Golf Practice Short Game Drills to Get Up & Down More Often
Today I’ve got a two golf drills to use as a golf practice template to improve your short game. Improving your short game in golf is the fastest way to shooting lower scores and why you should spend the majority of your practice time working on the short game.
Blindly hitting golf balls on the range or hitting the same exact putt over and over on the practice green are not the best practice approaches to improving.
To get better, you must make practice as close to a real round of golf as possible simulating scenarios you’ll face. Why practice something that you’ll rarely face on the golf course?
You also want to make practice as fun as possible while still being purposeful. I’ve tried to combine all of this into these two practice drills I’m presenting to you today so that you can get better at golf while having fun doing so!
Here is one of my favorite putting games to practice short putts, which are the biggest difference maker in your scoring and can separate you from the average golfer.
Resource: Golf Practice System with Step by Step Practice Plans + Video Lessons
Simulation Putting from 4-6 Feet
For this drill, you’ll need to head to the practice putting green and set up 10 different locations to play from. Each location should vary in distance between four and six feet from the hole.
Make sure you create a variety of scenarios such as downhill putts, sidehill putts, and uphill putts.
To score this golf game do the following:
- Add two points for each one-putt.
- Two-putts in which the first putt reaches or rolls past the hole earn zero points.
- Subtract one point for each two-putt in which the first putt doesn’t reach the hole.
- Subtract three points for each three-putt or worse.
After your 10 putts, compare your total score to those of the pros and weekend golfers. On the course, with these same parameters, the best Tour putters average 16 points; typical Tour putters, 15 points; and poor Tour putters, 14 points. Golfers who shoot around 80 average 12 points in the game; 90-shooters, 10 points; 100-shooters, eight points.
Play against your friends or by yourself, and track your progress. Over time, your short-range putting will definitely improve.
Four to six feet is such an important distance to your golf game and shooting lower scores. The better you are from this distance, the easier and more fun the game of golf will be to you.
Next, let’s take a look at another fun golf practice drill to play at the golf course for improving your wedge play.
Resource: Golf Practice System with Step by Step Practice Plans + Video Lessons
Golf Pitching Practice Drill
From off the green, play 15 shots: five from the fairway, five from the rough and five from the sand. Each should be between 15 and 25 yards from the hole, varying the lie, angle and shot difficulty for each ball.
How to score this golf game:
- Add five points for each hole-out.
- Add two points for each ball hit within six feet of the cup.
- Add one point for each ball that lands within six to 12 feet of the pin.
- Balls outside 12 feet but on the green earn zero points.
- Subtract one point for each ball that misses the green.
After 15 pitch shots, 5 from each of the locations mentioned above, compare your total and see how you compare to the pros:
- The best PGA tour pros average 19 points
- Typical Tour pros, 16 points
- Poor Tour pros, 14 points
- Weekend warriors, 11 points
- 80’s shooters, 9 points
- 90-shooters, 6 points
- 100-shooters, 3 points.
Try out these two golf practice drills and see how you score in each game. Golf should be fun shouldn’t it? I hope you enjoy practicing with purpose while still incorporating some competitive spirit to improve your golf game. Let me know in the comments below how you did!
**Download 15 drills I used to reach scratch golf here**