Unlock Chipping Secrets: Optimize Your Golf Simulator Practice

By Clint McCormick

Best Practice Drills For Chipping On A Golf Simulator

The best way to practice chipping on a golf simulator is to focus on your technique and ball striking. Imitating the different of chipping in golf lies will be challenging, so instead, we focus on what we can control, and in this case, creating solid muscle memory is a top priority.
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Many students scoff at the notion of practicing chipping on a simulator, citing its inaccuracies and inability to recognize spin. Ten years ago, they would’ve been right, but with the advancement of technology, a sim is now very useful for these types of delicate shots if you know how to use it properly.

Take our indoor golf chipping game guide with you next time you’re at the sim and see just how useful and fun practicing your chipping on a sim can be.

• One-Footed Chip Shots
• Dartboard and Tic Tac Toe
• Re-Create Famous Chips
• Alignment Sticks
• Ladder Drill
• Pillow Between Arms/Sweater Sleeves
• Bonus: Need A Partner

One-Footed Chip Shots

​Club: 52° - 60° Wedges
Skill: Improve Ball Contact
Sim Setting: Practice Green
Frequency: 5 balls per target for 4 targets, once a week

The success of your chipping golf game hugely depends on the contact you make with the ball at impact. I see too many amateurs trying to scoop the ball to help it in the air, resulting in chunks. To prevent this, your weight must be forward throughout the whole swing.

Some golfers find it foreign to keep their weight forward, so use this one-footed drill to expedite the learning process. It will teach your body quickly how to stay stable over the ball from start to finish so you can make clean contact every time.

 

​How To Do The One-Footed Chipping Drill

• Using your highest loft club, select a target that is less than 20 yards.
• Take your normal posture and setup with the ball centered.
• Now, adjust your stance so the ball is lined up off your front foot (like a driver).
• Shift all your weight to your front foot to lift your back foot off the mat.
• To maintain balance, you can gently rest your back foot on the ground using nothing but your tippy toes.
• From here, hit 3-4 chips to your target.
• Once you're comfortable, adjust your target so it’s five yards further and take another three to four chips while on one foot.
• The key is to maintain balance, but if you stumble, ensure you fall forward toward your target.

Dartboard and Tic Tac Toe

Club: 52° - 9 iron
Skill: Trajectory/Distance Control
Sim Setting: Darts or Tic-Tac-Toe
Frequency: Use as a warm-up before every round

Your golf practice routine on a sim can be more fun than going to a driving range and hitting balls into an empty field. Familiarize yourself with your software; most are outfitted with a few side games. While not all games will help your chipping, the dartboard and tic-tac-toe will.

If you’re practicing solo, the dartboard is your best choice, but it is more complicated than playing tic-tac-toe. This drill will help you control the height of your chips and allow you to visualize your shots more clearly. After a few games, head to the practice green to test your new trajectory control.
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Using The Dartboard Game
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• Select either the dartboard or tic-tac-toe game from your sim's practice menu.
• If you’re using the dartboard, select your game of choice, if possible, and choose 501.
• Your objective is to hit chip shots into the dartboard corresponding to a point value. The faster you get to 501 points, the better.
• Keep track of how many shots it takes you, then try to beat that by hitting more bullseyes or triple 20s, etc.
• Once you’ve played a few games, switch back to the practice green and use the same club and swing you used on the dartboard. Record how the chips react on the green.
• With this information, you can use the dartboard to dial in your accuracy using the correct trajectory for each chip.

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Re-Create Famous Chips

Club: Any
Skill: Consistency/Pre-Shot Routine
Sim Setting: Different Holes
Frequency: 9 holes, once a week

Many golf sims have tons of golf courses to choose from; use this to your advantage and create a unique golf practice plan based on famous chip shots. You could practice Tiger’s famous chip-in on the 16th at the 2005 Masters or Tom Watson on Pebble Beaches 17th  at the 1982 US Open.

The purpose is not to try and sink these chips like they did but to practice your pre-shot routine and ability to adapt to any situation. If you practice tough chips on the sim, then when you return to your home course, you’ll be more than prepared.
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This is an excellent drill for juniors and adults because it teaches the game's history and focuses on results rather than technique.

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Create Your Own Course Drill
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• Before visiting your sim, write down nine famous chip-ins you want to practice.
• Once you have your golf chipping game all set, simply enter your sim's practice mode and choose the course and hole on which your first chip will be made.
• Use the cursor feature to drop a ball at your desired location.
• Hit 5-10 balls from that location and record each distance from the pin.
• Remove your best and worst shots, then average the distances of the remaining shots for your score on that hole.
• Start by using the same club as the pro who originally hit the shot. Then try again using a club of your choosing. Compare results.
• This can also be done with a partner. You each select four holes, but whoever loses the match after eight holes gets to pick the 9th.

Alignment Sticks

​Club: Any
Skill: Distance Control
Sim Setting: Practice Range
Frequency: Once a week, minimum

Using alignment sticks (or golf clubs) to identify your target and setup is crucial if you want to control your distance and make more consistent contact. You can practice this in a simulator or a golf chipping net. It's a great way to experiment with different clubs, as you’ll be able to keep a consistent ball position and alignment while testing the results of a new club.

