Short Game Drills That Actually Lower Your Scores

The Uncomfortable Truth About Your Practice Routine

Here is a stat that should change the way you spend your practice time: the average amateur loses between 8 and 12 strokes per round inside 50 yards. Not off the tee. Not on approach shots. Inside 50 yards — the shots you could literally practice in your backyard.

Yet most golfers spend 80% of their range time hitting drivers and long irons. We get it. Bombing a drive feels great. Hitting crisp 7-irons is satisfying. But your scorecard does not care about feelings. It cares about the chunk from 30 yards that rolled into the bunker, the blade across the green, and the three-putt that followed.

If you are serious about shooting lower scores — not hitting prettier shots, but actually posting lower numbers — these five drills will get you there faster than anything else in your bag.

The Drills

1. Chipping Ladder Drill

This one is simple, measurable, and brutally revealing.

Place 5 towels in a line at 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 feet from your chipping spot. Your job is to land each chip on its corresponding towel. Start at 10 feet and work your way back.

**Why it works:** Most amateurs have no idea how far they actually hit their chips. They guess, and they guess wrong. The ladder drill forces you to calibrate your distance control with real feedback. After a few sessions, you will develop an internal sense of how far back to take the club for each distance — and that intuition is worth more than any swing tip.

**Golf Goose tip:** Track your hit rate for each towel over time. When you are landing 4 out of 5 on the 30-foot towel consistently, you know your touch is dialing in.

2. Lead Arm Chipping Drill

Grip your wedge with ONLY your lead hand (left hand for right-handed golfers). Now hit chips.

It will feel awkward at first. Good. That awkwardness is teaching you something.

**Why it works:** When you chip with one hand, you cannot rely on your wrists to scoop or flip at the ball. Your body has to rotate through the shot to generate any power at all. That body rotation is exactly what produces consistent contact. This drill strips away the bad habits and leaves you with the core movement that makes chipping reliable.

Start with short chips of 10 to 15 feet. Focus on brushing the grass rather than hitting the ball. Once the contact feels clean, add your trail hand back and try to keep that same rotation feeling.

3. Broom Chipping Drill

This one sounds ridiculous. Grab a household broom. Hold it like a golf club. Chip with it.

**Why it works:** A broom is lighter than a club and has a completely different weight distribution. To make any kind of controlled motion with it, you have to use proper hinge and release through the ball. You cannot muscle a broom. You cannot flip a broom. You have to let the motion flow naturally, and that natural flowing motion is exactly what you want in your real chipping stroke.

Do 20 swings with the broom, then immediately switch to your wedge. The feeling transfers surprisingly well. Many golfers say the broom drill gave them their first taste of what a "effortless" chip actually feels like.

4. Dollar Signs Game

Place 5 dollar bills (or poker chips, or tees — but real money adds stakes) at different spots around the green, each about 2 to 4 feet from the hole but at varying angles. Chip from a single spot. Whichever ball finishes closest to a dollar wins it.

**Why it works:** This drill adds pressure and creativity to your short game practice. You have to read the green, pick a landing spot, choose a trajectory, and execute — all while something small is on the line. That simulated pressure is the closest you can get to tournament conditions without actually playing a tournament.

Play this game against a buddy for even more pressure. Nothing sharpens your short game like losing actual money to your golf partner.

5. Ultimate Short Game Practice Challenge

Create two rings around the hole: one at 3 feet and one at 6 feet. Use tees, string, or chalk to mark them. Now chip from 8 different spots around the green, varying your lies and distances.

**Scoring:** Inside the 3-foot ring scores 2 points. Inside the 6-foot ring scores 1 point. Outside both rings scores 0. Maximum score is 16 from 8 shots.

**Why it works:** This is a full short game simulation. Different lies, different distances, different breaks. You have to adjust your setup, club selection, and shot shape for every single chip. And the scoring system keeps you honest — you cannot fool yourself into thinking a chip that finishes 8 feet away was "close enough."

Track your score over weeks. When you are consistently hitting 10 or above, your short game is becoming a weapon.

Build a Short Game Routine That Sticks

The mistake most golfers make is practicing their short game randomly. A few chips here, a few pitches there, no structure, no tracking. That is how you stay the same.

Instead, pick two or three of these drills and commit to 20 minutes before each range session. Twenty minutes. That is it. Do the ladder drill to calibrate distance, the lead arm drill to groove your mechanics, and the dollar signs game to add pressure.

In the Golf Goose app, your AI caddie builds a personalized practice plan that includes drills like these — matched to the specific short game weaknesses showing up in your scores. No guessing about what to work on. Just a clear plan and tracked progress.

Your driver might win you compliments on the tee box. Your short game wins you money on the 18th green. Choose wisely.