Let me guess. You’ve heard it your whole life: “Play the ball back. Lean the handle forward. Trap it. Keep it low.” Maybe you’ve even said it yourself. But if that’s your stock chip shot? You’re making life way harder than it needs to be.

Sure, that used to work—on slow greens with grainy Bermuda and rock-hard wedges from the Reagan era. But the game has changed. Conditions are faster, turf is tighter, and your wedge? It’s built to help you… if you let it.

Ball back. Hands forward. Shaft leaning toward the target. What are you really doing? You’re turning your 56° into a 9-iron. You’re stripping away the bounce. You’re daring the leading edge to dig. That setup demands perfection—and last I checked, none of us have that on call.

Modern chipping starts in a different place. Ball just forward of center. Slight shaft lean. Weight left but quiet. Let the club do the work. Let the bounce glide. That’s how you unlock feel and forgiveness at the same time.

Because here’s the truth: today’s wedge is designed to be hit fat. Yeah, you read that right. It’s not built to pick—it’s built to slide. Whether it’s a low-bounce C-grind or a wide W-grind, the whole point is to let the sole hit the ground and stay on it until it’s ready to lift.

Still, I hear it all the time: “I don’t want bounce.” Or the old classic: “Bounce is for bad players.” Nope. Bounce is for players who want spin and control. It lets you use the grooves the way they were designed. You don’t have to flip your hands. You don’t have to chop. You just swing—and the wedge does what it’s built to do.

And here’s the kicker: every degree of forward shaft lean subtracts a degree of bounce. One-for-one. So if you’ve got a 56° wedge with 10° of bounce, and you lean the shaft 10° forward? Congrats—you’re holding a 46° wedge with zero bounce. That has bad news written all over it.

And it gets worse. Now you’ve created a setup that punishes you for being even a millimeter off. Slightly fat? Digger that sends the ball inches—you get to try again from almost the same spot. Slightly thin? Rocket—you get to try again from the other side of the green. You’re walking a tightrope with a shovel.

Now let’s talk about that “low checker” you think you’re hitting. You know the one—a little bullet that skips and stops? Yeah, it only does that when you’ve got green to work with and you nuked it just right. That’s not a high-spin shot—it’s a delofted missile coming in hot. It’s not versatile. It’s not reliable. And on shorter shots? Good luck getting it to stop.

You know what actually helps it stop? Grooves. That’s what they’re there for. In fact, today’s wedges use tech like groove-in-groove—those tiny raised micro-grooves inside the main ones. They’re designed to create friction on slower-speed shots, especially when the ball doesn’t compress. Hmm… kind of like that back-of-the-stance chopper? Yeah. Exactly like that one.

So, you’re old school. Really old school—like me. I learned to play over 50 years ago with a Pitching Wedge and a Sand Wedge. That was it. There was no Gap Wedge. No Lob Wedge. They didn’t exist. And guess what? We learned to hit every shot with one club. And honestly? I still do most of the time.

Back then, if I wanted a lower flight, I moved the ball back and leaned the shaft—de-lofting the club on purpose. If I wanted more loft, I opened the face. Sound familiar? That kind of manipulation still works—but only when it’s intentional. It’s a specialty shot. A last resort. Maybe the ball’s buried. Maybe there’s something behind it. But even when it’s done right, it’s still hard to predict. Spin, carry, rollout—good luck. You’ve erased the bounce and turned your wedge into a butter knife.

Today? I don’t play that guessing game. If I want it lower, I grab a 9-iron. Higher? I grab more loft. Same setup. Same motion. No stress. The club does the work. That’s what modern wedge design gives you: options, without all the manipulation.

When you understand bounce—really understand it—your short game opens up. Expose the leading edge, and the club will dig. Expose the back of the sole, and it’ll slide. That’s the decision. That’s the skill. Not some old “this is how Joe the pro showed me in 1993” move you’ve carried for 30 years.

So why are so many players still clinging to the “trap it and keep it low” method? Because that’s how they learned. That’s how they teach their buddies. Because it feels like control.

But it’s not. It’s tension. It’s guesswork. It’s hoping you don’t screw it up.

Expose the rear part of the sole and hit it fat. Let ’er slide across the ground.

This is Chipping 2.0—Redesigned for 2025. And it’s time to catch up.