10 Golf Chipping Drills for Every Situation
(Improve chipping with just a little practice)
Are you trying to break par for the first time?
Or do you just wanna beat your buddies?
No matter your skill level or ultimate goal, better chipping is a shortcut to reaching that next milestone.
You can drastically improve chipping with just a little practice, and you don’t even need to be on the golf course!
This guide gives you 10 chipping drills guaranteed to lower your scores.
Don’t have time to read the whole guide right now?
No worries. I can send you a digital copy so you can read it when it’s convenient for you. Just let me know where you’d like me to send it to (takes 3 seconds).
What You Will Learn In This Post
CHAPTER 1
At-home Golf Chipping Drills
Those of us who aren’t professional golfers don’t usually have the luxury of spending full days at the practice green, so you’ve got to get your practice in where you can.
Luckily, you don’t even need to go to the golf course to improve your chipping technique!
Practicing for just a few minutes a day at home will reap big rewards when you hit the links.
Sure, pounding drives is fun, but if you want to write better scores on your card, you’ve got to learn how to score!
If your short game keeps you up at night or you just need to stay fresh during the winter layoffs, grab a pitching wedge and try out these chipping drills:
Drill #1
The Coin Chip
When To Use: cold, snowy winter days spent watching the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii
Tailored For: Golf addicts
Key Chipping Skill Addressed: Downward strike, clean contact
Clubs Required: Sand or lob wedge
Scatter a few coins on your carpet with a plastic cup in the middle. Using an old wedge (the coins can scratch the face), use a short chipping stroke to chip the coins into the cup.
Key Takeaway: Don’t thump the clubs
One key to watch for is you don’t want to thump the club into the ground. Choke down on the wedge so the stroke just brushes the carpet and nicks the coin off and into the cup.
Chipping is all about getting a clean strike on the ball so it pops off the clubface onto the green and rolls out to the hole.
If you can make good contact with a coin, hitting a golf ball will feel as easy as hitting a beach ball once the season starts.
You’ll also learn to maintain clubhead speed through the hitting zone and where to position the coin/ball to ensure good contact (Hint: it’s probably further back in your stance than you realize).
Drill #2
Backyard Landing Spot
When To Use: You can’t to make it to the course for practice
Tailored For: Beginner/intermediate golfers
Key Chipping Skill Addressed: Clean contact, hitting your landing spot
Clubs Required: 9-iron through lob wedge
I don’t like taking full swings in my backyard because I always take a divot. But a good chipping stroke should never take a divot, so your yard is safe!
Jam an alignment stick into the ground and, starting from 6 feet away, try to land the ball right next to the stick.
Key Takeaway: Learn to hit your landing spot!
It doesn’t matter where the ball ends up — focus on how long a stroke you need to get the ball to fly a certain distance. Learning to hit your landing spot is the key to effective chipping.
Do this with all your wedges and your 9-iron. Keep your tempo consistent, only varying the length of your backswing to change distance.
PRO TIP
Distance control is king.
Try to master one short, aggressive chipping stroke. Then use that stroke with different clubs to cover a wide range of chipping distances.
Drill #3
Chip at a Chair
When To Use: Right before golf season to jump-start your short game; rainy days
Tailored For: Golf Addicts
Key Chipping Skill Addressed: Controlling trajectory; clean contact
Clubs Required: Pitching, gap or sand wedge
Controlling your trajectory is key to controlling roll-out. A classic living room chair has three trajectory zones to aim at — the bottom, the cushion, and the back.
Grab your best gap wedge and set up 3-6 feet from the chair. Take a normal chipping stroke and see where it hits the chair. That’s your baseline chipping trajectory.
Move your ball position to hit the different zones and pay close attention to which clubs produce which trajectories. The further back in your stance, the lower the ball will fly.
When you move it forward in your stance, you’ll notice it pops up higher. Don’t go too far forward or you’ll risk the round-killing chili dip.
Next time you face a long chip, remember the chipping motion and ball position that hit the bottom portion of the chair and duplicate that to maximize roll-out.
