Technique guide

Your lead side is the side closest to the target: the left side for a right-handed golfer, the right side for a left-handed golfer. The trail side is the other one.

When a card says “65% lead pressure”, it means most of your weight sits on that front foot and stays there through the strike. Chipping goes wrong when weight drifts back to the trail foot in the downswing — that's where fat shots come from.

Hinge is how much the wrists set the clubhead going back. Release is what the clubhead does through impact. They are separate dials.

The scale used on every card: ○○○ none · ●○○ slight · ●●○ moderate · ●●● high.

Little hinge with a quiet release gives low, repeatable chips. High hinge with a firm release is for escaping thick grass, where you need speed into a small area. A high hinge with a lazy release is the worst of both worlds — that's a chunk.

Normally you rest the whole sole of the wedge on the ground. Toe-down means you raise the handle so only the toe touches, like a putter set on its tip.

Toe-down is your friend around collars and thick fringe: the heel and hosel are lifted clear so grass can't grab and twist the club. It also lowers the effective loft, which is why toe-down shots run.

Bounce is the angle on the bottom of the wedge that stops the leading edge digging. Exposing bounce (a neutral or slightly back handle, face a touch open) makes the club skid across the turf.

Expose bounce on soft, wet or fluffy lies and on high, soft shots. Take bounce out of play — handle forward, more leading edge — on hardpan, bare dirt and firm tight lies, where a bouncing sole makes you blade it.

The low point is where the clubhead reaches the bottom of its arc. For a solid chip it should be just after the ball, so you strike ball first and brush the turf beyond it.

Pressure on the lead side and a handle that keeps moving toward the target push the low point forward. Hanging back or flipping the hands moves it behind the ball — fat, then thin as you compensate.

The situation tells you what you'd like to do. The lie tells you what's possible. When they disagree, the lie wins — always.

Short-sided over a bunker begs for a flop, but a flop needs grass supporting the ball so the club can slide underneath it. From bare dirt or a buried lie there is nothing to slide through, and the shot becomes a coin flip between a blade and a chunk.

That's why Chip Hero filters by lie first and only then considers slope and green. A safe shot to the middle beats a hero shot you can't execute.