Get in the hole! The 10 best chips & pitches

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October 29, 2012

The next installment in our video feature picks out 10 of the best chips and pitches on the internet.

The second installment in our video feature picks out 10 of the best chips and pitches on the internet.

Click on the headlines to view the videos. And click here to see our Top 10 hole in ones…

10. Luke Donald’s 100-foot Nudge
The dynamics involved in any chip shot are numerous, but they generally involve some ability to read the green. This chip shot is almost exclusively about that, but the weighting is also superb as Donald grabs a birdie on the final round of the 2010 Tour Championship.

9. Never Mind Bogeys… Let’s Boogie
This is a heck of a pitch given how little ground Jose Maria Olazabal has to work with between the bunker and the hole, yet he gets it just right. And then he delivers a cool little boogie.

8. The Classic Turnaround
If you need an example of why golf can be a crazy game, how about Matthew Goggin at the 13th hole of the Travelers Championship? Just a couple of yards away from slipping into the drink and finding himself in a world of pain, he instead avoids the water and chips his next shot in for eagle. Hence the look of relief, rather than celebration, we’re guessing.

7. ‘Might Go In, Might Go In…It Is In!’
The difficulty here is all about the lie – the type that can ruin championship hopes. Instead Tiger Woods gets it inch-perfect, and goes on to win the Memorial Tournament. It doesn’t have nearly the same sense of drama as the Woods clip below, but it’s still a great shot.

6. Vegas Chips In
Jhonattan Vegas has a pretty unforgiving lie here, but that doesn’t stop him from casually pitching over the bunker and onto the green, where he has the perfect line and length. The fans behind him near the end of the clip look a personal cheerleading club as well.

5. Luke Donald’s Exhibition In Precision
When judging the quality of chip shots and pitch shots, it’s often the length that’s more important – there have been many lucky shots that found the hole because they happened to bump into it on their way to the other side of the green. So what makes this such a great pitch is the precision – from the moment it lands on the green, all the action takes place within five square yards.

4. ‘Come To Papa’
The first ever albatross at the second hole at Augusta happened earlier this year, when Louis Oosthuizen knocked one in from 260 yards. We love everything about this – the perfect judgment, the breezy celebration and especially the way he nonchalantly chucked the ball into the crowd afterwards.

3. Mize Sinks The Great White Shark
Whoever told Larry Mize that his shirt could be worn in public needed a bit of schooling, but then this was the 80s. Similarly it’s clear that Mize is not a runner. But that said, this is quite a chip – a 40-yard effort on the second playoff hole to beat Greg Norman in the 1987 Masters, which was seen as the finest Masters finale for 25 years.

2. Tiger’s Implausible Chip
“There’s a good chance he doesn’t get this inside DiMarco’s ball,” says the commentator as Tiger Woods lines up a seemingly impossible shot at the 2005 Masters. Yet for all the raucous celebration that ensues when Tiger pulls off the most implausible chip you’re likely to see, it is Chris DiMarco’s face among the bedlam which sums the feat up best. Everything you could want about a moment of golfing drama unfolds on the 16th at Augusta here: the doom of the commentary to start with, the cheeping of the birds as human silence descends, the resignation on Di Marco’s face, and perhaps best of all the way the ball hovers momentarily – which only serves to create an even bigger eruption when it finally topples in.

1. Tom Watson Seals The US Open
This is one of the great chip shots, coming out of heavy rough without much green to deal with, but also coming at a crucial time of the 1982 US Open at Pebble Beach Links. The US Open was very dear to Watson, and this would be his only victory in the tournament. It was assured after a brilliant chip on the penultimate hole of the weekend.

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