Beware: You’d be surprised how many chips will airmail the chair until you get the hang of it. Put a mattress or pad of some sort behind the chair to make sure you don’t damage the wall.
CHAPTER 2
Take It To The Course
If you hit ball after ball with poor technique, all you’ll do is produce consistently bad chips.
So when you do finally get to take your practice to the chipping green, make sure you’re using your time effectively to actually improve your game.
Take your time with each shot and hold your finish until the balls stop rolling.
I see golfers hitting chip after chip without ever watching them roll out; you’re especially tempted to hit another one quickly after you’ve just bladed one over the green.
But even a bladed chip can be a learning experience.
Focus on the result of every shot to its completion and your body will learn what produced the good ones and what produced the bad ones. Both lessons are equally important.
Here are chipping drills that’ll get you on the path to up-and-down every time:
Drill #4
Putt Your Chip
When To Use: When you’re rebuilding your short game from the ground up
Tailored For: Beginners
Key Chipping Skill Addressed: Simple stroke, good contact
Clubs Required: 7, 8 or 9 iron
If you get handsy and long with your chipping stroke, you’ll have to have perfect timing and more than a little luck to hit a good one. Around the greens, you want to take luck out of the equation!
Simplify your golf game by using a putting stroke to chip.
Move the ball close to your body and choke down to the bottom of the grip. Place the ball off the big toe of your rear foot and make a putting stroke with your 8 iron.
You can use a more lofted club, but you may find that a wedge pops it up too much and comes up short.
This is a good first technique until you can master the hinge-and-hold chip shot that Phil, Tiger, and countless other tour pros make look so easy.
Drill #5
Hit the Fringe
When To Use: You’re making good contact but still can’t hit it close; you have trouble chipping from the rough
Tailored For: All golfers
Key Chipping Skill Addressed: Distance control
Clubs Required: Any iron or wedge
Distance control is the most important aspect of chipping. Chipping out of the fairway is hard enough; getting it out of the rough and controlling the distance is even tougher.
This drill is an extension of the backyard landing spot drill mentioned above, but since you’re at a chipping green you can focus on both the landing spot and the resulting roll-out onto the green.
Take 3 balls and place them 1, 3 and 5 feet into the rough. Pick a landing spot in the fringe, 6-12 inches short of the green, and focus on flying each ball to that same spot.
Make sure you watch the balls roll out all the way so you get a sense of how much momentum the fringe will sap versus landing the ball on the green.
Key Takeaway: What if the balls are rolling too far?
If the balls are rolling too far, move the ball further forward in your stance and open the wedge face a few degrees. This will help pop the ball out of the rough more softly.
For extra difficulty, try this drill on a downhill slope. You’ll have to land the ball in the fringe in order to slow it down so it trickles down to the hole.
Fly it too far and it rockets past the hole, too short and it gets hung up in the rough.
Practicing the hardest shots will calm your nerves when you face them on the course.
PRO TIP
Practice the shots you fear the most.
I often see amateurs practice only the most basic chips. As fun as it is to hit the shots that you’re already good at, it’s much more productive to practice the shots that you fear the most.
Make sure you practice a few really difficult shots every session and you’ll find yourself much more comfortable next time you face those situations on the course.
CHAPTER 3
Get Your Game On
All these chipping drills are helpful, but repetitive practicing gets tiresome.
Inject some excitement into a dull practice session with these mini-games you can play, either with a buddy or alone.
Playing games at the chipping green will help emulate the pressure of on-course golf situations, whether you’re playing a tournament or just need to get up-and-down to break 100.
Anything you can do to re-create that pressure will make you more comfortable next time you face it on the course.
Keep a notebook to track your scores and you’ll have positive proof of progress. This type of feedback is crucial to keep your fire stoked and show you that practice is indeed making perfect.
Drill #6
Play Par Twos
When To Use: Finish your chipping practice with this game.
Tailored For: All golfers
Key Chipping Skill Addressed: Scoring
Clubs Required: Your preferred chipping wedges/irons and a putter.
