Especially for beginners and high-handicap players

When they are faced with a short chip from the apron of a green, most players feel compelled to try to loft the ball up to the pin. Their thinking here seems to be that every shot in golf, except the putt, has to travel through the air in a high arc and land right at the target. The result is that a great many golfers either use too lofted a club from the edge of the green or they make an even more serious mistake: they try to scoop the ball up—with faulty wrist action, of course.

Actually, the shot to play from the edge is a run-up—the kind of shot where the ball is hit a short distance in the air and then gradually sits down and rolls the rest of the way to the cup, as a putt does. The club to use is one of the middle irons—from the four-iron through the seven-iron, depending on the terrain and your own choice of clubs. (I generally go with the six-iron.)

To play a chip-and-run shot, the player must hit the ball first, the turf afterward. To do this, he must be sure and keep his wrists firm and to address the ball with his hands slightly ahead of the ball. The feet should be no more than 10 inches apart, the stance slightly open. With this unspectacular but sound method, you won't be leaving yourself eight-and 10-footers to hole. After a while you'll have five-footers or less.

from ART WALL JR., Pocono Manor Golf Club, Pa.

TWO PHOTOS

TWO ILLUSTRATIONS

There should be only the faintest suggestion of wrist-break in the chip from off the edge

NEXT WEEK: ED DUDLEY ON RHYTHM AND THE BACKSWING