Jordan Spieth may have struggled with his game over the past few years, but his short game has always been right up there with the very best on the PGA Tour.
Spieth hasn’t won on the PGA Tour since the RBC Heritage in 2022, and he missed out on the Tour Championship and the Ryder Cup this year.
It seems like Spieth has hit a brick wall with his golf game, and a fresh approach during the off-season may well be needed.
The 32-year-old clearly has the game needed to win big tournaments – his three major championship victories are evidence of that.
Spieth just needs to find more consistency from the start of the 2026 season onwards.
When he’s not swinging the club well, his short game will bail him out more often than not.
Jordan Spieth tells amateurs the club they should ditch to improve their chipping
Spieth is one of the hardest workers in the game and if you copy his work ethic, as well as his chipping advice, your scores will improve overnight.
Low handicap golfers, let’s say five and below, definitely can achieve success by using their 60 degree wedge when chipping.
The spin imparted on the ball, when striking down with speed while using a 60 degree wedge, can actually be hugely beneficial, especially when chipping onto a green which is sloping away from you.
However, if you’re a higher handicap golfer, the skill required to play that shot consistently quite simply isn’t there.
So you’re better off playing the percentage shot. Spieth urged amateurs to leave the 60 degree wedge in the bag around the greens, when speaking to Today’s Golfer.
He said: “When I’m chipping I try to keep my left wrist dead square through the ball.
“I’m comfortable hitting a 60 degree wedge on chip shots, being aggressive through the strike and taking a little divot. But on the basic chip and run, lots of amateurs would be better off hitting an 8-iron or similar, with the ball back in their stance.“
The data which backs up Jordan Spieth’s chipping advice
As if Spieth’s advice wasn’t enough, we now have the data to back up what the three-time major champion has told us about chipping.
Here we have data provided via Shot Scope showing the benefits of a 15-handicap golfer using a club with less loft around the greens:
| Stats | 8ir/9ir/PW | GW/SW/LW |
| Usage | 9% | 17% |
| Proximity to hole | 16ft | 22ft |
| Up-and-down % | 29% | 21% |
| Inside 6ft % | 32% | 28% |
| Shots to finish | 2.78 | 3.00 |
From those figures, it’s very clear to see that amateur golfers, especially those with higher handicappers, have more success when using an 8-iron, a 9-iron or a pitching wedge to chip with.
Using an 8-iron to play a chip and run rather than getting out the lob wedge to play the ‘hero shot’ may seem boring at the time, but it will improve your game in the long-run.
Any amateur looking to improve their consistency around the greens should listen to Spieth’s advice and ditch the lob wedge.
It would make sense to leave the sand wedge and gap wedge in the bag as well, when playing simple chip-and-runs.
Receive exclusive golf news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
