Short-Game Drills for Quick Improvement: A 15-Minute Practice Sequence

A short-game session with a scorecard

A brief session before an early tee time should be specific enough to reveal something and compact enough to leave room for the rest of the morning. Rather than hit a loose succession of chips and pitches, use the same target for each set and change just one variable: first the landing spot, then the carry distance, then the shot type. That makes the result readable. If your 10-yard chips finish short again and again, you have a pattern to address—not merely a vague sense that your touch is off.

The sequence below is built around three familiar shots: a low chip, a higher pitch and a bunker shot. It requires a practice green with a fringe or short-grass area, a landing zone, and a bunker. If the facility has no bunker, use the substitution later in the article rather than rushing through the other sets. Keep one wedge in hand for the chips and pitches if that is your normal course club; for the sand set, choose a sand wedge or the club you expect to use from the bunker.

Bring six balls if the practice area is busy, and retrieve them between sets. You will hit 36 shots in total: 10 chips, 12 pitches and 8 bunker shots. The arithmetic matters because it keeps the session finite. You are practicing to arrive at the first tee with a few useful references, not to turn a warm-up into an unplanned hour of ball striking.

The 15-minute sequence at a glance

The clock is a guide, not a reason to hit while another player is on the green. If the area is crowded, preserve the order and reduce setup time only; do not skip safe spacing or hit into another golfer’s practice area.

Before the first ball: define the targets

Spend one minute choosing a target for each shot type. For the chips, select a hole or an imaginary finishing point roughly 10 yards away. Identify two landing spots: one just onto the green and another about halfway between the fringe and the hole. For the pitches, pick a target at 20 yards and another at 30 yards. For the bunker, choose a landing area about 5 yards beyond the lip, rather than aiming vaguely toward the flag.

Use visible features that are already present—a change in grass color, a sprinkler head outside the hitting line, or a mark on the green—as references. Do not place tees or alignment aids where they could interfere with other players or breach facility rules. A landing area can be a small patch rather than a precise point; the point is to make the intended flight observable.

Keep the ball, target and club consistent within each set. For example, do not switch from a pitching wedge to a lob wedge halfway through the 20-yard group unless the club change itself is the adjustment you are deliberately testing. A useful drill isolates variables. If club, stance, target and tempo all change at once, a better or worse result tells you very little.

Drill 1: Ten chips from 10 yards

Give this first set four minutes. Play all 10 shots from approximately 10 yards, changing the intended landing spot between the first five and the second five. The first group should land just onto the green; the second should land about halfway to the hole. Keep the hole as the common finishing target. The contrast shows how much roll your chosen club produces from two different landing points.

1. Choose a low chip and set the clubface and stance for your usual shot. Use a comfortable, repeatable setup rather than rebuilding your technique for every ball.
2. Hit 5 balls toward a landing spot just onto the green. Hold the finish long enough to notice whether contact was clean and whether the ball started on the intended line.
3. Move the landing target to the halfway point. Hit 5 more balls from the same starting location, changing the intended landing point rather than adding a new club or a larger swing by guesswork.
4. For each shot, record whether it finished within a putter-length of the chosen target. If the green is unusually fast or the landing area is sloped, note that condition beside the result.

A putter-length is a practical scoring window, not a claim that every ball must finish beside the cup. Place a putter down beside the target, or use an approximate putter-length of space if you do not have one at hand. Count the balls that finish inside that window. A result of 6 out of 10 is useful information; it gives you a baseline to compare with another morning.

Watch the pattern of misses, not only the final count. Repeated short finishes can point to a decelerating motion, a landing spot that is too ambitious, or a strike that is heavier than intended. A ball that lands on the chosen spot but rolls well past the target tells a different story from one that never reaches the green. If the landing point is correct and the roll is excessive, examine the club and the slope before trying to manufacture a delicate stroke.

For a clean strike, the ball should come away on a predictable trajectory and the club should continue through impact. If several shots come off heavy, check whether the low point is falling behind the ball. Keep the cue simple: brush the turf after the ball, then let the result decide whether the landing point or club choice needs adjustment. Avoid changing your grip, stance and stroke all at once.

Drill 2: Six pitches at 20 yards, six at 30

Use four minutes for the pitch set. Hit 6 balls from 20 yards, then 6 from 30 yards. Keep one target area for each distance, and change only the required carry or swing length between groups. The question is not whether you can hit a perfect pitch on demand; it is whether you can make a clear adjustment and produce a predictable landing area.

1. From 20 yards, select a landing zone that leaves room for the ball to release toward the target. Hit 6 shots, noting the first landing point and where each ball finishes.
2. Move back to 30 yards. Keep the club and intended landing-zone size the same where practical. Hit 6 more, adding only the distance needed to reach the new target.
3. After each ball, classify the miss as short, long, left, right or poor contact. Do not give a single shot two or three explanations.
4. Compare the two groups. Look for a consistent change in carry, not just the best result from either distance.

A useful pitch has two separate distances: carry and roll. A ball can land on the correct patch and still finish too far away because the surface releases more than expected. Conversely, a ball that comes up short of the landing zone may indicate an underpowered swing or a strike that lost energy. Identify which distance went wrong before you adjust anything.

Do not respond to every short pitch by swinging harder. First check whether the strike was clean and whether the ball was launched as intended. If contact is solid but the ball repeatedly lands short, lengthen the motion slightly while preserving your rhythm. If contact varies, keep the swing length stable for the next ball and focus on brushing the turf consistently. The purpose is to learn a controllable change, not to chase a single dramatic shot.

