hit 10 to 15 little chips
feel your pressure staying on the lead side the entire time

This drill is great because it removes the option of hanging back. You either stay forward or you hit garbage immediately.

Which, to be fair, is useful information.

The Best Club Choice If You’re Struggling

When contact is shaky, use less loft for a while.

That means:

9-iron
pitching wedge
maybe gap wedge

Don’t immediately grab a lob wedge and start trying to hit soft floaty nonsense. That’s how people stay bad at chipping for years.

Use a lower-lofted club, land it on earlier, and let it run. Once contact gets clean, then you can get fancy.

This same logic shows up in pitch shot distance control and bunker basics, too. Build clean contact first. Add creativity second.

A Simple 20-Ball Practice Plan

If you want this to improve quickly, do this practice block three times a week:

Balls 1 to 5

towel-behind-ball drill
no concern about target, just clean strike

Balls 6 to 10

waist-to-waist chips with a pitching wedge
land them on a spot 3 to 5 paces onto the green

Balls 11 to 15

lead-foot-only chips
same landing spot, same tempo

Balls 16 to 20

normal setup
alternate between 9-iron and pitching wedge
try to finish every ball inside a 6-foot circle

That’s enough. You don’t need 100 sloppy reps. You need 20 useful ones.

What Good Contact Should Feel Like

A good chip does not feel like you’re digging.

It feels like:

a shallow brush
a short thump after the ball, not before it
a quiet chest-driven motion
zero emergency hand flip

If you hear a big heavy ground slap before the strike, that’s your sign to reset setup and get pressure forward again.

The Bottom Line

If you’re chunking chip shots, stop assuming you need magic and start checking the obvious stuff.

Most golfers fix this faster by:

getting pressure forward
moving the ball slightly back
shortening the motion
stopping the scoop move

That’s it. That’s the whole rescue plan.

Quick fix checklist

lead-side pressure: 60 to 70 percent
ball position: slightly back of center
backswing: shorter than you think
goal: brush, don’t scoop

My take? If you commit to the towel drill and lead-foot drill for a week, your contact will clean up fast enough that you’ll wonder why you made this shot so dramatic in the first place.

For more short-game help, read chip shot technique around the green, pitch shot distance control, short game secrets, and how to bounce back after a bad hole, because chunking one chip is annoying, but letting it wreck the next three holes is even dumber.