The goal of every chip shot is to get it up-and-down with one chip and one putt.
If it goes in, even better! At your chipping green, create 9 “holes” by picking 9 starting locations and a hole to chip to from each one.
Using only one ball (because that’s what you have to do on the course), chip from each spot and putt the ball out until it’s in the hole.
Consider each hole a par 2. Your goal score after nine holes should be 18 – a chip and a putt for each hole.
Keep a log of your scores to watch them drop week after week. You’ll get used to feeling the pressure to score and be able to take that experience to the course.
This game is a great way to finish chipping practice. Even if you can only spend 15 minutes on chipping drills and 15 minutes on Play Par Twos, you’ll see huge improvement over the course of the summer.
Drill #7
Hole It
When To Use: Trying to break 80 consistently
Tailored For: Intermediate to advanced golfers
Key Chipping Skill Addressed: Scoring
Clubs Required: Your preferred chipping wedges/irons
So you’ve mastered Play Par Twos and you’re regularly scoring 22 or better each time. That’s great!
Now it’s time to focus on making the chips in 1 instead of 2. Nothing is more backbreaking to a match play opponent or boosting to your psyche than turning a potentially big score into a birdie.
First off, not every chip shot should be considered “makeable.” If the hole is cut on a steep slope, you should focus on leaving the ball below the hole for an easier uphill putt.
Going for it and missing can leave you in 3-putt (or worse) territory. Nobody wants that!
But if you’ve got a good lie and a reasonably flat chip, there’s no reason not to try to make it.
The first step in making the chip shot is getting the ball to the hole.
Use the aggressive stroke you’ve practiced and pick a landing spot that you know will result in the chip rolling 1-3 feet past the hole.
This chipping drill is a simple, fun way to finish off a practice session. Pick a level chip of 15-30 feet and start chipping. You’re not done practicing until you’ve holed 3 chips.
You can try leaving the pin in or taking it out. That comes down to personal preference, though there’s some evidence that leaving the pin in can increase the ball’s chance of dropping.
However, some golfers prefer seeing the entire hole when chipping, and that mental edge can be worth more than the slight advantage the pin provides.
Key Takeaway: Take your par and run to the next tee.
You’ll quickly learn which types of chips should be considered makeable and which ones you should be more defensive with. It’s never bad to get up-and-down in two, take your par and run to the next tee.
CHAPTER 4
Tough Situations
Tough chip shot to an elevated green? Ball in a tough lie?
This chipping drill can help you escape from special situations with minimal damage to your scorecard.
Escaping with par from a steep slope or difficult lie can save a round.
But you have to practice these tough situations so you don’t panic when you get to the green and find your ball in a loathsome spot.
Drill #8
Climb the Hill
When To Use: You’re hitting good basic chips and want to expand your repertoire
Tailored For: Advanced golfers
Key Chipping Skill Addressed: Creativity and scoring
Clubs Required: Pitching wedge
You Got 3 Options
When you’ve missed an elevated or turtleback green and your ball has rolled down into a collection area, you’ve generally got three options:
Option 1: You can try to flop a wedge up onto the elevated surface from a tough, tight lie.
Option 2: You can putt it through a long expanse of fairway.
Option 3: You can bang a bump-and-run into the hill, hitting it aggressively and letting the hill take away some of the momentum as the ball skips up onto the green.
In my experience, chipping the ball into the hill is the high-percentage play unless you’re playing somewhere like Pinehurst, where the fairways are more like your local muni course’s greens.
If the fairways are perfect, go ahead and putt the ball.
PRO TIP
Control your trajectory.
To practice banging the ball into the hill, you’ll need to find a flat spot with a steep hill in front of it.
The most important aspect of this chipping drill is controlling your trajectory to make sure you don’t airmail the hill entirely!
If you practiced chipping into a chair over the winter, you’ll want to use the chip that drove the ball into the bottom third of the chair.
This is typically a pitching wedge or 9-iron, placed so far back in your stance that it’s several inches behind your trailing foot.
You’ll have to have the clubface hooded closed and your hands well ahead of the ball.
