10 Best Golf Drills Ever

Ged Walters offers the 10 most useful drills he offers in his coaching to help you shoot lower scores!

WATCH: 10 Best Golf Drills Ever

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10 Best Golf Drills Ever

1. Ball striking

Strike is the most important thing and knowing where you strike the ball on the club-face is crucial.

Ged uses a bit of dry shampoo to spray on the face which then gives him a clear idea on where he is making contact. This will tell you if you are good at hitting the middle of the club face, or if you struggle to hit the middle and go towards the heel or toe.

Using this feedback you can then start to identify swing issues and improve the quality and consistency of your shots.

2. Slice-fix

A swimming noodle can improve your understanding of the swing path. You move the club around the body in a semicircular movement, so place the noodle accordingly and take some swings – slowly at first so you can observe the path.

Feel how you move back in a circle. At the bottom, the club is moving down and coming through impact, before going on around in that circle to the finish. Using this drill should improve your directional control, get your clubface more towards target and start to produce more solid strikes.

3. Rhythm

Many club golfers get diagnosed with a swing that is too fast, when it’s really the order in which they change direction that needs correcting.

We want to get a feel for the rotation of the body, almost setting the club at the top and then having a smooth change of direction.

Take your set up and feel that you rotate your shoulder 90 degrees, so your left shoulder is pointing down towards the ball. Then set the arms and wrists, so they take the club to the top of the swing.

Finally, you want a smooth rotation of the lower body, with the lead hip and leg starting to rotate. Avoid making a little turn and a big jerky snatch from the top. Get used to this feeling and the three distinct checkpoint and you’ll notice a better sequence of movements in your downswing.

4. Bunker Drill

This is a must-try drill that will improve your understanding of how you want your club to interact with the sand when faced with routine greenside bunker shots.

When practising, having an image to look at will help, so draw a box in the sand to form a small rectangle around the ball. Your goal is to remove the sand inside the box. The box gives you a visual of where you want the club to enter before throwing the sand out towards the target.

Take your set-up with the ball a fraction forward of centre and a little more pressure on your lead side.

Then, open the face slightly so you start to use the back of the club and the sole in a more efficient way to prevent the leading edge digging into the sand, which slows momentum.

Take a big swing and let your right hand work down and underneath, so the sand is thrown out nice and high and the ball comes out towards the target.

5. Strike the match

You won’t get the desired result with your long-irons without the correct speed through impact. But its not all about swinging as fast as you can.

As the club comes into impact, imagine yourself striking a match, imagine that same sound.

A sharp sound through impact means you’ve generated good speed, and crucially, at the right moment.

This will help you improve launch, control and distance you hit your irons.

6. Tee peg drill

Designed to help your pitching, this drill is especially useful in getting rid of that nasty habit where the leading edge of the club digs down too much, one reason for those cuffed chips.

Tee the ball up, take your normal set-up position and rehearse a few swings, visualising just clipping the ball up and away off the tee.

A shallower angle of attack will allow the sole of the club and the bounce angle to do the work. Breaking the tee is a no-no, as this means that the leading edge on your club is digging down.

7. Hybrid Drill

There’s a tendency for club golfers to hit hybrids with a shallow, upward strike. In fact, you need more of a downward impact, which is where this drill will help.

Place a coin two or three inches in front of the ball and play your shot as you would do normally. If you miss the coin, it’s because the sole of the club is travelling upwards too soon – the likely result is a thin contact.

You want to hit the coin, as this tells you that you have the correct downward angle of attack. This will lead to purer and more consistent strikes, which is going to give you added distance too.

8. Putting Drill

You could be the best player in the world at reading greens, but if you don’t start the ball on the right lines, the putts simply won’t drop. This is why clubface alignment at impact is so crucial.

The task here is simple: hit the ball along the metre rule into the hole. This is a drill that will help you to square the clubface at impact on a more consistent basis, while giving you visual feedback as to whether you’re pushing putts by opening the face, or pulling them by closing it.

In both cases, the ball will roll off the metre rule. If your speed is right, you’ll find the bottom of the cup.

9. Face Control

You can practise this at home to improve your awareness of how the clubface is affected by the way you hold the club. Attach a pencil to the centre of your clubface with Blu Tack, as shown.

At address, the pencil should cover the alignment stick. From here, you’ll get an understanding of where your clubface is during the backswing and whether you tend to open it (pencil up), close it (pencil down) or keep it fairly neutral (pencil straight).

A strong grip with lots of knuckles showing on the top hand will encourage more of a closed clubface when you take the club back; a weak grip will see the pencil pointing more towards the sky. Work on presenting the club back to target without any twisting or manipulation.

10. Topping Fix

Topping often comes as a result of trying to hit up on the ball. It’s a common fault in which you see the elbows separating and the wrists then acting to save the shot.

Apply the resistance band as shown. What I’m having to do is fight the resistance pulling my arms back towards my body. It helps you get used to the feeling of your arms extending as you go out and down towards the ball.

After a few swings, remove the band and you should find it’s far easier to get your arms extended.

Brush the ground with the sole and get that ‘whoosh’ sound. This will tell you that you’re extending your arms more and your chances of topping the ball will be greatly reduced.

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