Short game exercises

**FortAsel** · January 3, 2009

I'm curious, how do you practice your short game?
What kind of exercises do you use to practice it?

**Crafty** · January 3, 2009

First I always take the time to work on mechanics and my ball contact. Ill hit anywhere from 30-50 shots from the intermediate rough, making sure that I am making solid contact and getting a consistent trajectory.

When there is nobody at our practice green, I do what I call an around the world chipping drill. I walk around the green and place balls every 3 or 4 feet, alternating between fringe, intermediate cut, and rough. Then, I work my way around the green, rotating each of the 5 pins on the green as a target. Luckily, the green I practice on is relatively large and has quite a bit of slope. Therefore, you will face many different types of shots from many different lies as you progress around the green.

In addition, I try to practice plenty of oddball shots to keep the imagination flowing. I always try to hit a few from thick rough, thin and dead grass, hardpan, downhill lies, etc.

Best of luck in your practice!

**FortAsel** · January 3, 2009

Lucky you, for having such a great practice green. If I want to do that, I have to go out to the golf course... Shame on those guys that run the course where I play...

**zripp3** · January 3, 2009

get a cheap hula hoop and place it in the backyard, or local field, and practice landing shots inside. I find having the "visual" is more effective than just mindlessly hitting balls and trying to land them close. You can mark off specific yardages as well and add several hula hoops.

**zeg** · January 3, 2009

The place I play has a pretty lousy chipping green -- it's got a couple flag sticks and a "green," but it's just the rough grass cut short. It's worthless for practicing any shots that roll out because the ball just stops dead. So I have to settle for practicing the carry distance only and get roll-out practice when I play.

I usually snag a range bucket and set it on the edge of the "green" as a target and try to land in/on it (it usually falls over after the first direct hit). I usually do groups of 10-20 shots from one place, then move to another spot, varying slope, lie, etc.

I also like the ladder drill. I pull out some clubs and lay them in a row each 1-2 yards from the next like a ladder. Starting about 10 feet (or whatever I feel is the shortest I'm likely to be trying to chip from), the aim is to land a ball in the gap between the first two clubs. When I do that, I put one between the next two clubs, etc, until I reach the end, then I bring it back. The goal is to climb up and down the ladder.

Since neither of these involves rolling out on the green, you can do these anywhere -- no need for an actual chipping green...

**Quinn07** · January 4, 2009

When you say short game I assume you mean 100 yards and in. I consider the short game 120 yards and in. I try to practice with all my wedges using the pelz wedge method. I usually pick different pins and spots on the range and try to hit all of my wedges to that particular spot. I try and get the feeling for those distances more than the mechanics portion. I find this really helps when i am out on the course where the pin can be in different spots, where I might need to fly all the way there or run it up etc.

**PiKapp23** · January 4, 2009

A lot of times I will take my shag bag and just drop balls at random spots around practice green (when available) or yard and hit those balls at a specific target. If practicing a green, I like to take a towel and lay it out a certain distance from hole/flag and use different clubs to hit that towel and get it to release to hole from different locations and distances. One thing I do not do it just set up in one spot and hit for a while. I like to move around taking one shot from a spot and moving to different spot (like on golf course). One little game I will often play when I don't have green is the 'ladder drill' . I will mark spots short and long and try to hit each shot further than previous shot (climbing the ladder). This works great if you've got 50-60 yards or so as you can keep the drill going for quite a while. You can add to this by making right and left boundries as well.

I also like to practice these types of drills with a friend and we make a game of it. We often do it with chipping and putting, taking 2-3 shots each at target and the winner being the person who has the 1 closest shot or has most inside a certain distance. Friendly competition seems to make practice more productive and rewarding as well as fun. We sometimes even place little bets on these type of games and keep 'score'. The more fun you can make practice, the less like work it will seem and hence the more time you're likely to put into it.

**bogeyhitter25** · January 4, 2009

I do the Phil Mickelson routine. I'll place 4 balls around a pin about 3 feet apart. I'll try to make all 3 in a row, and then move it back another foot. I'll do that until about 5 feet.

For chipping, I'll just try to place myself in spots that I'd be in on a course. Uphill chip, downhill chip, and at my home course they luckily have a practice bunker, so I'll hit a few out of there.

**Crafty** · January 4, 2009

As far as the wedge game goes from say 30-120 yards, I do a ladder type drill. Place 10 balls every ten yards from 20-80 yards (our short game center goes up to 80). Then, at each distance, I hit three standard trjectory shots, three low "spinners", and then four more "standard" trajectory shots. My focus during this drill is clean contact and obviously distance control.

As for putting, I don't have a lot of structure for practicing putting from outside 10 feet. I do the mickelson clock drill in order to work on mechanics and confidence. Then I just putt around for a good 30 minutes trying to maintain those good mechanics and hopefully making a lot of putts

**Shindig** · January 4, 2009

I do the Phil Mickelson routine. I'll place 4 balls around a pin about 3 feet apart. I'll try to make all 3 in a row, and then move it back another foot. I'll do that until about 5 feet.

I accredit a very similar drill with my first breaking of 90. I noticed that, for a while, I was missing 89 by at least as many short putts I had missed.

However, the lost ball (check your numbers) costs you stroke and distance

Sign In

Short game exercises

Recommended Posts

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

Create an account

Sign in

Topics Being Discussed Right Now on The Sand Trap

TST Partners

Posts

Important Information