17 Golf Chipping Drills for Every Situation
(Improve chipping with just a little practice)
Are you trying to break par for the first time? Or 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 17 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.
Pro Tip: How To Win Tournaments The P. Mickelson Way
Phil Mickelson tells you, “the only way to win tournaments is with the short game. Over half your shots out here are within 30 or 40 yards.” And yet most golfers spend all their practice time at the driving range hitting full shots.
I suggest devoting at least half of your available practice time to the scoring game: chipping, pitching and putting. 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 drills:
Drill #1
The Coin Chip
At A Glance…
- 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
At A Glance…
- 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.
Phil Mickelson’s short-game guru Dave Pelz suggests chipping with every iron in your bag for maximum distance control options.
Drill #3
Chip at a Chair
At A Glance…
- When To Use: Right before golf season to jump-start your short game; rainy days
- Tailored For: Golf Addics
- 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 a 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.
We recommend you check our guide: Chipping vs Pitching: What’s the Difference?
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.
They say that practice makes perfect, but Hall of Fame football coach Vince Lombardi added this important caveat: perfect practice makes perfect.
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 drills that’ll get you on the path to up-and-down every time:
Drill #4
Eyes Wide Shutt
At A Glance…
- When To Use: Beginning of the golf season
- Tailored For: Golfer who lack confidence over chips
- Key Chipping Skill Addressed: Tempo
- Clubs Required: Any iron or wedge
Staring a chip down can rouse the nerves of scratch golfers and tour pros, much less weekend warriors.
If you get too focused on the ball, your tempo will rush and you’ll chunk or blade the chip. Since a chipping stroke is short and should be easily repeatable, you should be able to do it with your eyes closed. So give it a try!
- #1: Position the ball off your rear foot
- #2: Put 80% of your weight on your front foot
- #3: Choke down several inches (you’ll have to stand closer to the ball than for a full swing)
- #3: Hinge your wrists and lean the shaft forward so your hands are ahead of the ball
Now close your eyes and take a short chipping stroke, keeping your wrist angle consistent to ensure a downward strike on the ball. You’ll quickly learn what a perfect strike feels like.
If you find yourself hitting the ground first, move the ball further back in your stance. You can go several inches past your back foot if need be.
Drill #5:
Putt Your Chip
At A Glance…
- 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 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 that Phil, Tiger, and countless other tour pros make look so easy.
Drill #6
Hit the Fringe
At A Glance…
- 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.
Drill #7
The Bag Backstop
At A Glance…
- When To Use: You chunk and blade more chips than you hit solidly
- Tailored For: Beginner to intermediate
- Key Chipping Skill Addressed: Proper backswing length, aggressive chipping stroke
- Clubs Required: Any iron or wedge
Your chipping stroke should be short and smooth, but always aggressive.
Most amateurs I play with who struggle around the greens take big backswings and then decelerate on the way down, scared that the big backswing will send the ball too far.
They’re right: that big backswing will produce a shot that flies much too far. But decelerating is never the answer. You need to shorten your backswing to promote an aggressive stroke.
- #1: Address the ball with your feet close together and the ball off the inside of your left foot.
- #2: Put your golf bag 3 feet behind you.
- #3: If your backswing hits your bag, it’s too long.
What if your 56 degree wedge is coming up short with this short backswing? Take more club. Don’t afraid to bump and run it with an 8 iron.
Key Takeaway: Let the club do the work for you
If you’re still not able to generate enough clubhead speed, you can move your bag back a little farther. But the key is to make a short, aggressive stroke and let the club do the work for you.
The key is to make a short, aggressive stroke and let the club do the work for you.
Drill #8
Landing Spot
Tom Watson’s favorite chipping drill is a simple one: hit several different wedges and irons to the same landing spot on the green.
This drill is the natural progression from the Backyard Landing Spot and Hit the Fringe work you’ve already put in.
Since you’ve practiced hitting the same landing spot with several different irons, now it’s time to learn how far each one rolls out.
