Luke Donald is one of the best there has ever been with any form of wedge in his hands around the greens.
Donald – the European Ryder Cup captain in 2023 and now 2025 – was never the longest of hitters but he reached number one in the world due to his immaculate short game.
The 47-year-old Englishman enjoyed a wonderfully successful career in the game, with five PGA Tour wins and seven DP World Tour (formerly known as the European Tour) victories to his name.
However, his crowning glory was guiding the European Ryder Cup team to victory at Marco Simone Golf Club two years ago.
And now Donald will take his team to Bethpage Black this month to take on US Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley and his players.
Of course, none of this would have been possible for Donald had he not been such an elite golfer in his heyday.
And the cornerstone of his success was his uncanny ability to get his ball up and down from all sorts of difficult positions around the greens.
Luke Donald warns amateur golfers what they should ‘never’ do when chipping
If you’re an amateur golfer looking to improve your short game, look no further than the below advice from Donald.
The man from Hemel Hempstead, England, possessed exceptional touch and a technique that simply had no faults.
And now he has shared valuable advice with amateur golfers who are in need of improving their performance with a wedge in their hands around the greens.
He said: “The goal in chipping is to get the ball pretty low with a descending blow and get the ball rolling end over end.
“The motion is like you’re going to throw it underarm, and get it pretty low, end over end.
“The way to do that obviously is through good setup. I tend to weaken my left hand grip a little bit. I’m getting the club more upright, so I’m standing close to, standing a little bit taller. I’m leaning my body slightly to the left but I’m also leaning the shaft with it.
“So if you notice, the shaft and my spine are in one line. You never want to get the shaft in a different line to your spine because you’re not trying to get the ball up, and that’s the worst way to create solid contact.
“For good solid contact, you want to weaken that grip, lean the shaft a little bit towards the target with your body and from there it’s really just a small motion of swinging those arms downwards and letting that ball come out low with a lot of roll.“
Chipping from Phil Mickelson that will improve your short game instantly
We’ve heard Donald’s advice, but now it’s time to learn from one of the greatest exponents of the short game in the history of the sport.
Phil Mickelson is deadly with a wedge in his hands around the greens. In fact, Tiger Woods once said Mickelson’s short game was even better than the late great Seve Ballesteros.
“What I do is I just break the wrist and I hold it going through. Now when I say I hold it, what I am doing is accelerating my hands. I am not holding on to the club.
“I am just keeping my hands moving to the target. If you notice, my arm and club are going to form a straight line to the finish.
“That means at no point did the club travel faster than the arm. We want that with the driver because we are trying to create distance, but here we are trying to control distance. We are trying to hit it to a specific distance to the target.
“The best way to do that is to have the arms and club working at the same speed. It also allows us to be aggressive into the ball and not have it shoot off the club face. So we break our wrists and accelerate into the finish.“
With chipping advice from Mickelson and Donald, there is no reason why amateur golfers shouldn’t be able to significantly reduce their handicaps.
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