Conventional wisdom is it is best to land the ball near the edge of the green and let it run the rest of the way to the hole. I completely disagree with this approach. If you are 24 yards from the hole and have a lot of green to work with and use a 6 iron with a 1:6 (carry:roll ratio) and land the ball 1 foot beyond the correct landing spot you will be 7 feet long. Now if you have a 1:1 carry to roll ratio with a SW and you land it 3 feet beyond the correct landing spot you will be 6 feet beyond the hole. I don't know about everyone else, but if I chip with a 3 iron it is extremely easy to miss a spot 2 or 3 yards in front of me by a couple of feet, with a 1:10 carry to roll ratio this becomes a serious issue.
I don't believe the solution is to chip with the highest lofted club in the bag, but rather to figure out if you are good at carrying the ball short distances and letting it roll out, or if you are better at carrying the ball further and rolling it less. If you take out 3 or 4 clubs, say a SW, 8 iron, and a 5 iron and pick 3 targets, 10 yards, 20 yards, 30 yards and alternate the order you try each club you can start to get an idea of whether you are better with the longer irons or the shorter irons. Once you do the test, you might be surprised to find that you have been chipping with the wrong clubs. For me, a 9 iron with a 1:3 is ideal and a 6 iron is horrible when I spot chip, but it is quite good once I just look at the target and pretend I am putting rather than spot chipping.
I personally think it is nearly impossible to be good at chipping with 4 or more clubs without a lot of practice. It is easy when you are chipping to not have a feel for precisely how hard to hit a 7 iron to carry it 4 yards for example, particularly when your last 3 chips called for a SW. I think for most players mastering two clubs like a SW and a 9 iron for most chips will yield an excellent gain. Tiger chips almost exclusively with his LW and Annika went from chipping with 3 clubs to only 1! Maybe the shortcut is mastering 1 or 2 clubs rather than 6 or 7. Only through testing can you get an objective answer for yourself.
Matt
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"In my experience, if you stay with the essentials you WILL build a repeatable swing undoubtedly. If you can master the Imperatives you have a champion" (Vikram).
The reason you can't sustain the lag is because you are so eager to make the club move fast (a reaction to the intent of "hitting it far"). So on a full shot you throw it away too early, which doesn't happen for your short chip. (bts)
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