Years ago I was struggling badly with my pitching and chipping.
I spent some time working with a sports psychologist and one of the exercises he introduced sounded pretty strange at first.
He got me to hit chip shots with my eyes closed.
I have recently started revisiting the drill and I had forgotten just how much it changes the way I move the club. For me, it is one of the best ways I have found to rediscover rhythm and freedom when my short game starts to feel too controlled.
This is not about playing golf with your eyes closed
I am certainly not suggesting that you should stand over a chip during a round and shut your eyes.
This is a practice drill.
I enjoy getting out on the course by myself in the evening when it is quiet enough to work on things without holding anybody up. That gives me the chance to hit a few short shots, experiment and pay attention to what I am actually feeling.
When I set up normally, take in the lie and target, then close my eyes before making the motion, something changes almost immediately.
For me, it seems to remove a lot of my reaction to what I am looking at. I am no longer staring at a tight lie and trying to guarantee perfect contact. I simply make the motion.
The biggest difference is my rhythm
This is where the drill really helps me.
My rhythm becomes much better and I feel like my body and arms sequence together more naturally. Instead of different parts of the motion fighting each other, everything flows.
I am not afraid to admit that this is a weakness in my own short game. When I am not chipping well, I can become too conscious of the strike and start trying to control the club through impact.
That is why I like this drill. It gives me a very clear feeling of what a free, flowing motion can feel like without asking me to think about another technical position.
I have written more generally about how to chip consistently, but this drill is a little different. It is less about building a position and more about removing some of the interference that can make the motion stiff.
I grip it softer and let the club hinge
Another thing I notice with my eyes closed is that I am much less afraid to let the club hinge naturally on the backswing.
My default when I get uncomfortable can be to grab the club a little too tightly. From there I restrict the hinge, restrict the clubhead and start trying to manufacture contact.
With my eyes closed, I feel softer in the hands. The club is allowed to move. I am not trying to trap the ball by forcing my hands ahead through impact.
For me, the flight improves, the spin improves and the strike feels much more natural.
That is not me saying every golfer needs more wrist hinge or that having the hands ahead is automatically wrong. It is simply what happens in my own motion when I stop over-controlling it.
Tension is a huge part of poor short-game contact, which is something I also talk about in why golfers keep blading chip shots.
It reminds me of chipping as a kid
Probably the best description I can give is that it takes me back to what chipping felt like when I was a kid.
Totally uninhibited.
Kids do not normally stand over a chip thinking about wrist angles, face stability, handle position and whether they are about to blade it through the green. They see the shot and react.
As adults, especially once we have struggled with a part of the game, we can end up going the other way.
I see so many golfers become almost frozen over a chip because they are trying to control the wrists, control the face and control the contact. The harder they try to guarantee the strike, the less freedom they have to actually make a good motion.
I have covered some of those patterns in the three biggest chipping mistakes I see amateur golfers make.
Closing your eyes feels more nerve-racking than it should
The funny part is that closing your eyes can feel genuinely uncomfortable at first.
Your brain tells you that you are going to miss the ball, hit the ground behind it or shank it sideways.
Then you make the swing and, surprisingly often, you hit it perfectly well.
That is part of what makes the drill so useful for me. It is a reminder that my body is capable of organising a simple chipping motion without me consciously trying to control every part of it.
Once I start producing good contact that way, it becomes much easier to trust the feeling.
How I am using the drill
I keep it very simple.
I choose a short chip in a completely safe area. I take in the lie and the target with my eyes open, set up normally, then close my eyes before making the motion.
After a few eyes-closed chips, I hit the same shot normally and try to retain the same rhythm and freedom.
I am not trying to remember exactly where my wrists were or where the clubface was. I am trying to remember what the motion felt like.
That transfer is the whole point. The goal is not to become good at chipping with my eyes closed. The goal is to experience a freer motion and then learn to reproduce it when my eyes are open and the shot actually matters.
That approach fits with something I have written about before on why the way you practise matters. Good practice should help you take something useful back onto the golf course.
A quick safety note
Only try this somewhere completely safe.
Check that nobody is in front of you, beside you or likely to walk into the area. Keep the shots short and controlled, and do not use the drill in a busy practice area or when other golfers are nearby.
I would not use this for full shots. For me it is simply a short-game exercise designed to create a feeling.
My final thought
I am not afraid to say that chipping has been a weakness in my own game at different times.
That is probably why revisiting this drill has been such a good reminder.
When I close my eyes, I stop trying so hard to control the strike. My rhythm improves, my grip softens, I allow the club to hinge and the whole motion feels more athletic.
It feels a lot like chipping as a kid again.
The challenge now is to take that freedom back onto the course with my eyes open.
That is really what the drill is about. Not learning to chip blind, but learning what freedom feels like.
Happy golfing,
Scott
