Short Game Practice 2026 — Drills for Wedges, Chips and Pitches

Q: How long should I practice short game per session?

A 60-minute short-game session that hits all three zones (chip, pitch, wedge approach) is the right balance for most amateurs. The pros split 60–70% of their daily practice on short game and putting; club golfers typically invert this and over-practice the driver. A weekly framework of two 60-minute sessions plus a single putting-only 30-minute session moves a handicap meaningfully in one season.

Q: What is the par-18 game?

Pick nine random spots around a single practice green — varied lies, varied distances. Play each as a chip-and-putt. Par for each spot is two: chip on, one putt. Add up your total. The benchmark for a competent short game is par-18 to 22; a tour pro will routinely score 16 to 18. Track the score in a notebook over six weeks; the trend line is the only data that matters.

Q: What is the Pete Cowen 30-yard consistency drill?

Pete Cowen — coach to Henrik Stenson, Brooks Koepka, Justin Rose, Sergio García, Justin Thomas and (since 2021) Rory McIlroy — uses a benchmark wedge drill that runs as follows. From exactly 30 yards out, hit ten balls to a single target on the green. Score by how many land within a 6-foot radius of the target. Tour-pro benchmark is 7 to 9 of 10. Cowen has McIlroy on a version of this drill weekly. The drill is the single best test of pitching distance control because 30 yards is too far for a putt-style chip and too short for a full wedge — it forces the partial-swing skill that every tour player needs.

Q: What wedges should I use for short game practice?

A four-wedge setup covers most short-game zones for the amateur: pitching wedge (~46 degrees), gap wedge (~50 degrees), sand wedge (~56 degrees), lob wedge (~60 degrees). 4-degree gaps between each is the standard. For practice, the 56-degree sand wedge is the most useful single club — it covers most chips, pitches and bunker shots. Bounce options matter: 10–12 degrees of bounce works on most courses and on most lies.

Q: What is the difference between a chip, a pitch and a wedge approach?

A chip is a low-running shot from just off the green, typically 5–25 yards, played with the ball in a stable putting-style motion. A pitch is a higher, softer-landing shot from 25–60 yards, with more wrist hinge and a fuller swing. A wedge approach is a 60–125-yard partial or full wedge shot played with a normal full-swing motion. Each requires different setup, ball position, length of swing and trajectory expectations — and each benefits from different drills.

Why The Short Game Decides Scoring (In One Paragraph)

Roughly 60% of all strokes in a round of golf are played from inside 100 yards. For a 90-shooter that's about 30 putts, 18–24 chips and pitches, and 6–10 wedge approaches. The fastest single-season scoring gains in golf come from short-game work, not from the full swing — and the data on this is unambiguous. Two months of structured short-game practice reliably moves a 90-shooter to an 86; four months moves an 86-shooter to an 82. The seven drills, the three-zone framework, and the weekly schedule below are the work tour pros actually do, simplified for amateurs with limited time and a real day job.

This guide walks through the three zones inside 100 yards, seven drills that work, a sustainable weekly practice framework, the common mistakes amateurs make, and the Pete Cowen / Rory McIlroy story behind the back-to-back Masters short game. Nothing here is sponsored. See also our Rory's coaching team profile for how Cowen reshaped McIlroy's wedge play, our Putter Fitting Guide for the equipment side of the green-side game, and our Aronimink 2026 PGA Championship preview — a venue whose Donald Ross crowned greens reward exactly the short-game patterns this guide trains.

The Three Zones Inside 100 Yards

Effective short-game practice splits the work into three distinct zones, because each zone needs different mechanics, different setup, and different drills.

Zone	Distance	Shot type	Practice priority
Chip	5–25 yards	Low, running, putting-style motion. Limited wrist hinge.	The single highest-volume short-game shot in any round. Practice volume should match.
Pitch	25–60 yards	Higher trajectory, softer landing, fuller swing with wrist hinge.	The trickiest distance for amateurs. Most leaks happen here.
Wedge approach	60–125 yards	Partial or full wedge swing. Standard mechanics, controlled finish.	Tour-pro benchmark zone. Cowen's specialism.

The amateur trap is over-practising chips (highest volume but lowest variability) and under-practising the 30–60 yard pitch (lowest volume but highest score variance). The drills below are weighted to fix that.

Setup Fundamentals — Get These Right First

Every drill below presumes you have the setup right. Twenty minutes of setup work in front of a mirror beats two hours of unstructured chipping every time.

