“The Golden Chip” (“Golden Golf”) by Franklyn Richards

Description

Golf is a cross-country journey which invites us to focus on the big strokes. After countless holes with the journey interrupted by side-trips to the trees and rough, a golden moment arrives. We find ourselves walking proudly to the ball laying just a few yards off the green after only two or three strokes. The calculations quickly begin, “If I chip close and make the putt, I'll have a par.” (Previous best: 6!)
Then a cruel reality strikes. We chunk the chip. Confronted now by the same shot just two yards nearer the green, we pull up and go harder. The sickening click that signals a thin shot with the prospect of watching the ball race across the green into a bunker is turned profoundly more sorrowful by the realization that some part of the ball had found the hosel — a dreaded “Sh**k.” Two strokes later we're out of the bunker and four putts after that, we have our 10!
Chipping is the other most important thing I teach my clients after the full swing. With these two elements working, the remaining tasks will always seem much less fraught.