Matthew Fitzpatrick / Cross-Handed Chipping - Chipping Yips or Not, Give it a Try

Опубликовано: 15 Май 2022
на канале: RollYourRock

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No, Matthew Fitzpatrick does not have the chipping yips - but it’s worked really well for him. His chipping stats are 100% better from this year compared to last.

It's not as if Fitzpatrick, 27, a player with seven wins in Europe and currently ranked 23rd in the Official World Golf Ranking, was a terrible chipper when he utilized a conventional technique. He simply thought he could be better and save a few strokes. And he has. Fitzpatrick had used a cross-handed chipping drill for a number of years, and he always liked how his strike was so consistent when he did it. So why not put the technique into play during tournament rounds? He has been chipping predominantly cross-handed for a year or so.

Fitzpatrick tended to “cut across” the ball just a bit when conventional (his path through the ball coming a fraction inside). He just found it more consistent,” Fitzpatrick said. “The ball comes off the face much more consistently. It’s the same every time. You know what’s coming. When I was chipping normally, it’s not like I had the yips. I was just getting a lot of inconsistency in the strike, and the release. I started doing it a couple of years ago in the rough, because I felt the technique really got the (club)head out.

“To me, I can’t drag my hands across, because I’ll shank it if I go cross-handed. It helps me throw the head in, and I feel I have way more control over it. ... I just got so comfortable with it, and now I really like doing it.”

Fitzpatrick still uses a conventional grip when he is in the bunkers. (“Bunkers are no problem,” he said.) He generally uses his cross-handed technique from 30 yards and in. On certain shots – say, a flop shot, or a shot where he needs to generate high spin, such as a pitch he faced to a front hole location from behind the left-side pond at Augusta National’s 11th hole last week – he’ll still use a conventional grip.

Fitzpatrick certainly isn’t the first player to chip cross-handed. TOUR winners Vijay Singh and Chris Couch have chipped and even hit bunker shots that way, and Korn Ferry Tour player Josh Broadaway played cross-handed from tee to green. Golf is a copycat sport. Could Fitzpatrick, given his new chipping prowess, start a new chipping trend with his cross-handed method?