- #1: Place a tee or coin on the green
- #2: Hit several shots with each iron and wedge, trying to land the ball right at that spot
- #3: Hold your finish and watch the balls roll out
Holding your finish until the ball has completely stopped moving is key to committing the feel of each shot to memory.
Your subconscious mind will absorb the info and you’ll develop an intuitive feel for which club to use in each situation.
You’ll notice that shots hit from the fairway or fringe roll out differently than shots from the rough.
When you hit a crisp chip from the short grass, the grooves of your club will impart backspin on the ball that causes it to “check” or “grab” on the first couple of bounces before releasing.
When you start hitting balls that check on the first two hops and then release to the hole, repeat that stroke! That means you’re hitting the sweet spot and spinning the ball like a pro.
CHAPTER 3
Get Your Game On
All these 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 #9
Play Par Twos
At A Glance…
- 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 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 drills and 15 minutes on Play Par Twos, you’ll see huge improvement over the course of the summer.
Drill #10
Hole It
At A Glance…
- 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 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 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 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.
Drill #11
The Circles
At A Glance…
- When To Use: You can’t seem to get the ball to stop close to the hole
- Tailored For: All golfers
- Key Chipping Skill Addressed: Distance control
- Clubs Required: Your preferred chipping wedges/irons
This game gives you points for getting the ball close to the hole, but costs you if you ram it miles by or leave it way short.
Case Study:
The Key to Scoring, Shotlink
The key to getting up-and-down and saving your par is getting your chip to finish close to the hole. Thanks to high-tech Shotlink data, we know that PGA Tour pros are 95% accurate from 3 feet and in. From 5 feet, their make percentage drops to a still-very-respectable 75%.
But take them out to 7 feet, 10 inches and their make rate is already down to 50%. And from 11 feet out, the best pros make ⅓ of their putts.
If the best players in the world are only making half of their putts from 8 feet out, the average amateur can only hope to make half of that!
So the key to scoring is to get your chips close. Get the chips within a few feet of the hole and watch your scores plummet
To play Circles, pick the hole you’re chipping to and place three tees in a triangle 3 feet from the hole, and three tees in a triangle 6 feet from the hole. Use these tees to visualize two circles around the hole.
Now chip 5 balls to the hole. You get 3 points for a ball inside the 3 foot circle and 1 point inside the 6 foot circle. But if the ball winds up outside of the circles, you lose 3 points. Your goal is to finish with positive points after you’ve chipped all 5 balls.
Once you’re finishing with positive points on a regular basis, your new goal is to score 10 or more points every time. As your scores in Circles rise, you’ll see your scores on the course drop.
Drill #12
H-O-R-S-E
At A Glance…
- When To Use: You’re practicing with a bbuddy
- Tailored For: All golfers
- Key Chipping Skill Addressed: Distance control, scoring
- Clubs Required: Your preferred chipping wedges/irons
I’m sure you’ve played HORSE on a basketball course, but did you know you can do it on the chipping green as well?
- Step 1: The first player picks the chip and must hit it within a clublength of the hole for it to be considered “made.” If the chip is “made,” the next player must hit the same chip within a clublength or they receive a letter.
- Step 2: If the chip is missed, the second player gets to pick a starting point and target. Any time a “made” chip cannot be duplicated, a letter is assessed.
- Step 3: The first person to receive 5 letters spelling out H-O-R-S-E loses.
I always like to add this variation too: any holed chip automatically assigns a letter to your opponent, whether you’re the first one or second one chipping.
This reflects how much chip-ins benefit you when you’re actually out on the course and adds intrigue if one player is running away with it.
Playing HORSE is a perfect way to tune up your game in anticipation of a match play tournament, because it replicates the head-to-head nature of match play as opposed to the you-against-the-course challenge that stroke play presents.
CHAPTER 4
Tough Situations
Tough chip to an elevated green? Ball in a tough lie?
