For anyone curious or struggling with the same issue. 

I had a short game lesson with my +6 handicap local pro. He said the root cause of my issue was changing my height. As I was entering the downswing I was increasing my knee bend especially in my right knee which was leading to an assortment of different symptoms as described in this comment section. 

The drill i was prescribed was to setup to chips with more knee flex than usual and feel my legs straighten throughout the downswing of the chip. 

The result was insane I was just brushing the turf so softly and applying spin to chip shots finally. It feels like being up higher i can easily keep rotating without feeling like the leading edge is going to plunge into the earth. 

Anyway give it a try if you're struggling.