Improve your short game! That’s the advice we give students at golf instruction sessions that want to know the fastest way to cut their golf handicaps. It’s not rocket science. Your short game really impacts your golf handicap, as we’ve often said in our golf tips newsletter. Improving just your putting saves a ton of strokes.  Imagine the strokes you’d save if you improved all your short game.  It could boost your game to a whole new level.

A great way to improve your short game is by taking golf lessons. If you’re new to the game, golf lessons will teach you the basics. But golf lessons may not be the way to go  if you’re a veteran golfer. Instead, you may want to try some of the drills described in our golf tips newsletter or in golf tips magazines. Many are simple and easy to do. Some you can do at home. They can work wonders for your short game. Below are three short game drills popular in our golf instruction sessions.

Chip It Close

The Trough Drill improves your chipping. It teaches you to swing the club on the proper path when chipping, increasing control and consistency. Improved chipping produces more birdies and pars by turning three strokes (or more) into two. This in turn would slice strokes off your golf handicap.

Take two clubs and lay them on the ground form a narrow trough pointing at the pin. Make the trough wide enough to get a clubhead through. Place a ball between the two clubs. Using a seven-iron (or your favorite chipping club). Assume your normal chipping stance and practice chipping the ball. Keep the clubhead within the trough on the way back and the way forward. Once you’ve ingrained a consistent ball-flight line, change clubs. Practice with all your chipping clubs.

This drill works wonders. It not only teaches the correct impact alignment for chipping with different clubs, it also ingrains a basic move of the full swing.

Drain More Putts

It’s hard to make birdies and pars when you’re putting poorly. Missing easy putts leads to bogies and double bogies. Often, poor putting is a product of your stroke. If that’s off, you’ll miss two and three-footers. Perfect your putting stroke with the following drill.

Pin the shaft of your sand wedge against your torso using your elbows. Secure it by pressing your elbows into your sides—an important fundamental. Now stroke some putts while holding the wedge firmly in place. This creates a triangle between your chest, arms, and hands. You can’t move your shoulders without moving your chest, keeping the triangle intact. Maintaining this triangle is a key to good putting.

This drill not only refines your putting stroke, it also improves distance control—two additional keys to great putting. Work on this drill diligently and you’ll drain more short putts.

Escape in One

Many greenside bunkers have soft sand. Others have firm sand. This drill teaches you how to escape a bunker with firm sand. You need to use less bounce when hitting from these bunkers or you need to square your sand wedge to reduce bounce.

Find a practice bunker with firm sand. Place several balls in the bunker at different points. Now try to hit these balls out of the bunker. Alternate between your sand wedge and your pitching wedge. Play the shots exactly the same. See how the ball reacts with each club. Adopt the one that works best for you.

If the sand is firm, you may find the pitching wedge a better option than the sand wedge. In either case the stroke shouldn’t be as hard nor the finish as full as a stroke in soft sand.

We use these drills in our golf instructions sessions frequently. They’re proven exercises. There are dozens of drills out there that can help you improve. Find some that address your weaknesses and work on them diligently. Improving your short game is the fastest way to cut strokes from your golf handicap.

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