A golf chipping net can be one of the most effective tools for lowering your scores, but only if you use it correctly. More than just a backyard target, a net is a feedback machine that sharpens your distance control, hones your feel, and builds repeatable mechanics without ever leaving home. This article will guide you through setting up your practice station, mastering the fundamental chipping motion, and using specific, high-impact drills to turn your short-game liability into a major strength.
Many golfers think a chipping net is just for keeping their lawn from being littered with golf balls. But its real value lies in building the two pillars of a great short game: consistency and distance control. When you’re around the greens, you rarely have a full swing. Every shot is about feel and touch.
A chipping net provides immediate, focused feedback. Unlike aimlessly hitting balls into an open field, a net gives you a specific target. This forces you to concentrate on a precise landing spot, not just the general direction. Repeated, focused practice helps you:
Think of it as diagnostics for your short game. It's a controlled environment where you can isolate the variables and truly understand what creates a good chip shot.
Where you practice is almost as important as how you practice. A good setup ensures safety, provides realistic feedback, and makes your practice sessions more effective.
You don’t need a perfectly manicured lawn. A backyard, garage, or even a spacious basement can work. Your main priorities are safety and space. Ensure you have enough ceiling height if you're indoors and that you are far enough away from windows, cars, or anything else fragile. Always be conscious of who or what is behind your target net, just in case of a shank or a shot flying over the top.
The ground you hit from dramatically impacts your practice. You have two main options:
Don’t just plop the net down and start firing away. Use a measuring tape or simply pace off specific distances. Start with shorter chips of 5, 7, and 10 yards. Knowing the exact yardage to the target is what makes each shot a calibration exercise rather than a random whack.
Before you get into fancy drills, let’s solidify the basic technique. A good chipping motion is simple and repeatable, much like a putting stroke. We want to eliminate moving parts and let the body rotate to power the swing.
The chipping motion is not about wrist action or hitting with your hands. It's a simple rotation of your chest and shoulders, just like a putting stroke but a little bigger.
Think of it this way: your arms and shoulders should form a stable triangle. During the backswing, simply turn your chest away from the target, allowing the triangle to move back with you. On the downswing, turn your chest back toward the target. That’s it. The hands and wrists stay relatively passive. Your body’s rotation delivers the club to the ball.
The backswing length controls the distance. A short turn is for a short chip. A slightly longer turn is for a longer chip. Let the loft of the club get the ball airborne - your job is to make solid contact using this simple turning motion.
Now that you have the setup and the basic motion, you can start building skill with targeted drills. Start with the basics and progress as you gain confidence.
This is the ultimate drill for calibrating your stock chip shot and dialing in yardages.
This drill teaches you how different clubs change the shot without you changing your swing.
An amazing drill to improve feel and stop your hands from getting too "handsy" or "flippy" at impact.
This breaks you out of the repetitive cycle of practice and simulates the chaotic nature of an actual golf round.
Using a chipping net is about deliberate practice. It transforms mindless hitting into a focused session that directly improves your feel, mechanics, and ability to control distance. By mastering your setup and using purposeful drills, you're not just practicing, you're building a reliable short game that saves you strokes when it counts.
Once you’ve built that foundational touch and distance control at home, our mission at Caddie AI is to help you apply it on the course. We provide instant, on-demand strategic advice, so when you’re facing a tricky lie or you're stuck between clubs, you can get a clear recommendation in seconds. By snapping a photo of your ball, we can even analyze the lie and suggest the best way to play it, marrying your hard-earned practice with smart, real-time decisions.
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