How to play the uphill chip

Alexandra Armas is one of four Spanish señoritas running their own golf school at Tenerife’s Amarilla course.

With colleagues Sara Beautell, Anna Larraneta and Vanessa Vignali she has given Golfmagic an exclusive preview of her teaching skills and passed on tips which most of you will find helpful.

Many’s the time our approach to the green hasn’t quite made it or has been struck too far and we’re left with an uphill chip to a green sitting above us.

It’s a finesse shot, we would all love to master but it takes practice and a few technical rules to follow.

Says Alexandra: "It’s not a shot where you lean into the hill. This de-lofts the club – usually a wedge or sand wedge – and tends to make it run too far.

Uphill chip to the green

"My advice is to concentrate on your weight favouring your right side (if right-handed) with shoulders parallel to the ground, the ball forward in your stance.

"I prefer to slightly hood the clubface - it tends to improve the feel of the strike - and keep my follow through short. It’s a shot you need to practice while keeping the hands quiet through impact."

Article first pubished August 2002, updated April 2013

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