Best Golf Drills for Kids & Junior Golfers

Today’s golf drills are great for kids to practice, especially the competitive junior golfers who want to improve and beat their fellow players at junior golf tournaments.

I’ve decided to select fun and simple golf drills that kids can practice that will prepare them for scoring low on the golf course. Golf drills that leave lasting impact on your score such as putting, chipping, pitching drills.

Kids normally can’t reach the green in par yet because they lack the distance with their swing. By age 12 to 13, junior golfers can usually hit the ball far enough to begin reaching the greens in regulation.

When this day comes, they will be ready. Their short game will be strong thanks to the putting and chipping drills we have them practice below.

Let’s dive into a few golf drills kids can use to improve their game in the mean time, while their golf swing evolves and the distances they hit their clubs increases with age each year.

Putting Drills for Kids

Putt to a Coin Drill:

Set a coin on the ground, such as a quarter, and make putts to it. The goal is to hit the coin 5 times in a row before moving further away from it. Start just 1 foot away and work your way back until you can hit the coin 5 times in a row from 5 feet away.

Putt Between Two Tees Drill:

Similar to the coin drill, this drill will work on your accuracy with the putter. Set up two tees in the green about a golf ball wide. You want the ball to be able to pass through the tees but don’t make them two spread apart that the drill is too easy.

Then stroke putts trying to hit the ball between the two tees. If the putt isn’t on line, it will hit one of the tees. Start from 1 foot away and work your way back until you can successfully hit putts through the tees from 5 feet away.

Speed Control Drill:

To work on controlling your putting speed, try this fun golf drill. Grab 4 ball markers or tees and create a rectangle box that is 3 feet wide by 9 feet in length using the tees to mark the 4 corners of your box.

Measuring 15 feet away from the start of the box and drop 6 golf balls down here as your starting position.

The goal is to putt the ball into the box but not too far because each putt needs to go further than the previous putt without running beyond the 9 feet of space.

Try to successfully get all 6 balls inside the box, with each ball rolling further than the previous. If the putt comes up short, you fail and must start the drill over.

If you get to ball #4 or #6 and have run out of room to putt the ball past the previous without going outside of the box, then start over again.

Chipping Drills for Kids

Chip It In:

Find a spot in the fringe or just in the rough at your golf course’s practice green and drop a few golf balls onto the ground. Spend the next 15 to 20 minutes trying to chip the balls into the holes on the putting green.

You can start with a close by hole that will be easier to chip it in and work your way around the practice green until you successfully chip in multiple shots at different holes.

Closest to the Hole Competition:

Find a friend or family member to play against for this chipping drill. You both take turns picking which hole you want to hit chip shots to on the practice green.

The competition is simple. Each of you should hit a chip shot to the selected hole of choice and see who gets the ball closer the hole.

You win a point if you beat your partner AND if the ball is no further away than 6 feet from the hole. This challenges you to work on your chipping distance control so that you get the ball as close to the hole as possible still if your partner messes up on their chip.

Pitching Drills for Kids

Pitch it in the Bucket:

Here’s a fun pitching drill that kids will enjoy practicing. Find a smaller basket or bucket you can use to catch golf balls that the junior golfer will be chipping into it.

Find open space in the golf course’s practice area where you can practice pitch shots from 10, 20, and 30 yards away without putting others.

Try to chip all 10 balls into the bucket from 10 yards away. Count how many out of 10 are successful at going into the bucket. Beat your score next practice.

Then move back to 20 yards away from the bucket and repeat this drill, counting how many you successfully can chip into the bucket. Repeat again from 30 yards away.

Pitch to a Towel:

This is a great pitching drill for kids to help them learn how to get their wedge shots onto the green on the first try and save strokes from their golf score.

Place a golf towel flat on the green to serve as a target.

Starting at 5 yards away, hit pitch shots onto the green trying to hit the towel laying on the ground. Repeat this until you’ve hit it 10 times.

Then move back to 10 yards away and repeat until you hit the towel with your pitch shots 10 times. Repeat again from 15 yards away and 20 yards away.

It will help you get more accurate with your pitch shots, keeping them straight online with the towel you aim at. And it will help your distance control as you hit the towel with your chip shots from different distances.

Final Tips & Thoughts

Overall, these are a few drills every junior golfer should practice if they want to improve their scoring and get ahead of the competition level for their age group. Tiger Woods used to beat kids several years older than him as a junior golfer because his father had him practice putting and chipping much more than the average player his age level.

There is a fine line between over practicing though because you don’t want your kid to get burn out and start resenting the sport. Approach with caution how much you pressure your junior golfer to practice his or her golf game. Let them have fun while still trying to help them get ahead of their peers by putting in more work and practice time.

Lastly, since we didn’t cover the golf swing due to it being ineffective while they’re still growing and evolving their swing power from ages 4 to 13, here are a few swing tips that should always be practiced:

• Proper alignment to the target
• Shot shaping (draw and fade shots, high and low shots),
• Swing speed (hit the ball further)

Hope these golf tips and golf drills for kids helps you achieve more success at the junior golf level. If you want more drills and practice routines, check out our training plans listed below.

More Golf Practice Drills

• All Access Golf Resource Library
• Short Game Practice Plan
• Indoor Golf Practice & Fitness Plan
• 36 Easy to Follow Golf Practice Routines