Short game practice

Making Short Game Practice More Like Real Golf

A course-ready guide to making short game practice more like real golf, with practical short game practice choices explained in plain golf language.

Making Short Game Practice More Like Real Golf illustration

Add the mess back in

To make short game practice feel like real golf, change the lie, target, club, and consequence. Step away between balls so every rep begins with a decision rather than a rake-and-repeat habit for short game practice. Use landing spots, rough lies, bunker exits, and the putt after the chip as the menu for Making Short Game Practice More Like Real Golf. Those are the situations that decide whether practice travels for short game practice.

A nine-shot test

Play nine different shots and score each as pass or fail for short game practice. No automatic re-dos, no perfect-lie reset, and no pretending the bad one did not count for short game practice. When green-side practice that looks like the course appears under that test, the work is closer to course-ready.