Use alignment sticks or long irons to represent your body line, target line, and ball position. Familiarizing yourself with this relationship will help you adapt to any chip you face in the real world.


How To Use Alignment Sticks To Improve Your Golf Chipping Game
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• Using the Practice range mode on your sim, Select a target that is a comfortable distance away, 10-30 yards.
• Lay down one stick outside where your ball will be pointing directly at your target.
• Lay a second stick down parallel to that, approximately where your toes will be.
• Lay a third stick down perpendicular to the first two, pointing to your ball's location.
• If you are practicing shorter chips, you’ll want to open your stance by adjusting your first stick slightly open to the target.
• Use the same target but hit different clubs to see the ball’s reaction and how you can benefit from them on the golf course.

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Ladder Drill
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Club: 60° - 52° Wedges
Skill: Landing Spot Accuracy
Sim Setting: Practice Range3
Frequency: As much as possible

This is a classic drill that works great for both indoor golf practice and outdoor. One of the toughest aspects of golf to master is the feel part. Many of the greatest golfers had great feel, but how do us ordinary people acquire feel? We do it with the ladder drill.

On the course, you would lay down sticks or clubs to represent the rungs on a ladder, but with the sim, you will have to establish numbers instead. Your first rung could be as close as 5 yards with spacing as small as 1 foot. But I recommend starting with something a little easier.


The Classic Ladder Drill

• Select the driving range function on your sim to monitor each chip's distance and height.
• Record the first rung distance and in what increment the other four rungs will be; for example, the first rung is 8 yards at increments of 2 yards.
• The object is to land your chip into each ladder segment without missing one. If you hit the first three but miss the fourth, you must start from the beginning.
• Once you consistently complete a ladder, move the first rung further or, close the gap of the increments, or both.
• Keep records of your results to compare over time. You will notice a huge difference.

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Pillow Between Arms/Sweater Sleeves

Club: 56° - 9 iron
Skill: Ball Contact and Swing Consistency
Sim Setting: Driving Range
Frequency: Once a week

Another great drill that can be done indoors and outdoors, this will help you make consistent contact and develop a reliable technique. You might feel a little silly at first but once you see the results, you won’t care how goofy it looks.

Maintaining the triangle or the “Y” position throughout your chipping swing is a universally agreed-upon strategy. All the best chippers in the world use this, and you should, too. Here’s how to incorporate this system into your game so you can start saving more pars.


Chipping Technique Drill
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• Set your sim to the driving range function and choose a target a little further away than a typical chip.
• Find a pillow that is big enough to be held between your arms while you’re grasping the club in your set-up stance. The same sensation can also come from draping a sweater over your shoulders and tucking the sleeves under your armpits.
• Hit 10-12 chips like this without letting the pillowing or the sleeves drop.
• Then remove the pillow or sleeves and hit five chips normal.
• Repeat this process three times so your body gets used to swinging while maintaining a steady triangle between your arms and your chest.

Bonus: Need A Partner—H-O-R-S-E

Club: Any
Skill: Real-life Game Situation
Sim Setting: Golf Course
Frequency: Once a week in the off-season or once a month in-season

Visiting the simulator with a friend doesn’t mean you have to neglect practicing. Use this chipping game for golf to take advantage of the sim capabilities while also improving your chipping game during stressful settings.

Competition is one of the best training aids because, as we all know, hitting great shots on the range doesn’t matter unless you can do it on the course as well. This chip shot game helps add pressure like you'd be under during a real match.

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How To Play H-O-R-S-E On The Sim

• Flip a tee to see who goes first.
• Player A will select a hole and a chip from which they will attempt to get up and down.
• If they do, then you must match it. If you don’t, you earn the letter ‘H,’ and player A selects the next hole.
• If you tie or beat player A, then you select the next hole.
• Be sure not to select anything too tricky. The most important part of this game is achieving the shot you choose.
• The first player to spell out H-O-R-S-E loses.

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How To Practice More In The Sim

​As important as chipping is to your golf game, it’s not everything. You must spend your time wisely at the sim if you plan to lower your scores in the upcoming season. Once you have a handle on your chipping, check out these other sims with endless options to practice your game and shoot better scores. 

• The Ultimate Guide To The Best Gspro Courses
• Best Golf Balls for Golf Simulators
• Determine Golf Simulator Space Requirements​

About Clint

Clin​t grew up playing golf in Toronto, Canada, so he is very familiar with indoor golf and all its intricacies. Spending half the season using a sim over the past 20 years has taught him a lot, and he considers himself lucky to have seen such advancement in the industry. As a young pro, Clint didn’t have Trackman available while he was competing in tournaments. It was only when he became a full-time teaching professional that the technology really started to take off. Clint has seen the growth of simulator golf since its inception, and we are happy to have him on the team here at Yardstick Golf. 
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