Golf Tips Handbook: Your Free Guide Awaits

Unlock our Exclusive Golf Tips Handbook- a curated collection of the smartest, most practical lessons we’ve published this year.

Download now

Scott Stallings has spent the last year in a place where no professional golfer wants to be. The three-time PGA Tour winner vanished from the leaderboard completely due to a severe left shoulder injury and missed the entire 2025 season while his peers chased FedEx Cup points and massive checks. But the 40-year-old Tennessee native didn’t just sit on the couch and wait for his body to heal.

Instead, he recently popped up on Blair Wheeler’s YouTube channel to drop some serious knowledge about chipping.

Wheeler first faces a standard chip shot from the fairway grass, where he hits the ball safely and immediately starts begging it to stop rolling near the hole, saying, “Yeah, that’s what I wanted to do. Settle. Settle. Settle. Okay.”

Stallings immediately jumped in to interrupt this celebration and said, ” No, you can do better than that. Especially like when you get into the like a little bit of slope kind of lean into it and then you get a way sharper contact…”

The pro notices Wheeler using a scooping motion that adds loft and kills the spin. That’s why Wheeler admits, “Yeah. So you’re saying like most of short game is all more shaft lean.”

Most amateurs misunderstand shaft lean and try to dig the leading edge into the turf. Stallings corrects this by saying, “You’re not trying to like jam it forward, but lean into it a little bit, and where you can kind of stay so if you were going to swing all with your right hand and you wouldn’t go this way.”

The veteran uses a brilliant visual to help Wheeler feel the correct motion and asks “If you were going to swing all with your right hand… You wouldn’t go this way.” Stallings mimics a flipping motion that amateurs use to help the ball into the air. This motion forces the wrist to stay firm.

Stallings then drops the most important cue for consistent chipping. He said, “If you had to hit the ball so your chest kind of stays down.” Keeping the chest down ensures the player covers the ball and strikes it before the turf. This prevents the dreaded “early extension” where the body lifts up and ruins the contact. So, one must keep their sternum pointing at the ball until it leaves the clubface.

This “secret formula” is simply doing the basics better than the others, while the amateur mistakes kill your short game

Top Stories

Tiger Woods Gives Fan 1-Word Reply About PGA Tour Comeback Amid Leaked Schedule

Paige Spiranac Rubs Salt in Colt Knost’s Wounds With Latest Comments on His Amateur Golf Dreams

Watch: Scottie Scheffler Left Stunned as the Ball Betrays Him

Justin Thomas Lays His Feelings Bare About Scottie Scheffler’s Dominant Form Affecting Him

LPGA Legend Drops Upsetting Comeback Update Following 3-Year Hiatus – Report

So what are the mistakes most amateurs make?

Amateurs play defense with the “settle” mindset, and they lean back and try to scoop the ball into the air for safety. This defensive motion destroys shaft lean and adds inconsistent loft to the clubface. Stallings, on the other hand, proves that playing safe actually leads to random results.

The second major error is “jamming” the hands forward without moving the body correctly. Players think they are creating a shaft lean, but they are actually just digging a trench.  Stallings teaches that you must move your center of mass forward to “lean into it,” and this body movement creates natural compression without forcing the clubhead into the ground violently.

Finally, the “chest up” move is the silent killer of consistency. So Stallings emphasizes that the chest must cover the ball until it leaves the clubface. This discipline ensures the club strikes the ball first and the turf second every single time.

So, what makes Stallings’ advice worth listening to? Well, Stallings tore his labrum and damaged his bicep tendon, which required major surgery last year. He used his time away to train for the 2025 Boston Marathon and finished the grueling race in just over four hours to raise money for charity. Plus, he’s a three-time Tour Champion, including the 2011 Greenbrier Classic, 2012 True South Classic, and 2014 Farmers Insurance Open.

So, the man giving this advice knows a thing or two about rebuilding mechanics and bodies.

Plus, Stallings is currently on a strict “pitch count” protocol to protect his surgically repaired shoulder and is targeting a return for the start of the 2026 PGA Tour season.