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Stop Chunking Chips: 4 Training Aids That Work

By Cole Brown Β· July 17, 2026 Β· 7 min read

Stop Chunking Chips: 4 Training Aids That Work

I once chunked three chips in a row on the 14th hole, picked up my ball, and walked to the next tee in silence. My playing partners did not say a word. That is the chip-chunker’s walk of shame. I have done it more times than I want to admit.

Chunking chips is not a talent problem. It is a feedback problem. You hit 50 chips in your backyard every week and they still come out fat under pressure because you are rehearsing the wrong move with no way to know it.

I spent two months fixing this. Total cost for the tools that worked: about $120. My chunked chips went from four or five per round to maybe one every two rounds.

Why You Chunk Chips

You chunk chips because the club bottoms out behind the ball. The ground gets between the clubface and the ball, and the ball goes four feet. That low-point error happens for one of three reasons. You probably have at least two.

You flip your wrists. Instead of maintaining your wrist angle through impact, you scoop at the ball. Your hands fire early, the clubhead passes them, and it smacks the ground behind the ball.

Your weight is on your back foot. You hang back at address and stay there through impact. Low point moves behind the ball. Physics does not care about your intentions.

You decelerate. You take the club back too far, realize mid-downswing you have too much speed, and slam the brakes. The clubhead drops into the turf. This is the yips dressed up as bad technique.

You cannot think your way out of any of these. You need feedback that tells your body what it is doing wrong in real time.

The Aids That Fixed My Chipping

1. WhyGolf Chipping Plate ($40 to $60)

This is the first thing I would buy if I could only pick one. The Chipping Plate is a small plastic mat with a defined hitting zone. Set a ball on it and chip. If your club hits the plate behind the ball, your low point is wrong. You hear the click and you know instantly you have flipped or hung back.

The drill: Set the plate at 10 yards. Hit 10 chips with your sand wedge. If the plate clicks before ball contact on more than three out of ten, your hands are too active. Keep your lead wrist flat through impact and hit ten more. Track clean contact.

Time commitment: 10 minutes, four times a week for two weeks. Twenty chips per session.

What it fixed: Low-point consistency. Once I hit eight out of ten clean from ten yards, I moved it to 15 and started over.

2. Tour Striker Smart Ball ($40 to $45)

This one fixes the wrist flip. The Smart Ball hangs between your forearms on a lanyard. When your arms disconnect or your wrists break down, the ball drops. You feel it immediately.

Most chunkers flip because their arms are out of sync with their body turn. The Smart Ball physically prevents that. If you try to scoop, the ball falls. Your body learns to stop scooping because the feedback is instant and annoying.

The drill: Inflate the ball just enough to stay between your forearms without squeezing. Hit 15 chips from 10 yards. If the ball drops mid-swing, reset. The goal is 15 connected chips in a row. Not necessarily in one session.

Time commitment: 10 minutes, three times a week for two weeks. Pair with the Chipping Plate. Plate under the ball, ball between your arms.

What it fixed: The wrist flip. My hands got quiet within a week. When I chipped without it after two weeks, the connected feeling was still there.

3. Divot Board ($40 to $60)

The Divot Board is a textured plastic pad that shows exactly where your club hits the ground. Set a ball on the center dot, swing, and look at the mark. Behind the ball is a chunk. Ahead is clean. The board removes your ability to lie to yourself.

The drill: Hit 15 chips off the board with your gap wedge. Check the mark after every shot. If it is behind the ball three times in a row, stop and fix your setup. Alternate five checked shots with five unchecked so you build feel without the visual crutch.

Time commitment: 10 minutes, three times a week for three weeks. Thirty chips per session, checked and unchecked alternating.

What it fixed: I went from β€œI think my contact is improving” to β€œI know exactly where my low point is.” Within two weeks my divot marks were consistently ahead of the ball.

4. WhyGolf Pressure Plate ($60 to $100)

The Pressure Plate catches the deadliest chipping habit: weight stuck on the trail foot. It is a portable board with pressure-sensitive zones that tell you your weight distribution at address and through the swing. If you are not 70/30 on your lead side at impact, the plate flags it.

The drill: Set the plate under your feet and address a ball at 10 yards. Get to 70% weight on your lead foot before swinging. Hit 10 chips. Check feedback after every swing. If your weight drifted back, fix it on the next rep.

Time commitment: 10 minutes, twice a week for three weeks. Do this alongside the Chipping Plate or Divot Board.

What it fixed: The trail-side lean. I had been chipping with my weight at least 60% on my back foot for years and did not know it. The plate made it impossible to ignore.

The Premium Option: HackMotion Core ($275 to $345)

If you have tried everything above and you are still chunking, your wrist angles are the real problem. HackMotion Core is a wrist sensor that gives real-time data on flexion, extension, and rotation through impact. This is overkill for a 20-handicap. You need the Chipping Plate and Smart Ball for $85 total. But if you are a single-digit player who cannot figure out why one in ten chips is fat, HackMotion will show you the number that explains it.

The Five-Week Plan

Weeks one and two: Chipping Plate every session. 10 minutes, four times a week. Learn what clean contact feels like. Add the Smart Ball in week two, 10 minutes, three times a week. Plate plus Smart Ball is the core combination.

Weeks three and four: Replace the Chipping Plate sessions with the Divot Board. Keep the Smart Ball twice a week. By the end of week four your contact should feel cleaner and more predictable.

Week five: Add the Pressure Plate if weight transfer is still an issue. If your chunks are mostly gone, do maintenance with the board twice a week. Chip 30 balls from three distances and track clean contact. Aim for 80% or better.

What I Would Skip

Alignment sticks for chipping. They work for full-swing path work, but for chip-chunking specifically the Chipping Plate gives better feedback for the same $15. Spend the stick money on the Smart Ball instead.

How long until this actually works?

Two weeks of daily sessions with the Chipping Plate and Smart Ball will make a visible difference in your contact. You will still chunk occasional chips under pressure β€” that is golf. But the routine four-per-round chunks should drop to one. Full reliability takes four to six weeks. Track your up-and-down percentage from inside 30 yards. That is the number that matters.

Where to Buy

Prices updated July 2026. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

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