Some Fun Games for Practing the Short Game

After watching Tiger collect his fourth PGA championship, my son and I felt inspired and headed to the driving range. We like playing at the Moffett Field Golf Course in Mountain View, California. Moffett Field is no longer an active navy base, but it is still used by the Air Force and the National Guard. It's also home to an 18-hole golf course and excellent practice facility-- driving range, putting green, chipping green and pitching area. The course and practice facilities are never crowded, and there are intermittent take-offs and landings by fighter planes. The blimp hangar and wind tunnels make for pretty cool landmarks. However, the blimp hangar is sans-blimp, and the wind tunnels are seldom used in this age of computer simulation and finite element analysis.

After my son and I have each whacked a large bucket of balls on the driving range, we head over to the pitching green and putting green to practice our short game. The short game has a far greater impact on your overall golf score than the long game, but most people spend more time practicing the long game on the driving range. Whacking golf balls is far more fun (and cathartic), but you are better served by practicing your putting and chipping.

Here are two games that will help make your time practicing the short game more fun and competitive! You can play solo, but you can turn the game into a contest with two or more players.

On the chipping green, start with 5 golf balls each. Every chip within 3 feet of the flag is worth 1 point, and holing a chip is worth 3 points. Take turns chipping, and count your score after you've chipped all 5 golf balls. Try chipping to different flags, and move your position around the chipping green. Try long chips as well as shorter chips. Vary your chips, with some bump-and-runs and some flops. My son and I can spend 30-60 minutes on the chipping green with this game. Today, he was in the zone with his wedge, and he handed me a string of defeats!

Here's a game for the putting green that you can play with 2 or more golfers. Start with three golf balls each. Choose a flag on the putting green. Putt each golf ball into the cup, and count the total number of strokes to hole-out all three golf balls. The golfer with the lowest total wins the round. All golfers need to start from the same location to the chosen flag. For variation, move around to different flags on the putting green. Try uphill putts, downhill putts and even tricky lies for a greater challenge! Today, I was one with my putter, and I had the upper hand!

I've been using these games on the practice facility with both kids for the past few years. My son, daughter and I can all compete at the same time, since the practice facility at Moffett is never crowded. However, my son accompanies me religiously to the driving range. So, he's usually my competitor in these short-game contests. Most of the time, he looks forward to these games, since the short game is a great equalizer. My son has developed a much better short game than I have, and he has quite the arsenal of chips and pitches that he uses around the greens on the course. The next time you visit the driving range, try one or both of these games to help improve your short-game.