Video:How to Practice Your Golf Short Game

Transcript:How to Practice Your Golf Short Game

Hi golfers, I'm Todd Kolb with About.com. We're going to talk about how to properly practice your golf game.

Why Is it Important to Practice Your Golf Short Game

When it comes time to practice your golf game, it's important that we get the opportunity to practice all aspects that are going to equate to what we shoot, so you're certainly going to spend some time on the driving range and hopefully working on the mechanics of your golf swing and hitting a variety of clubs like your woods of course and your mid-irons and also of course some pitch shots. The real scoring shots in golf though in terms of what we’re actually going to shoot happen around the green so when it comes time to practicing your golf around the green a couple things I want you to be aware of.

Work on Chipping When Practicing Your Golf Short Game

First of all with chipping, when you're going to be working on your chipping practice with two basic types of shots. The shots that you want to hit the ball high and soft which is going to be your most lofted clubs, and the shots that you want to hit low and run, which in golf sometimes we call those a bump and run. So, when you practice chipping, make sure you're practicing shots that you want to hit high and soft and also shots that you want to hit low and run.

Practice Your Golf Short Game From a Variety of Lies

Another key component to practicing your chipping around the green is practice from a variety of lies. Don't always give yourself a perfect lie when you're practicing your chipping, that's not what you're going to find out on the golf course. You're going to find all kinds of different situations and different lies so when you're going to work on your chipping, try to practice from those types of situations. One tip to doing that is taking maybe just three golf balls or five golf balls tossing them off on the side of the green and just literally playing them wherever they come to rest.

Work on Putting Aim When Practicing Your Golf Short Game

Now when we turn our attention to the putting, there's two key things that you need to work on in putting. You're working on either your line or what sometimes we'll call your aim, or the second thing is distance control. So if you're going to work on your aim, you want to find a putt first of all that is straight, and the reason that's important is that if you miss it left or right you know it's a byproduct of your aim. So find a putt that is straight, line the golf ball up and work on aiming the golf ball, I should say aiming your putter so it starts directly at the cup.

Improve Putting Distance When You Practice Your Golf Short Game

The other concept that you need to do well to have a good short game in terms of putting is distance control, and the best drill for distance control is to just putt golf balls not even to a specific hole but just to a general area. So one drill that I like to do is just what I call putting to the fringe. I'll grab three or five golf balls and I'll putt golf balls all the way to the fringe.

Three Components to Practice Your Golf Short Game

So when it comes time to practicing your golf game, there's three things you want to work on, your swing, which you're going to do on the driving range, you're short game which is going to be your chipping and your putting and a couple of these ideas hopefully will help you get the most out of your practice sessions.