Everyone loves to crush their drive off the tee. However, it’s really the short game that matters most.

Improving your shots from 100 yards and in will do a lot more for your game than hitting your drive twenty or thirty yards further.

You’ll shoot much lower scores with an improved short game and better chip shots than you will with a pumped up drive.

So if you want to lower your score instead of satisfy your ego, check out these five chipping tips and watch your golf score plummet.

Chipping is an extremely important part of your golf game. And yet it’s not practiced all that much. Most weekend golf warriors spend a lot of time hitting their driver when they go to the driving range.

Let’s face it, it’s a lot more fun to blast long drives than to practice your chipping, right?

But if you really do want to lower your score, you should focus on improving your short game (the area within 100 yards of the green) and that includes your chipping.

Let’s take a look at the basic chipping techniques and ball address so you can be sure your hitting your chip shots properly.

1) Your stance should be rather narrow.

2) Use a slightly open stance. This allows you to see the hole and your target line more clearly. It also helps to prevent you from taking the club head low and too far inside.

3) Your shoulders should be pretty close to parallel to your target line. If they aren’t, you may find yourself pulling the club across the ball during impact. This will cause you to pull the chip shot to the left of the target.

4) You should play the ball further back in your stance. This means playing it closer to your back foot. This allows your hands to start a few inches in front of the ball, which will help you to make a descending hit on the ball.

5) Play the ball close to your body.

If you practice these basic golf chipping techniques with consistency while at the driving range you’ll find your chip shots improving rather quickly. And a better short game leads to a lower golf score.

A good golf swing takes numbers off your handicap. If you’re like many golfers, your quest for the perfect golf swing is a never-ending endeavour.

Did you know you can greatly improve your performance by holding your clubs tightly? And by tightly, I mean tightly. Not so tight, however, that your back, neck and shoulder muscles bunch up when you make the swing.

Far too many golfers believe that they must hold the club loosely when making their golf swing. They believe that their swing will be stiff and unyielding if they hold the club tightly. This faulty belief contributes to a less than ideal swing.

No golfer has ever developed a bad golf swing from holding the club too tightly, but many have done so by holding it too loosely. This loose grip causes errors that you can avoid by gripping the club tightly. The loose grip results in the hands opening at the top, over swinging, collapse of the left wrist and numerous others. If you are accustomed to a loose grip, the tight grip may feel awkward at first, but it is worth the effort. Your game will improve and you will carry through with the swinging motion more effectively.

When you take hold of the club, remember that “Tight is Right.”

To hold the club properly, you are going for a tight, two-knuckle overlap. In other words, your fingers should be tight enough that almost all fingers are grasping the club. Right handed golfers should ensure that fingers three, four and five of the left hand, and fingers one, two and three of the right hand are on the club, with the forefinger of your right hand connecting with the tip of your left thumb. This prevents the club from dropping into the v-space between your thumb and forefinger at the top of your golf swing and causing a lack of control that you will have regain as your golf club swings downward. Obviously, if you are a left handed golfer, you will reverse this positioning..

Your stance is also important. It helps to remember a couple of points when you are positioning yourself for your golf swing.

Now, this is the correct way to how to stand up to the ball so you get a good golf swing. It’s not difficult, but there are a couple of things to remember.

Stand far enough away from the ball that you have enough room to swing the club back freely and to gracefully arc the golf downwards towards your feet during the downswing. You should divide your weight evenly on your feet, and flex the knees. If you’re not sure how much to flex, err on the side of too much flex rather than too little. Bend forward from the waist so your shoulders are rounded. The right shoulder should be lower than the left shoulder, since your right hand reaches further down the club’s shaft than the left hand. The opposite is true if you are a left handed golfer.

Now make your golf swing! Keep these golf tips in mind and you’ll be on your way to paring the course!