A Rickie Fowler key chipping tip for amateurs? It shows your weight

Rickie Fowler had been chipping the flags about 30 yards away for a few minutes when Chris Trott spotted two things. They were related.

Fowler’s shots were good.

But it didn’t look like he had scored at all.

The lawn was clean. No divot.

Perfect selection.

“I mean, it’s hard to say you were even here,” Trott said. “I know you just stood there, but it’s hard to tell.”

The exchange took place during a video shoot for TaylorMade, which sponsors Fowler and where Trott is an employee, and the content was titled “Rickie Fowler’s Greenside Chipping Techniques,” so Trott probably wasn’t surprised. The statistics tell a similar story. Even in Fowler’s lean years, he was solid around the green. This season he finished 22nd on the PGA Tour in Strokes Gained: Around the Green. Last year he was 31st; two years ago he was 12th; Three years ago he was 39.

But Trott was curious. Maybe you are too.

“How do we train as amateurs and make sure our swing is so consistent?” he asked in the video. “…How do we approach this? You said body release, body rotation. Everything else is an important thought.”

There was.

“The weight stays constant,” Fowler said in the video. “Somehow where you set it up and focus on the ball, no movement as far as weight transfer goes.”

In the video, Trott then wondered about the distribution and the lie.

“What percentage are we talking about here, like 90-10 or…”

“I would say I’m about 70-30,” Fowler said.

“Does that change with the shot?”

“It will,” Fowler said. “Especially when things go downhill. Obviously there will be a lot more going forward. Uphill, maybe more like 50-50 because you don’t want to lean into the slope. But a blatant lie, I say I’m at 70-30.”

At this point we would like to point out that you should watch the entire 8-minute video. You can do this here. We’ll end things here with another exchange between Trott and Fowler, where the host wondered what happens when you start fighting.

“If you’ve ever lost your bearings while pitching or chipping, how do you find it again?” Trott asked in the video. “Is this just about the consistency of the low point? I see that, and obviously I changed the lie, that changed it a little bit, but how do we find it when we’ve lost it in this area?”

“I mean, if you don’t have an instructor or someone to look at it and help you with it, a lot of times you literally have to go out and put in reps and just take the time,” Fowler said. “And I think that I am able to move between different clubs and in different situations. It might start with a few simple pitch hits just to do a few single reps, but then as you move, you challenge yourself. Because if you sit in one area of ​​the apartment or in the same lounger, you can get it right pretty quickly.

“But being able to go from there and adapt with the ball over your feet, under your feet or downhill is kind of fun.

Editor’s Note: To watch the full video, please click here.

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Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Publisher

Nick Piastowski is a senior editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across golf. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can contact him about any of these topics – his stories, his playing or his beers – at nick.piastowski@golf.com.