Todd Anderson Instructional: Breaking down Viktor Hovland’s chipping technique

In this tutorial, PGA Tour Performance Center Director of Instruction Todd Anderson breaks down reigning FedExCup champion Viktor Hovland’s chipping technique.

In this tutorial, PGA Tour Performance Center Director of Instruction Todd Anderson breaks down reigning FedExCup champion Viktor Hovland’s chipping technique, which helped him win the 2023 Memorial Tournament presented by Workday en route to two other victories at the BMW Championship and Tour Championship.

Introduction

In 2023, Viktor Hovland had an unbelievable run which started at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday. One of the keys to his impressive season was a marked improvement in his short game. In this tutorial, we’ll discuss Viktor’s short game technique, which made him so successful around the greens.

Common Faults

One of the things that you see when amateur golfers struggle with the short game is the bottom of the swing occurs behind the ball, or in other words, the low point is at the back of the ball.

What commonly happens when you swing the club down, the club gets shallow (Photo 1) and the upper body moves down and back (Photo 2) which causes the club to hit behind the ball (fat shot) or if it misses the ground as the club is coming up, a golfer will “skull” (top) the ball across the green.

Photo 1. Todd Anderson instructional photos were taken at The Stadium Course, TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. [PGA Tour]

Photo 2. Todd Anderson instructional photos were taken at The Stadium Course, TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. [PGA Tour]

Typically, these mistakes happens because the bottom of the swing is behind the ball because the right shoulder is too low and with the weight too much on their back foot.

Simple Remedies Viktor made changes to his short game technique with a few simple fixes. As he takes the club back, he is now taking his head and upper body, and moving it forward (Photo 3) which then moves the low point in front of the ball and steepens the angle of attack (Photo 4). This way, he will strike the ball first with more solid contact and then the ground, as opposed to the ground and then the ball.

Photo 3. Todd Anderson instructional photos were taken at The Stadium Course, TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. [PGA Tour]

Photo 4. Todd Anderson instructional photos were taken at The Stadium Course, TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. [PGA Tour]

You will also notice that Viktor is getting “taller” through the ball to avoid sticking the club into the ground (Photo 5). As the club is now coming down steeper and his arms are extending, his body pushes up to create room (Photo 6) as he comes through the ball to shallow out the divot.

Photo 5. Todd Anderson instructional photos were taken at The Stadium Course, TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. [PGA Tour]

Photo 6. Todd Anderson instructional photos were taken at The Stadium Course, TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. [PGA Tour]

If you’re struggling around the greens, try to implement what Victor did — get your upper body moving forward, get a steeper angle of attack and get taller as you hit through the ball. This should help you hit the ball first with solid contact and getting it closer to the hole.

Anderson is the Director of Instruction at the PGA Tour Performance Center at TPC Sawgrass, home of The Players Championship. The 2010 National PGA Teacher of the Year has seen his students amass more than 50 victories across the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour, including two FedExCup titles. He is currently rated by Golf Digest as one of the top 20 golf instructors in the United States.

BY TODD ANDERSON [kjdsports@joongang.co.kr]