Short Game Golf Drills

Lower Your Score Quickly

When trying to improve your golf scores one of the most important aspects that you should concentrate on is your short game. A strong short game can make up for wayward tees shots and not so good approach shots and keep your score for a round still looking respectable. Many people don't know how to practice these shots but you need to be able to chip, pitch and get out of the bunkers well. Here are a few tips and ideas to help you with these shots.

Tips on What to Practice

Let's start with bunker shots, many people panic when they land in a green side bunker, but you don't need to because once you understand how to hit out of a bunker it is just a matter of practicing so you can gain confidence that you are actually going to get out on your first shot and land on the green. The biggest mistake that most golfers make is deceleration on the sand shots. Nothing will leave you in the sand quicker than decelerating.
So the first thing you need to do is to dig your feet in the sand a bit. This is for two reasons, one it lets you know how soft the sand is and two it helps you keep your bottom half "quite." With any green side bunker shot you need to have a steep back swing. This allows you to come down steep which will get the ball up quickly. The most important thing however is your follow through; it needs to be a full follow through, this keep you from decelerating.
Other short game golf shots that you need to be able to execute are the pitch shot and the chip shot. Generally speaking a pitch shot gets the ball on the green faster and lets the ball run and a chip shot is used to get the ball closer to the pin and sit more quickly. The most important aspect for both shots is the set up. For these short game shots your weight needs to be on your front foot and the ball should be close to the center of your stance. This lets you attack the ball and get it up quicker.
Many players practice these shots on the practice range; I would suggest actually going out on the course and practice real situations. I like to go out either early in the morning or late in the evening and take a bucket of balls and go to one of the greens on the course. Then I toss the balls around, I start from about 10 yards out and make sure that I get good lies, bad lies, throw one occasionally into a divot, and I make sure I have some green side chips and pitches that are just off the green. I also make sure I get several into the bunker.
With bunker practice make sure you do some that have buried, are on down slopes and up slopes.

Gain Short Game Confidence

 Practicing your short game shots with this type of drill gives you real situations that you can encounter during your round. It also gives you more confidence in your shots because you have that experience under your belt. Practicing your short game golf shots can help you save many strokes per round so do yourself a favor and practice them frequently.