Ball position Chip: ball back of centre (towards the trail foot). Pitch: ball middle. Wedge approach: middle to slightly forward. The further forward, the higher the trajectory.
Weight distribution Chip: 60–65% on lead foot, weight committed forward and stays there through impact. Pitch: 55% lead foot. Wedge: even at address.
Hand position Hands ahead of the ball at address on chips and most pitches. Forward shaft lean creates the descending strike that pinches the ball off the turf.
Grip pressure Light. The Sam Snead bird-in-the-hand cliche is real for short-game work. Tight grip pressure is the most common cause of flippy hand action through impact.
Stance width Narrow on chips (feet six to ten inches apart). Standard on pitches and full wedges. Narrow stance limits hip rotation and quiets the lower body for short shots.

The Seven Drills

Each drill below has a specific job. Run all seven across a week and you cover every short-game shot you'll see in a round.

DRILL 1

Clock-Face Chipping

Place a single ball at every clock-face hour around a single target on the green. Twelve different lies, twelve different angles to the pin.

Target: 8 of 12 chips inside 3 feet of the pin. Tour pros score 11 or 12.

DRILL 2

Ladder Drill

Place towels on the green at 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 yards. Hit one chip / pitch to each in order without skipping. Restart from the top on any miss.

Target: complete the full ladder twice in a session. The single best distance-control drill in golf.

DRILL 3

Leapfrog

Land each successive shot just past the previous one, but not too far past. Builds touch and trajectory variation in a single drill.

Target: 8 leaps in a row without overshooting by more than 5 yards.

DRILL 4

Par-18 Game

Pick nine random spots around a single green — varied lies, varied distances. Play each as a chip-and-putt. Par for each spot is two: chip on, one putt.

Target: par-18 to 22 for amateurs; 16–18 for tour pros. Track score weekly in a notebook.

DRILL 5

One-Handed Chip

Lead-arm-only chips with a 56-degree wedge from 10 yards. Builds the rotation-led chipping motion and removes flippy hand action through impact.

Target: 20 reps per session. Three feet from the pin or better is success.

DRILL 6

30-Yard Cowen Drill

From exactly 30 yards out, hit ten balls to a single target. Score by how many land within a 6-foot radius. The Pete Cowen wedge benchmark.

Target: 4 of 10 for an amateur, 7–9 of 10 for a tour pro. Used by every Cowen client — Stenson, Koepka, Rose, García, Thomas, McIlroy.

DRILL 7

Around-The-World Bunker

Eight balls in a circle around a greenside bunker. Splash each one out to a single pin, varying distance and lie. Repeat from the next bunker.

Target: 6 of 8 on the green and inside 12 feet. Hardest shot most amateurs face.

The Weekly Framework

Two 60-minute short-game sessions plus a 30-minute putting-only session is the framework that moves handicaps reliably. The pros split 60–70% of daily practice on short game and putting; club golfers typically invert this and over-practise the driver.

Session A — Chip and pitch (60 minutes)

0–10 min: warm-up putting (10 putts from 10 feet, 10 putts from 5 feet) to set tempo.
10–25 min: Drill 1 (Clock-face chipping) and Drill 5 (One-handed chip).
25–45 min: Drill 2 (Ladder) and Drill 3 (Leapfrog).
45–60 min: Drill 4 (Par-18 game). Note score in a notebook.

Session B — Wedge approach (60 minutes)

0–10 min: warm-up — pitches from 30 yards to a flag, 10 reps.
10–30 min: Drill 6 (30-Yard Cowen Drill). Three rounds of 10. Track best round.
30–50 min: 50 / 75 / 100-yard wedges. Five reps to each distance, alternating clubs.
50–60 min: Drill 7 (Around-the-world bunker).

Session C — Putting (30 minutes)

0–10 min: short putts. 10 putts from 3 feet (must be 9 of 10), then 10 from 5 feet, then 10 from 7 feet.
10–20 min: distance control. Three balls each from 20, 30 and 40 feet. Goal: every putt finishes inside three feet of the hole.
20–30 min: nine random pin positions on the green, two-putt each. Track three-putt count.

The Cowen Story — What McIlroy Did Differently

In early 2021 Rory McIlroy added Pete Cowen to his coaching team for the explicit job of tightening 100-yards-and-in distance control. Cowen, the most decorated short-game teacher in modern golf, has coached more major winners than any other living instructor — Henrik Stenson, Brooks Koepka, Justin Rose, Graeme McDowell, Sergio García, Louis Oosthuizen, Gary Woodland, Justin Thomas. The brief on McIlroy was specific: do not touch the full swing.

What Cowen changed: a more compact wedge stance, less wrist action in the takeaway, a shorter and more controlled finish, and a tighter dispersion pattern from 50 to 130 yards. The mechanism is unspectacular — small swing, big control — and the data on the work has been consistent every season since: McIlroy's strokes-gained on approach inside 100 yards has been a top-three weekly figure across 2022–26.

The 2025 and 2026 Masters wins are the most visible product of the work. Augusta National's second shots and short pitch shots are the heartbeat of the leaderboard; the 100-yards-and-in distance control that Cowen rebuilt is the reason McIlroy converted the green-jacket-near-misses into back-to-back championships.

