How To Improve Your Golf Short Game At Home

Golf enthusiasts are constantly looking for ways to improve their game. While the normal distractions like work or weather can make it hard to find time to get on the course or the driving range, we now have to find ways to stay active and work on our game during the nationwide stay at home orders. Fortunately, there are steps you can take at home to improve your short game and keep your sanity. You may not have enough property to build your own driving range, but you can improve your game from the comfort of your own home.

Home Putting Drills

Alignment Sticks

For most of us, we/re spending more time inside than ever before, but that doesn’t mean that your practice has to stop. An alignment sticks drill can be done from inside your home with minimal investment. Simply lay down a couple of clubs you’re not using parallel to each other, about a putter’s width apart. Make 50-100 practice strokes without a ball just to ensure that you can consistently keep the putter’s face square to the sticks. After several strokes without a ball, set the ball down and see if you can keep the ball perfectly centered between the parallel clubs.

If you want to increase the difficulty of this drill while also improving your accuracy, slowly work the parallel clubs closer to one another to create a tighter lane for the ball to navigate.

Putting on a Playing Card

A playing card is a pretty small surface, so if you can establish a way to consistently putt a ball and make it stop on the card, you will have greatly improved your putt speed control. Start out with the card three feet in front of you. Putt the ball while keeping the card at that distance until you make the ball land on the card five times in a row before you move the card. Move the card back by 2-3 feet every time you get five consecutive stops on the card. This will help you simulate different putting distances and the control that you’ll need to make it happen when you’re playing an actual round of golf.

Putting Mat Practice

If you’re looking to invest in some items that will improve your game, the easiest would be to order a putting mat. You can buy small mats for under $30, but those typically limit you to putting in one direction without any sort of an added angle.

Try to find a putting mat that has a large cross in the middle which will enable you to put from different directions and angles. You can make the practice a bit more intense by adding one of the playing cards discussed earlier to the middle of the mat to improve your accuracy, or by placing towels or foam pads underneath to simulate uneven greens.

Home Chipping Drills

Towel Drill

While the towel drill is more about chipping than it is about putting, it’s another low-cost option that can greatly improve your short game. Lay a towel on the ground 5-10 yards away from you and take chip shots at the towel. Chip the ball towards the towel and don’t move the towel or change drills until you’ve put the ball on the towel 10 times. 

This drill is designed to help you improve chip shot location and speed. If you’re on an actual course, the success of your chip shot hinges on proper trajectory, ball speed, and landing the ball in the right spot. Using a towel will give you a small target to work on even when you’re stuck at home.

Three Quarter Chip Drill

If you don’t already have a chipping mat and net, you should probably go pick one up. These items will not only help you execute this drill but will give you some freedom to work on other aspects of your game all year round.

One of the most important skills for your golf game is the three-quarter chip shot. No matter how good of a golfer you are, you’ll eventually find yourself in some awkward positions around the green. Spend some time at home, preferably in a room where you can’t break anything, and work on chipping into the net from the chipping mat at different angles and distances.

One Footed Chip Shots

It’s typical for golfers to forfeit proper balance when chipping. The natural tendency is to fall back onto your back foot which changes your balance and negatively impacts your trajectory and accuracy. Spend some time with your chipping mat and hitting net but do all your chipping while only standing on your front foot or by placing one foot on a shoebox. This drill requires no extra purchases but will significantly improve your all-around chipping game.

Practicing your golf game when you’re not on the course could be the difference in being the top player out of your golfing crew or struggling to get through 18 holes without losing your cool. Although Falcon’s Fire Golf Course is open and taking tee times, we know that many won’t be able to play as much as they’d like. Take this time when you’re cooped up at home to work on improving your short game and be the envy of all of your friends and colleagues.