Real-world examples of chipping drills to enhance your short game

Start with real examples of chipping drills to enhance your short game

Let’s jump straight into the fun part: specific, real examples of chipping drills to enhance your short game that you can copy today. No theory first, just practice you can actually do.

Think of these drills like recipes. You don’t need to reinvent anything. You just follow the steps, tweak to taste, and repeat.

The Coin Strike Drill: Clean contact every time

If you struggle with fat or thin chips, this is the first example of a chipping drill you should try.

Lay a coin (or poker chip) on a short-cut area: fringe, fairway, or even a thin carpet at home. Set a ball directly on top of the coin. Use your normal chipping club (usually a pitching wedge or gap wedge) and:

• Set your weight slightly forward, ball slightly back.
• Make a small, controlled chip swing.
• Try to strike the ball and clip the coin lightly.

You’ll instantly feel if you’re hitting too far behind the ball or scooping it. The goal is to hear a light “click” from the coin after the ball leaves. Do sets of 10–15 balls, then remove the coin and see if your contact holds up.

Why it works: It shrinks your margin for error and trains you to use the club’s bounce properly. Better contact leads to better distance control, which is the backbone of every other example of a chipping drill you’ll see here.

You can safely do this one indoors on a mat or low-pile carpet, which makes it a great winter or bad-weather option.

The Ladder Distance Drill: Dial in your carry numbers

Distance control is where good chippers separate themselves. One of the best examples of chipping drills to enhance your short game is the ladder drill, because it forces you to learn how far the ball carries with each length of swing.

On a practice green or short-game area:

• Pick a flat-ish chip of 10–30 yards.
• Lay down 3–4 visual targets across the green: these can be tees, small towels, or alignment sticks laid on the ground.
• Space them about 3–5 feet apart, forming a “ladder” from you to the hole.

Your job: land the ball on the first target area five times in a row. Once you do that, move to the second target, then the third, and so on. Don’t worry if it rolls past the hole; you’re training carry distance first.

To make it tougher:

• Use a different club (try sand wedge, then pitching wedge).
• Move back a few yards.
• Add a rule: if you miss twice in a row, go back to the previous rung.

This is one of the best examples of chipping drills to enhance your short game because it mimics what tour players do: they know exactly how far the ball will carry with different clubs and swing sizes, then let the roll-out take care of itself.

Circle Up-and-Down Drill: Turn practice into pressure

You can hit perfect chips on the range and still chunk them on the course if you never practice under pressure. The circle up-and-down drill is a real example of a chipping drill that adds just enough heat to feel like a real round.

On a practice green:

• Drop 6–8 balls in a rough circle around a single hole, 5–15 feet off the green.
• Mix lies: light rough, tight fairway, slightly uphill, slightly downhill.
• Chip each ball and then putt it out.

Keep score: how many up-and-downs (chip + one putt) can you make out of 8? Start with a realistic target, like 2 or 3. Once you beat that number consistently, tighten the circle or choose tougher lies.

This drill blends several examples of chipping skills in one session: reading lies, choosing the right landing spot, and then finishing the job with your putter. It’s simple, but it feels like playing a mini round of golf.

One-Handed Chip Drill: Quiet your hands, steady your strike

If your chips feel “flippy” or wristy, this is a powerful example of a chipping drill to enhance your short game.

Set up a basic 10–15 yard chip from fairway or fringe. Start with your normal setup, but:

• Take your trail hand (right hand for right-handed golfers) off the club.
• Chip using only your lead hand.

You’ll likely chunk or blade a few at first. Stick with it. The lead hand-only motion teaches you to:

• Turn your chest through the shot instead of just throwing your hands at the ball.
• Keep the clubface more stable.
• Control low point better.

Hit 5–10 chips lead-hand only, then put your trail hand back on and try to keep the same feeling of body rotation and stability. This example of a chipping drill is especially helpful if you get “yippy” around the greens.

The Fringe-to-Fringe Landing Zone Drill: Master trajectory and rollout

Most golfers only practice one type of chip: a medium-height shot that lands somewhere near the hole. That’s limiting. This drill gives you three different trajectories and rollouts using the same club.

On a green with a fairway/fringe in front:

• Pick a spot where you can chip from the fairway or fringe.
• Choose three landing zones:
  • Just onto the green (low runner).
  • Halfway to the hole (mid-flight chip).
  • Close to the hole (higher, softer chip).

Use the same club for all three (start with a pitching wedge or gap wedge). Your mission: hit three balls to each landing zone, in order, with the goal of finishing all nine within a 3–4 foot circle around the hole.

This is one of the most practical examples of chipping drills to enhance your short game because it forces you to:

• Adjust ball position slightly.
• Change your shaft lean and swing length.
• Visualize where the ball needs to land, not just where it needs to finish.

You’ll start to see that you can hit multiple types of shots with the same club, which is exactly how better players manage different greens and speeds.

Rough vs. Tight Lie Challenge: Train for real-course variety

The course will never give you the same lie twice, but most golfers practice as if it will. This drill fixes that.

Find a practice green where you have access to:

• A tight fairway or fringe lie.
• Light rough.
• Heavier rough if possible.

Drop 3 balls in each lie, all roughly the same distance from the hole. Your pattern:

• Chip one ball from the tight lie.
• Walk to the rough, chip one from there.
• Walk to the heavier rough, chip one from there.
• Repeat until you’ve hit all 9 balls.

Keep track of average distance from the hole from each lie. You can even pace it off or use a tape measure if you want to be nerdy about it.

