17 Golf Chipping Drills - Nick Foy Golf

We have put together a list today of the best golf chipping drills to practice. I also have created step by step practice routines that outline drills, how many reps, what days of the week, etc. if you want to follow these practice programs.

Let’s dive into 17 amazing drills to help your chipping skills improve on the golf course!

Golf Chipping Drills to Add to Your Practice

#1: Trail Hand Release Drill

Good chipping comes down to two things – making a solid impact and keeping the golf club moving through the shot. The drill helps you to make good, crisp contact with the ball.

How to Do Trail Hand Release Drill:

Hold your chipping club (SW, PW, etc.).
Place the golf ball in the rough off of the green.
Aim at a specific flag or hole.
Keep your stance narrow, weight favoring the front or lead foot, and golf ball slightly behind the center.
Execute your regular chipping shot, but right before making contact drop the right hand off your club’s grip.
Aim to hit the golf ball on the sweet spot, and keep your left arm to swing through to the designed target.
The drill will likely not pull off if your lead hand is not in the correct position (ahead of the clubhead). It means you’re training the lead arm to move through the shot.

#2: The Hula Hoop Chipping Drill

It is a great pitching and chipping drill that you can do in front of your yard, at the practice range, or in a local park. The drill helps to focus on the landing spot and improves shot accuracy.

How to Do Hula Hoop Chipping Drill:

Take a hula hoop or form a circle with a string similar to a hoop.
Place 4 balls in a 5-yard interval from the hula hoop. Another 4 balls from 5-40 yards.
Now, start with the closest ball placed to the hoop.
Chip it and have it land inside the hoop.
Move to the next ball for each successful chip further from the hula hoop.
Start from the beginning when you miss one.

#3: Eyes Closed Drill

Golfers who tend to struggle with good tempo and hitting chips should try out this drill. It helps to build confidence in executing short game shots.

How to Do Eyes Closed Drill:

Drop some balls in the rough off of the green.
Choose a desired target – hole or flag.
Get into your golf position and grab a wedge.
Keep the ball slightly behind the center, most of your body weight on the front foot, and hands a little ahead of the golf ball.
Close your eyes once you’re ready to take a swing.
Now, execute your regular chipping shot, and keep your wrist angle consistent to make a downward strike on the golf ball.

#4: Same Landing Spot, Different Clubs

The ultimate goal here is to control the distance of the ball with several clubs. It also helps to build a good understanding of the expected rollout with each golf club.

How to Do Same Landing Spot, Different Clubs Drill:

Drop a couple of balls in the rough off of the green.
Place a tee or coin every 6-10 paces onto the green.
Here, the goal is to land the shots as close as possible to the tee or coin.
You have to do this with different clubs and give attention to how far it rolls out.
Start with a pitching wedge, eight iron, and sand wedge. You also have the freedom to choose any club.
The more roll you’ll see when the loft of the club is lower. Try sidehill shots, uphill shots – try them all.

#5: Up Against It, Down in It

Are you looking to expand your repertoire in hitting some classic chip shots? If so, this drill is for you.

How to Do It:

Drop several golf balls on the fringe against the rough.
Make a putter like a shot with the metalwood or hybrid. It pops the golf ball a few inches on the green and makes it reach out to the hole.
Hit several shots before you address the golf ball to get a clear vision of how the golf club passes through the rough.
Make sure not to hit the ball very hard as the faces of these golf clubs are very springy and thin.

#6: The “Y” Or Triangle Chipping Drill

It is a great chipping drill for short chips and allows you to produce a more controlled, lower chip shot.

How to Do the Y or Triangle Chipping Drill:

While practicing chipping, focus on creating a y (lower case) with the club’s shaft and your arms.
Most of your weight must be on the front foot, and maintain this shape during the swing. It allows the upper body to do the work.
Keep your wrists and arms quiet while you swing the club with your upper body.
It makes sure that you’re producing a downward blow on the golf ball, letting your golf club do the work of taking it into the air.

#7: Hit The Fringe

It’s for those who make a good impact with the golf ball and still can’t hit it close. The drill helps to control the distance and put your focus more on the landing spot. You can use any wedge or iron for the practice.

How to Do the Hit the Fringe Drill:

Place three balls into the rough at 1, 3, and feet distances.
Select a landing spot or target in the fringe. It must be 7-12 inches short of the green.
Put your focus on flying the golf ball to the same spot.
Keep watching the golf balls as they roll out all the way to get a sense of how much momentum a fringe will sap.
Move the ball ahead in your stance if it is rolling too far, and open the face of the wedge a few degrees. It helps the golf ball to move more smoothly out of the rough.
You can increase the difficulty by trying the drill on the downhill slope.
Fly it too short, and it will get hung up in the rough. Fly it too far, and it moves far away from the hole.

#8: Putt Your Chip

If you get long and handsy with the chipping shot, you will need to have the right timing to deliver a good stroke. Simplify your golf game with a putting shot to chip.

How to Do Putting Your Chip Drill:

Place the golf ball closer to your body.
Now, choke down to the downside of the club’s grip.
Put the golf ball off your big toe of the back foot.
Make a putt shot with the 7 or 8 or 9 iron.
You also have the option to choose a more lofted club, but a wedge pops it up too much, resulting in up short.