"Pete doesn't try to change you. He gives you a small thing that compounds. The wedge work isn't about hitting wedges differently — it's about hitting them with less variance." — Rory McIlroy

For the full coaching-team profile see Rory's Coaches.

Common Mistakes

1. Practising only chips, never pitches. Chips are higher volume, but pitches are higher score variance. Most amateurs leak strokes from 30–60 yards, not from 5–15.
2. Hitting balls without a target. Every short-game shot needs a specific landing zone. Random chipping at “the green” teaches your nervous system nothing.
3. Too many shot types, too soon. One go-to chip is better than five medium ones. Get the standard 56-degree bump-and-run dialled before adding flop shots, lob spinners or low runners.
4. Practising on perfect lies only. Tournament lies are tight, sloped, fluffy, or sat down. Drop balls in a variety of lies during practice; the perfect-mat-on-the-range lie is the rarest one you'll see in a round.
5. Skipping bunker practice entirely. A 56-degree splash from 15 yards out is the single most-feared shot in club golf, and the one that converts a missed green into a triple bogey if it goes wrong. Drill 7 fixes more shots-per-round than any other.
6. Tracking nothing. Par-18 score, Cowen-drill score, three-putt count. Three numbers in a notebook, weekly. The trend line is the only data that matters — not the score on any single day.

Equipment Notes

The drills above presume a sensible four-wedge setup. The standard for 2026:

Pitching wedge (~46 degrees) — standard set wedge; full-swing approaches from 110–130 yards.
Gap wedge (~50 degrees) — the bridge between PW and SW; full-swing 90–110 yards.
Sand wedge (~56 degrees) — the most important single club for short game. 70–90 yards full, plus most chips, pitches and bunker shots.
Lob wedge (~60 degrees) — high-trajectory shots over hazards, soft-landing pitches inside 50 yards, flop shots when needed.

4-degree gaps between wedges is the standard. Bounce options (low / mid / high) matter: 10–12 degrees of bounce on the 56 works on most courses and most lies. For the wider full-bag setup, see our Golf Gear Guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much of a round is short game?

Roughly 60% of all strokes in a round of golf are played from inside 100 yards. For a typical 90-shooter, that breaks down as approximately 30 putts, 18–24 chips and pitches, and 6–10 wedge approaches.

What is the most important short-game shot to practice?

The basic chip from just off the green — typically a 56 or 58-degree wedge from 5 to 15 yards off the putting surface. This shot accounts for the largest single category of short-game opportunities in any round.

How long should I practice short game per session?

A 60-minute short-game session that hits all three zones is the right balance for most amateurs. Two 60-minute sessions per week plus a 30-minute putting-only session moves a handicap meaningfully in one season.

What is the par-18 game?

Pick nine random spots around a single practice green. Play each as a chip-and-putt. Par for each spot is two: chip on, one putt. Track total score over six weeks. Par-18 to 22 is competent; 16 to 18 is tour-pro.

What is the Pete Cowen 30-yard consistency drill?

From exactly 30 yards out, hit ten balls to a single target. Score by how many land within a 6-foot radius. Tour-pro benchmark is 7 to 9 of 10. Cowen has McIlroy on a version of this drill weekly. The single best test of pitching distance control.

How did Rory McIlroy improve his short game for the Masters?

McIlroy added Pete Cowen to his coaching team in early 2021 with a specific brief: tighten 100-yards-and-in distance control. Cowen reworked McIlroy's wedge setup with a more compact stance, less wrist action and a controlled finish. The 2025 and 2026 Masters wins are the most visible product of the work.

What wedges should I use for short game practice?

A four-wedge setup: pitching wedge (~46°), gap wedge (~50°), sand wedge (~56°), lob wedge (~60°). 4-degree gaps. The 56-degree sand wedge is the most useful single club for practice.

How do I practice short game without a green?

Two reliable home options. (1) A high-quality short-game mat with a target zone of 5–15 yards into a chipping net. (2) A backyard target zone with foam or limited-flight golf balls (Almostgolf, Birdie Balls). Pair with a 56-degree wedge.

What is the difference between a chip, a pitch and a wedge approach?

A chip is a low-running shot from just off the green, 5–25 yards, putting-style motion. A pitch is a higher, softer-landing shot from 25–60 yards with more wrist hinge. A wedge approach is a 60–125-yard partial or full wedge swing.

How quickly will my short game improve with regular practice?

Two months of two 60-minute sessions per week reliably moves a 90-shooter to an 86-shooter, mostly through chip-and-putt conversion. Four months reliably moves an 86-shooter to an 82. The fastest single-season scoring gains in golf come from short-game work.