This drill is a great example of a chipping drill because it trains you to:

• Open or close the face depending on the lie.
• Add or reduce speed through the ball.
• Adjust expectations: from heavy rough, getting the ball inside 8–10 feet might be a win.

Over time, you’ll start to recognize lies on the course that you’ve already seen in practice, which builds confidence.

The 10-Ball Par Save Test: Turn practice into a mini round

Want a realistic test of whether these examples of chipping drills to enhance your short game are working? Try this once a week.

On a short-game area or around a practice green:

• Toss 10 balls randomly around the green—no placing, just tosses.
• Each ball is a par save situation.
• You must play each ball as it lies, chip it, and then putt it out.

Score it like a mini round:

• Up-and-down = par.
• Two putts after a chip = bogey.
• Worse than that… well, you know.

Set a target score (for example, +5 for 10 balls). As your short game improves, you should see that number trend downward over weeks and months.

This is one of the best examples of chipping drills to enhance your short game because it combines lie reading, club selection, landing spot visualization, and pressure putting. It feels like playing golf instead of just hitting balls.

Short Game Trends: How better chipping actually lowers scores

Modern shot-tracking apps and tools like strokes-gained analysis (popularized by Mark Broadie’s work and widely used on professional tours) show that amateur golfers lose a surprising number of strokes within 30 yards of the green.

Data from the PGA Tour’s ShotLink era has consistently shown that:

• Tour players are dramatically better at getting chips inside 6 feet.
• Short-game skill has a direct impact on scoring, especially for approach shots that miss the green.

While most recreational golfers obsess over driver distance, the numbers say that improving your short game often gives you a faster return on practice time. Regularly using real examples of chipping drills to enhance your short game—like the ones above—can help close that gap.

If you’re interested in the broader performance side of golf, organizations like the United States Golf Association (USGA) and the R&A frequently publish research and data on scoring trends and performance patterns:

• USGA Research & Science: https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/about/research.html

Understanding how much short-game performance matters can keep you motivated when you’re grinding through another bucket of chips.

How to structure a short-game practice session

You don’t need to spend hours on the chipping green. A focused 30–45 minute session using a few examples of chipping drills to enhance your short game can be more effective than mindlessly banging balls for two hours.

Here’s a simple way to organize a session:

Warm-up (5–10 minutes):

• Start with the Coin Strike Drill to get your contact sharp.
• Hit 15–20 chips with focus on clean strikes, not distance.

Skill building (15–20 minutes):

• Rotate between the Ladder Distance Drill and the Fringe-to-Fringe Landing Zone Drill.
• Switch clubs occasionally so you learn different trajectories.

Pressure and scoring (10–15 minutes):

• Finish with the Circle Up-and-Down Drill or the 10-Ball Par Save Test.
• Keep score. Write it down. Track progress over time.

The key is consistency. Even one or two short sessions per week using these examples of chipping drills to enhance your short game can noticeably change your confidence and scoring over a season.

Simple physical habits that support better chipping

You don’t need to be a gym rat to chip better, but a few physical basics help:

• Balance and stability: Good chipping relies on a stable lower body and controlled rotation. Simple balance exercises (like single-leg stands) can help.
• Mobility: If your hips and thoracic spine are locked up, you’ll tend to overuse your hands. Gentle stretching and mobility work—especially for your hips and upper back—can make your chipping motion smoother.

For general guidance on safe exercise and injury prevention, resources such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Mayo Clinic offer trustworthy advice:

• NIH Exercise & Physical Activity: https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/exercise-physical-activity
• Mayo Clinic Fitness Basics: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/basics/fitness-basics/hlv-20049447

A little off-course work can make it easier to repeat the positions and motions you’re trying to build with these chipping drills.

FAQs about examples of chipping drills to enhance your short game

Q: What are some simple examples of chipping drills I can do at home?
At home, focus on contact and distance feel. The Coin Strike Drill is perfect for clean contact: a ball on top of a coin on a mat or carpet. You can also do a mini version of the Ladder Distance Drill by chipping foam balls into different “zones” (like towels or boxes) across a room or yard. These home-friendly examples of chipping drills to enhance your short game won’t replace time on a real green, but they absolutely help build better mechanics.

Q: Which example of a chipping drill should a beginner start with?
Beginners should start with the Coin Strike Drill and the One-Handed Chip Drill. Both simplify the motion and teach you what solid contact feels like. Once you can consistently hit the ball first and get it onto a target area, add the Ladder Distance Drill to learn how to control carry distance.

Q: How often should I practice these examples of chipping drills to see improvement?
If you can practice 2–3 times a week for 30–45 minutes, you’ll usually see noticeable improvement in a month or two. Even one focused session per week using two or three of the drills above is better than nothing. The key is repeating the same examples of chipping drills so your body learns the patterns.

Q: Do I need multiple wedges to use these drills effectively?
No. You can run almost every example of a chipping drill here with just a pitching wedge or gap wedge. As you get more comfortable, it’s helpful to add your sand wedge and maybe a lob wedge so you can create different trajectories and rollouts, but it’s not mandatory.

Q: How do I know if these drills are actually helping my scores?
Track two things: your up-and-down percentage during practice (using the Circle Up-and-Down Drill or 10-Ball Par Save Test) and your on-course stats (how often you get the ball inside 6 feet from around the green). If those numbers improve over a few weeks, the drills are working. Many golfers also use simple scorecards or shot-tracking apps to monitor short-game performance over time.

If you build a routine around these real examples of chipping drills to enhance your short game, you’ll start to see missed greens as scoring opportunities instead of disasters. That’s when golf gets a lot more fun.