Scott Mayer is a PGA-certified teaching professional who runs the Scott Mayer School of Golf at Nonesuch River Golf Course in Scarborough. He has written two instructional booklets, A Golfing Philosophy to Play A-Round With and Golf is a Concept and produced an instructional video, The Fundamentals of the Mind. In the spring of the 2004 he was named the State of Maine Teacher of the Year by his peers. Throughout the summer he will be providing me – a 16-handicapper with a propensity for banana slices – with a weekly golf tip. I’ll hit the range or practice green to put the tip to practice, then I’ll write about my experience with it – what worked, what didn’t, etc.

Every week, I think to myself, ‘Okay, this time I’m going to prove this dude wrong.’

It’s not that I don’t like Mayer or his teaching style – quite the opposite, actually. He brings an enthusiasm to the range and practice green that makes me wonder how he’s able to teach bad golfer after bad golfer the same things over and over without going completely mad – you know, foaming at the mouth, wielding a three iron like a pick-axe.

Still, though, despite his demeanor, every time we meet to go over drills I convince myself this will be the time Mayer chokes on his Titleists.

I’m done. No more doubting. Line up the Kool-Aid shots, Mr. Mayer, and I’ll knock ’em back. There was no way I thought he could fix the chipping and pitching yips I’ve been suffering from this summer.

I was WRONG. And it took him all of seven minutes to right the ship. Once again, Mayer broke things down simply, like a kindergarten teacher with a 5-year-old.

Mayer’s take on chipping:

“The theory in chipping is minimum carry, maximum roll versus pitching, where it’s maximum carry, minimum roll. It always easier to control the ball on the ground than it is to control it in the air. There’s an old saying, ‘Putt when you can, chip when you can’t putt, and pitch the ball only when you have to.’

What you want to do when chipping is, there’s one of two theories. One is to find one club that you’re comfortable with and marry it and know what you can do with it. The problem with marrying one club is you’ve got to always be changing the length and pace of your swing to carry it different distances, and that requires a lot of feel. Whereas this different club system with the same technique allows you to hit the ball to different pins with the same technique.

It’s really all about set up (see photos). I’ve set the trough up again (see last week’s putting lesson) and I’ve added an additional club, which points slightly left of our intended target line. So, your feet should aim left or 11 o’clock in relationship to where you’re going. We put the ball in the back of the stance, which is going to help us promote a downward strike on the ball. We take and we hang onto the bottom of the grip – we pinch it right where the grip meets the shaft. That forces us to bend a lot at the hips and get the chest facing the ground, so that the shoulders can work in that same pendulum motion that you use in putting. The same rules apply to chipping that apply to putting – weight on the front foot, keep your eyes and your head still, look for the grass under the ball. And then, from here what you’ve got to do is you put your hands ahead until your left arm lines up with club (see photo). Your left hand is starting at a position over the left thigh at six o’clock, and then your left arm moves to a position of five o’clock, which puts the left hand just outside the right thigh, then it moves to a position of seven o’clock, which just puts the left hand outside the left thigh. The trick to chipping is to maintain the integrity of this line or to maintain the integrity of this angle and the right hand. What people want to do is they want to flip with the hands, and the reason they flip with the hands is the engine of your chipping stroke is your shoulders, and when the shoulders quit the hands will hit.

Another way of thinking about it is the grip of the club leads and the clubhead follows through the entire motion. You don’t want that clubhead to pass the grip.

And then from there, depending upon what club you have, you always want to land it on the first one-third of the green and allow to end up at the hole. To minimize my run, what I would tell you is pins toward the front of the green I always use my most lofted club or sand wedge. Pins in the middle of the green I use my nine iron, and pins in the back I usually use my seven iron.”

CJ’s take:

The method is fool-proof. If you set up correctly with the shaft starting in the six o’clock position, and then take it back to five o’clock and through to seven o’clock, you will be all over the pin.

When Mayer demonstrated the drill, he got to within two feet on every shot. When I practiced later on, I was hitting shots with almost the same consistency. There were still mishits, but it was easy to identify what was going wrong on those mishits because of the uncomplicated nature of the setup/swing – my aim was off, or there was some head movement.

That said, there are still a few things to keep in mind here.

Because it doesn’t seem like the same motion with different clubs will be able to create such varying distances, the tendency might be to speed up the pace. Don’t do that. Trust the five o’clock to seven o’clock pendulum motion. I found that when my pace picked up I would either crank the ball by the hole or duff it barely onto the green.

It seemed like the duffs were created by movement, which was created by a change in tempo. I’ll say it again, trust the motion. It works.

It might take some time getting used to, though, so don’t just expect this to work when you try it on a whim during a round. Go to the putting green like I did and figure out which club you’ll need for different distances. I’ve always been married to my pitching wedge around the green, but after doing this drill I realized that I’m a fool. Now, I know that some distances might require a pitching wedge while others require a seven-iron.

Mayer can be reached at (207) 838-5731 or through his Web site (www.mainegolfteacher.com).