We all know the short game makes or breaks a scorecard, and greenside mishits are golf's ultimate frustration. My solution used to be simple pride: proper golfers play wedges. The unwritten rule was clear - if you take your game seriously, you learn to open the face of a sand wedge, master the bounce, and clip it crisp off a tight lie. A chipper was nothing more than a novelty club, a gimmick you'd expect to find in a beginner's bag or the back of a bargain bin.
There was always a lingering stigma attached to it, a subtle clubhouse snobbery that whispered you were taking an illegal shortcut if you dared to use one. There was definitely a bit of that traditionalist snobbery in me, too. Until reality caught up with my scorecards.
The truth is, the rest of my game was in solid shape. During a recent fitting session, the Ping club fitter was looking over my launch monitor numbers, genuinely impressed with my dispersion off the tee and my consistency through the irons. He asked, “If your ball-striking is this tight, where are you actually losing your shots?”
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Over the last few seasons, my confidence inside 30 yards has completely evaporated. The culprits? The dreaded 'unmentionables' and the occasional thinned shot. There is no worse feeling in golf than standing over a delicate chip on a tight, shaved lie just off the green, feeling your hands freeze, and hearing that sickening sound of the hosel hitting the ball. Once the shanks creep into your short game, they linger in your head like a shadow.
The fitter didn't offer a lecture on wrist hinge or swing path. Instead, he pulled out a club, and handed it to me. It was the Ping ChipR Le. He said four words every traumatised chipper long to hear, “It’s impossible to shank this.”
There are no graphics stamped on the sole, and the word 'Chipper' isn’t blazoned anywhere for your playing partners to sneer at from across the green. Designed with the clean, engineered aesthetic Ping is known for, it simply sits in your bag looking like another wedge.
You set up to the ball exactly like a putter and you make a simple, straight-back, straight-through putting stroke. Because of the heavy, perimeter-weighted design and the specific lie angle, the hosel is completely offset. The fitter wasn't exaggerating: you cannot physically shank it. The clubface glides over the turf, pops the ball softly into the air just enough to clear the fringe, and sends it rolling out like a putt.
A couple of months down the line, I’ll admit I’m still getting a feel for my distance control, but the results have been a revelation. The sheer relief of standing over a tricky, tight lie and knowing that a total disaster is off the table is priceless. It removes the panic. Let me know if you've added a chipper to your bag in the comments box below.
Now, I haven't completely abandoned my traditional wedges. I still pull them out when I need to loft a shot over a bunker or make the ball stop quickly when the pin is close. I don't want to rely on the ChipR for every situation. But having it in the bag acts as a mental safety blanket. Just knowing it’s sitting there gives me a wave of confidence over the ball that I haven't felt in ages.