#9: The Bag Backstop

The drill is for those golfers who blade and chunk more chips than to hit it solidly. It helps you to hit a smooth, short, and aggressive shot.

How to Do the Bag Backstop Drill:

Address the ball off inside the left with your feet close together.
Place the golf bag at least 3 feet behind you.
Keep your focus on not hitting the bag as you swing back, and if you hit, it’s too long.
Take more golf clubs for practice.
Somehow, you can’t generate the required clubhead speed. Place the golf bag a little farther.
Here the goal is to hit a smooth, short, and aggressive shot and let the golf club do the work.

#10: Play Par Twos

It is a game that helps to finish your chipping practice. The ultimate aim of every chip is to target the hole with one chip and one putt.

How to Play Par Twos:

Start by creating nine holes by choosing nine different locations and a hole or spot to chip from each place.
Now, chip from each starting spot and try to putt the golf ball out until it is in the hole by only using one ball.
Every hole is a par 2, and your goal must be to get a score of 18 after chipping to 9 holes.
Keep a record of the game scores to see your improvement week after week.

#11: Par 18 Chipping Game

The best way to improve chipping is to add games to your training routine. It teaches you to play under pressure. It’s a great game to work on scoring around the green.

How to Play the Par 18 Game:

Start by choosing 9 different tee boxes around the green. They must vary in angles and distances.
Chip one golf ball to each spot, and make sure to putt every ball out.
Every hole is a par 2.
The ultimate goal is to finish the game by taking 18 shots for 9 holes.

#12: Hinge and Hold Drill

Hinge and hold drill protects a player from mistiming issues.

How to Do Hinge and Hold Drill:

Set up for your routine chip shot.
Warm-up before hitting the chip shot by rolling your shoulders front and back.
During the takeaway, allow your wrists to hinge while taking the club backward.
Lock your wrists once you reach the top of the chipping swing, so they remain hinged.
Hold your carpus in place when the golf club comes down towards the ball.

#13: Modified One Arm

It’s for those golfers who chunk a lot of chips and don’t have the power to hit one-armed chips.

How to Do a Modified One Arm Drill:

Drop your trail hand off your golf club before making an impact with the ball.
It causes your lead hand to maintain wrist angle and acceleration as the clubhead weight carries the arm to extend on the follow-through.
Let the clubhead swing on the follow-through.

#14: One-Armed Scissor

A one-armed scissor chipping drill helps to stop chunking your chips. The drill allows you to maintain wrist angle before and after impact. It also ensures you don’t bury the golf club in the ground and clit the golf ball off the grass.

How to Do a One-Armed Scissor Drill:

Take 5-7 balls and put them in front of the back foot and the back of the stance.
Keep your weight on the front foot and hands ahead of the golf ball with the club’s shaft slightly leaning forward.
Hit the chip with the lead hand while keeping your right hand or trail hand for righties behind the back.
You’ll notice that keeping your wrist angle steady is the only way to make contact throughout the chip.

#15: Slam Dunk Chipping Drill

It is one of the favorite chipping drills among amateur players. The concept here is to try to slam dunk the chip shot. It trains you to hit pitches and chips at exact distances.

How to Do Slam Dunk Chipping Drill:

Select a distance between 15 to 30 yards.
Without touching the green, try to slam dunk as many shots as possible straight into the cup.

#16: Cross-Hand It

The cross-hand drill is for players who blade and chunk more chips than hitting it correctly. Leading hand low makes it impossible for the wrists to break down when hitting a chipping shot. You may also find out that the drill works so well on the course.

How to Do Cross-Hand Drill:

Lay your regular iron down on the green parallel to the designed target line. It ensures you aim it correctly.
Grip your golf club with the leading hand low.
Make your regular smooth, short, aggressive chipping shot.

#17: Bump and Run Drill

The bump and run drill allow you to learn the air-to-roll ratio of the golf clubs. Each club has its unique loft angle so that they won’t produce the same shot.

How to Do the Bump and Run Drill:

Bring pitching wedge, 7-iron, and lob wedge to the practice green.
Place a few balls off the putting surface and drop a marker or any object as a target at half distance from the flag.
Aim to see the ball land at the center point or midway target by hitting some chip shots with the pitching wedge.
If your club can’t maintain a 50-50 ratio, choose another club from the bag.
Now, place that marker at a quarter or one-fifth of the distance between the flag and the golf ball.
Take your 7-iron and hit some chip shots. Try to focus on seeing the golf ball landing on the newly designed target and covering the rest of the way, rolling towards the flag.
Chip shot with 7-iron must be roughly 80% rolling and covering 20% distance in the air.
Finally, place the marker around 70 to 80 percent distance down towards the hole.
Take your lob wedge and hit some chip shots.
Focus on seeing the golf ball landing exactly near the marker before rolling its way to the flag.
Hitting a chip with a lob wedge spends roughly 80 percent of the distance in the air and the rest 20 percent rolling.

How to Work On Your Chipping Stroke Technique

Here’s a video sharing tips on how to work on your chip shot setup and technique.