Is Your Chipping Really Good Enough? Try This Quick Challenge

Be honest: How good is your chipping?

A lot of golfers will say it's fine. You don't skull it across the green anymore. You don't hit it fat. Most of the time the ball ends up on the putting surface and that feels like success.

But getting the ball on the green and being a great chipper are two very different things. There's a lot more to it than avoiding the big mistakes and some data I came across will make you think twice about how good you are at chipping.

I talked to the team at Player Development Index (PDI). PDI is essentially an assessment that measures a golfer as a whole athlete covering golf skills, physical ability and mental game. Their chipping data, collected from 2,408 golfers, shows what separates a golfer who chips acceptably from one who chips well.

The test: 12 chips, 3 rings

You set up at one spot just off the green. Three rings are laid out on the green in front of you at different distances.

• A ring 3 yards away, 3 feet across
• A ring 10 yards away, 6 feet across
• A ring 20 yards away, 12 feet across

You hit four chips at each ring, 12 in all. A chip counts if the ball lands inside the ring. Where it rolls afterward doesn't matter. This test asks you to control exactly how far the ball carries through the air, on demand, at three different distances.

Take it yourself first

You can set this up on any practice green in about 10 minutes.

1. Pick a spot just off the green and set targets on the green at three, 10 and 20 yards from it. You can use a few tees to mark the area.
2. Hit four balls to each target from that same spot.
3. Count only the balls that land inside. Where they finish doesn't count.

Write down your total out of 12.

How did you do?

PDI gave us the average score they see at each level when they do this test.

• Beginners: about 3 of 12
• Double-digit handicaps: about 5
• Elite juniors and scratch amateurs: about 7
• D1 college players: nearly 8
• Touring professionals: about 10

Look at the middle of that list. A double-digit handicapper who doesn't chunk or skull anymore is still landing fewer than half of these chips in the ring. Even the average Division 1 college player misses about a third of them. And a perfect 12 is rare, even among tour pros.

If you scored seven or eight, you're chipping like a scratch golfer or a college player. If you landed four or five, you're right in line with most double-digit handicaps, and this is probably a good place to find strokes.

Why it matters for your score

PDI grouped players by how many chips they landed in the ring and then compared their reported scoring averages.

• Players who landed 3 or fewer averaged about 93
• Players who landed 10 or more averaged about 76

That's roughly 17 strokes. Of all the parts of the PDI golf assessment, chipping lined up with scoring average as closely as any, slightly more than putting and more than the full-swing challenges.

You can't take this information and think that chipping can save you 17 strokes. Better players are better at a lot of other things as well. However, the link between your ability to carry a short shot a specific distance and your ability to score is certainly there.

Why chipping is such a good measure

A chip has nowhere to hide. To land the ball in a ring, you have to read the distance, choose a swing and deliver the clubhead with just the right speed and contact so the ball carries the right amount. That's feel, control and repeatability in one shot and that carries over into other areas of your game.

If nothing else, start to practice your chipping distance control the next time you head out to the green. Don't just focus on striking the ball; pay attention to where it lands.