At 30 yards, resist the temptation to add an entirely different technique simply because the target is farther away. A small, repeatable change in swing length is easier to recognize than a sudden shift in grip pressure, stance width, club selection and tempo. If your regular course shot uses another wedge, you can repeat the same 20- and 30-yard set with it on a later practice day and compare the landing pattern.

Drill 3: Eight bunker shots past the lip

Give the bunker set four minutes. Your target is a landing area about 5 yards beyond the lip. The goal is to send the ball out with enough carry to reach that area, not to hole a shot or produce a spectacular splash. Eight repetitions are enough to expose a repeated miss without turning the set into a long session of digging and resetting.

1. Choose one target area beyond the lip and identify the edge of the bunker that the ball must clear.
2. Set up for your familiar bunker shot, with a stable stance and the club you normally use from sand. Avoid changing your technique simply to make the ball look higher.
3. Hit 4 shots while keeping the landing area fixed. Note whether each ball clears the lip and whether it lands short of, inside or beyond the target zone.
4. Hit 4 more to the same area. Make one deliberate adjustment only if the first four show a repeated pattern—for example, a carry consistently short of the lip.

Separate the result into two questions: did the ball clear the lip, and did it land in the intended area? A ball that clears the bunker but lands far beyond the zone may need a smaller motion or a different landing target. A ball that catches the lip calls for attention to the strike and the amount of sand moved. A thin contact that flies too far is not corrected in the same way as a heavy shot that never reaches the edge.

Use the sand itself as feedback. A consistent entry point and a predictable amount of sand can help produce repeatable carry, while a strike that alternates between a clean ball-first contact and a deep, heavy splash will produce wide distance variation. There is no need to force eight identical divots; bunker conditions vary. Instead, notice whether your entry and exit are repeatable enough for the chosen shot.

If you do not have access to a bunker, substitute 8 soft-landing pitches from roughly 15 yards. Choose a landing patch just beyond an imaginary lip—such as a fringe edge or a safe line on the practice area—and keep that patch fixed. This will not reproduce sand interaction, but it preserves the drill’s central task: controlling carry to a defined landing zone.

The two-minute review: diagnose, then retest

Use the final two minutes to review one repeated error and hit two confirmation shots. Do not spend this time redesigning your entire short game. Choose the most common miss from the session: short chips, inconsistent pitch carry, or bunker shots that fail to clear the lip. Write down a single adjustment, then make one shot with it and one shot with your original intention.

• Repeatedly short chips: Check for a slowing club through impact and whether the landing spot is too close to the hole. Retest with a committed, continuous stroke or a slightly nearer landing zone—not both at once.
• Pitches landing short but striking cleanly: Add a small amount of swing length while holding the club and target constant.
• Pitches landing correctly but finishing long: Reassess the expected roll, slope and landing area before adding height or force.
• Bunker shots catching the lip: Review contact and sand entry before changing the target. A carry error and a strike error are different problems.

Finish with a note, not a verdict. “Four of six 20-yard pitches landed in the zone; three of six from 30 yards were short” is more useful next week than “pitching felt bad.” A compact record turns a 15-minute warm-up into a sequence you can compare across rounds, turf conditions and different wedges.

How to keep the practice honest

Make every ball count as one attempt. Avoid replaying a poor shot immediately until the result looks better; doing so quietly changes the exercise from a test into a search for reassurance. If you want a second chance, it belongs in the final two-minute retest, where the adjustment is explicit.

Keep your target zones modest and visible. A broad landing area is appropriate when the practice green is crowded or the surface is unfamiliar. Narrow the zone only after you can repeatedly find the larger one. Precision is not the same as making the target unrealistically small: a drill should challenge your control while still producing information you can use on the course.

Use the same ball type for the session when possible, and take account of the green’s speed. Morning dew can change rollout, especially on low chips, so distinguish a surface effect from a delivery error. The sequence does not ask you to predict every bounce. It asks you to observe where the ball lands, how it releases, and whether the same miss appears more than once.

Finally, protect the pace and safety of the practice area. Do not hit toward an occupied green, retrieve balls while another player is swinging, or place a target object where it creates a hazard. If the facility limits chipping or bunker practice, follow its rules and use the available practice zone. A precise routine is only useful when it fits the space and the people sharing it.

Printable 15-minute practice card

Copy this block into a notes app or print the page. Fill in the result immediately after each set; a few numbers are easier to retain than a general impression.

To keep the card genuinely printable, the important fields are distances, repetitions and results—not a long technical checklist. After several sessions, compare the same measures. If chip proximity improves while pitch carry remains uneven, the next short practice can devote its main attention to the 20- and 30-yard groups. If all three sets are predictable, preserve the routine and avoid adding volume simply because the practice green is available.

Make the sequence repeatable

The value of this routine is its order: chips first, controlled pitches second, bunker carry third, then a brief retest. Each part asks a different question while keeping the measurements plain. Can you land the chip on the chosen patch and manage its roll? Can you change carry from 20 to 30 yards without losing contact? Can you clear a bunker lip and land the ball in a defined area?

Return to the same distances on another morning and record the same outcomes. A small, consistent practice gives you a more dependable reference than an occasional marathon session. Ten chips from 10 yards, 6 pitches at each of 20 and 30 yards, and 8 bunker shots are enough to make the short game feel deliberate before the first tee—and to show what deserves attention next time.