Hit the Fringe Chipping Drill – Distance Control
In this chipping drill, you’re going to master your distance control with different chipping clubs (wedges, 9-iron, 8-iron) to pull off par saving chip shots when you need them most!
One of the more common chip shots you’ll find yourself facing is one where there isn’t a lot of green between the fringe and the hole. This makes landing the ball on the green risky because it may not stop in time and roll past the hole a ways, leaving a long par putt.
Instead, having the skill of landing the ball on the fringe will be super important in your short game to kill most of the speed. But it takes great distance control to land the ball on the fringe which is why we will develop it in today’s chipping drill.
This golf shot is effective because the fringe kills the speed of the chip shot just enough so it can release onto the green and finish out with some roll that gets close to the hole for a short putt.
Make sure to watch each chip shot during the drill to get a feel for how much speed the fringe takes off the golf ball compared to the normal green. You’ll develop feel at different distances away from the green on how much speed the ball will roll with after hitting the fringe first helping you chip shots closer to the hole.
Also Read: 13 Golf Chipping Tips Every Beginner Should Read
What is Fringe?
The fringe portion of the green is usually a little longer length grass than the green. It’s also shorter than the rough which borders around the entire green.
Fringe gives greens aesthetic but also serve as a last chance to stop the ball before it rolls off a green into the rough.
It’s much easier grass to chip from than the rough since it’s shorter grass. Some golfers elect to putt off of fringe instead of chip.
Chipping Drill Instructions:
- Find a green with fringe
- Move back 10 feet away from it into the rough
- Chip a golf ball trying to land it on the fringe
- Once you land 3 in a row on the fringe, move back 5 feet
- Repeat from 15 feet, 20 feet, 25 feet, and 30 feet away
- Once you’re done, try a different club (Pitching Wedge, 9 iron, 8 iron)
- Learn the trajectory of each club and how much the ball tends to roll after landing on the fringe
This drill starts you closer to the fringe and moves you away to 30+ feet (10 yards) in the rough so you develop distance control.
You’ll face a variety of distances away from the green during a round of golf so mastering the ability to control distance and land the ball on the fringe will be a huge skill to have in your bag.
Anytime you face a tight pin location with not much green, you can turn to the fringe landing shot. Or if you need to adjust the distance and land the ball just on the green, you’ll have the distance control skill to be able to.
Using the fringe is also an easy way to judge a perfectly controlled chip shot. It’s a small margin of space so you can easily count each chip as a fail or success.
If we had you chipping to a small space on the green it would be hard to see if you hit that spot on the green when you get farther away from the green unless you marked it with a towel like in Chipping Drill #1: Towel Landing Spot
Other Recommended Chipping Drills:
For more, see our full list of the 25 best chipping drills or click on an individual article below we’ve linked.
Golf Practice Plans:
Try our step by step golf training plans that give you daily practice routines to complete. Each practice routine has putting drills, chipping drills, and golf swing drills for the driving range. Learn more about each.