These drills 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 #13
Up Against It, Down In It
At A Glance…
- When To Use: You’re hitting good basic chips and want to expand your repertoire
- Tailored For: Intermediate and advanced golfers
- Key Chipping Skill Addressed: Creativity and scoring
- Clubs Required: Hybrids
Sometimes you just barely miss a green and find your ball on the fringe, but right up against the rough.
It’s very difficult to get a wedge through the rough smoothly and make clean contact in this situation; you usually end up blading or chunking it as the rough grabs the wedge and then lets go awkwardly right at impact.
Other times you’ll find yourself in the first cut of rough, sitting down so far that it’s tough to get an iron on it without a big swing that’ll knock it well past the hole.
Some players suggest intentionally blading the chip with the leading edge of a sand wedge, hitting the middle of the ball and rolling it to the hole. This works, sure, but requires incredible precision and has zero margin for error.
Instead, try pulling out your hybrid or 5wood. Their broad soles will help the club glide through the rough smoothly so you can bump the ball up onto the green softly and watch it trickle out to the hole.
The most famous example of this shot is Justin Rose’s brilliant up-and-down on #18 Sunday at Merion, as he chipped his ball to tap-in range with a metalwood to seal the 2013 US Open victory.
Under incredible pressure, Rose decided not to try to dig the ball out with a wedge because there was zero room for error. Instead, he pulled out a wood and made a simple putting stroke with it.
The ball popped out easily and rolled out to tap-in range, and Rose became a major champion.
Key Takeaway: Use a putter-like stroke with your hybrid or metalwood
For this drill, place several balls on the fringe up against the rough. Use a putter-like stroke with your hybrid or metalwood to pop the ball just a few inches onto the green and let it roll out to the hole.
Make sure you take five or six practice strokes before addressing the ball to get a feel for how the club passes through the rough.
Beware: the faces of these clubs are very thin and springy so you won’t need to hit the ball very hard at all. If the ball is going too far for you, combine this with the Bag Backstop drill.
Drill #14
Climb the Hill
At A Glance…
- 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 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.
- #1: Give yourself 1 point for each time you hit the green.
- #2: You lose two points for hitting it over the green
- #3: 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 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 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 drills will help you improve your technique and banish those yips forever.
Drill #15
One-Armed Scissor
At A Glance…
- 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 #16
Modified One Arm
At A Glance…
- 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 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.
Drill #17
Cross-Hand It
At A Glance…
- When To Use: You chunk and blade more chips than you hit properly
- Tailored For: Beginners to advanced
- Key Chipping Skill Addressed: Clean contact
- Clubs Required: Any wedge
Cross-handed putting has gone from an oddity 15 years ago to utterly ubiquitous. I’m a little surprised that the cross-handed grip hasn’t caught on as a chipping technique as well.
Vijay Singh is the biggest name player employing the technique, though several players including Matthew Fitzpatrick practice with the method to keep the trail hand from flipping.
With your leading hand low, it’s nearly impossible for your wrists to break down during the chipping stroke. You may find that the cross-handed drill works so well that you take it out on the course.
Your alignment may feel strange when chipping cross-handed, so lay an iron down on the ground pointing parallel to your intended target line to make sure you’re aiming correctly.
Then just grip the club with your leading hand low, and make your standard short, smooth, aggressive chipping stroke.
With your leading hand low, it’s nearly impossible for your wrists to break down during the chipping stroke. You may find that the cross-handed drill works so well that you take it out on the course.
CONCLUSION
Now It’s Your Turn
Even the best in the world miss the green more than a quarter of the time, but they still manage to shoot incredible scores on their good days and stay around par on their bad days.
This is because they spend huge chunks of time at the short game facility working on their chipping.
But the average amateur spends less than 5% of their practice time hitting chips and putts, missing out on the #1 way to lower your scores dramatically with the least amount of practice.
Pick a few of these drills that address your biggest shortcomings, put just half an hour a week of practice in, and reap the rewards all summer long!