Take a short, aggressive stroke and hit the ball hard into the hill so it bounces high and skips up over the hill onto the green.
- Give yourself 1 point for each time you hit the green.
- You lose two points for hitting it over the green
- You’ll lose 3 points if you don’t hit it hard enough and it rolls right back to your starting point.
Keep chipping until you have 5 points or -20 points.
If you get 5 points, you’ve figured it out and only need to revisit this chipping drill every few months to keep it fresh.
If you drop down to -20 points, you’ll want to work on mastering the more basic chips before attempting this technique.
This chipping drill is all about getting the ball onto the green to avoid the big bad double-bogey or worse.
CHAPTER 5
Nip the Chip Yips
And now we move on to a chapter I hope you never have to use.
The lucky golfers among us will never suffer through a battle with chip yips, but if they can happen to Tiger, they can happen to anyone.
There are two main causes of chip yips: overactive wrists and looking up prior to contact.
These chipping drills will help you improve your technique and banish those yips forever.
Drill #9
One-Armed Scissor
When To Use: You chili-dip chip after chip
Tailored For: Beginners
Key Chipping Skill Addressed: Crisp contact & strength
Clubs Required: Pitching wedge
If you can’t stop chunking your chips, your wrists are probably breaking down before impact.
Your left wrist must maintain its angle through and after impact to make sure you clip the ball off the grass and don’t bury the club in the ground.
PRO TIP
Weight = Front Foot
The best way to train yourself to maintain your wrist angle is to take several balls and put them in the back of your stance, in front of your back foot.
Your weight should be on your front foot, and your hands should be well ahead of the ball with the shaft leaning significantly forward.
Now put your trail hand (right hand for righties) behind your back, and hit the chips with only your lead hand on the club.
You’ll quickly find that the only way to make contact is to keep your wrist angle steady throughout the chip. You’ll also build your forearm strength, which will help with every club in your bag.
Drill #10
Modified One Arm
When To Use: You chunk a lot of chips but don’t have the strength to practice hitting one-armed chips
Tailored For: Beginners
Key Chipping Skill Addressed: Clean contact
Clubs Required: Pitching wedge
If you can’t make good contact with just your lead arm on the club, try this variation on the One-Armed Scissor.
Take a standard chipping stroke but just before impact, drop your trail hand off the club.
This chipping drill is favored by legendary golf instructor Butch Harmon, who says the cause of chip yips is “the left arm stops dead just before impact, and the right hand flips.”
Takeaway: You can’t flip your right hand if it’s not on the club!
Your lead hand will be forced to maintain its acceleration and wrist angle as the weight of the clubhead carries your arm to an extended follow-through.
Don’t try to stop the clubhead on the follow-through — let it swing.
PRO TIP
Weight: Maintain Your Wrist Angle
Your accelerating chipping stroke should result in a follow-through at least twice as long as your backswing, but maintaining your wrist angle will keep the clubface open towards the target during the follow-through.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I improve my golf chipping?
Focus on proper setup, including weight distribution slightly on your lead foot and a narrow stance.
Use a smooth, controlled swing and maintain a consistent tempo. Practice different lies and club choices to build versatility.
Mastering the basics and regular practice will help you achieve better accuracy and distance control.
How to practice golf chipping at home?
Set up a small chipping net or use household items like buckets as targets. Practice short, controlled swings with foam or plastic golf balls. Focus on accuracy, trajectory, and consistent contact.
Use various clubs to simulate different scenarios and improve your skills in a low-pressure environment.
What is the rule of 12 in golf chipping?
The rule of 12 helps determine how far the ball will roll versus fly during a chip shot. It calculates rollout distance based on loft.
Subtract the club’s loft angle from 12 to find the rollout ratio, helping you choose the right club for different distances.
What distance should you practice chipping?
Practice chipping from 10 to 30 yards, covering short, medium, and long chip shots. Focus on accuracy and control within this range, as it mimics real on-course scenarios.
Experiment with different clubs and lies to improve versatility and prepare for various course challenges.