PGA Coach Shares 4 Easy Golf Drills to Improve Your Swing

As a PGA Coach, I am always looking for drills that are simple, memorable and effective. The best drills do not need to be complicated. They need to give the golfer a clear feel, a clear purpose and a way to connect that feel to better shots on the course.

Here are four of my favorite drills that I use often with students.

What it helps: Ball-first contact, divot control and low-point awareness.

Low point is one of the biggest separators between golfers who strike the ball solidly and golfers who struggle with contact. With irons, the club should strike the ball first and then the turf. Many players either hit behind the ball or try to help the ball into the air, which causes thin shots, heavy shots and inconsistent distance.

Place a light line of baby powder on the ground, perpendicular to your target line. Set the golf ball just in front of the line, closer to the target. Your goal is to hit the ball and have the club brush the ground on the target side of the powder line.

Start with small swings, then work up to half swings and eventually full swings.

The goal is not to dig. The goal is to control where the club meets the ground.

It gives instant feedback. You know right away whether your low point is behind the ball, under control or moving properly forward.

What it helps: Weight transfer, balance, rhythm and finishing the swing.

Gary Player has long been known for his famous walk-through finish. For many golfers, especially those who hang back on the trail foot, this drill is a great way to feel athletic motion through the golf ball.

Set up normally with a mid-iron. Make your backswing, then swing through and allow your trail foot to step forward toward the target after impact. You should finish as though you are walking down the fairway after the shot.

Start slowly. The goal is not speed. The goal is motion.

Swing through the ball, not at the ball.

This drill helps golfers stop getting stuck on the back foot. It teaches that the golf swing is a motion toward the target, not a motion that stops at impact.

What it helps: Coming from the inside, sequencing and shallow delivery.

Many golfers who slice the ball swing too steeply or come over the top. One of the easiest ways to help a player feel a better downswing path is to have them imagine skipping a stone across water.

Take your trail hand only and make a few sidearm throwing motions, as if you were skipping a stone across a pond. Feel how your arm works from inside your body line and out toward the target. Then place both hands on the club and recreate that same motion in a golf swing.

You can do this without a ball first, then hit soft shots with a short iron or hybrid.

Feel like the club is approaching the ball from inside the target line, not chopping down across it.

Most golfers understand this feel immediately. It connects the golf swing to an athletic motion they already know.

What it helps: Chest rotation, post-impact extension and a complete finish.

This one is fun, memorable and very effective. I call it the Care Bear Stare Drill because I want the golfer’s chest facing the target after impact and into the finish, almost as if the energy is coming right out of the chest toward the target.

A lot of golfers stop rotating too soon. Their arms flip, the club passes the body and the finish gets cramped. This drill helps them keep turning through the shot.

Make a slow practice swing and freeze after impact. Check where your chest is pointing. If your chest is still facing the ball or right of the target, you stopped turning. Make another swing and feel your chest rotate fully toward the target.

Then hit small punch shots and hold the finish with your chest facing the target.

Let your chest chase the ball toward the target.

It gives players a simple image for a complete motion. When the chest keeps turning, the arms and club usually work much better through impact.

Great drills give golfers feedback they can feel. These four are favorites because they are easy to understand, easy to practice and useful for a wide range of players.

The Baby Powder Low Point Drill helps golfers find the ground in the right place. The Gary Player Step-Through Drill teaches motion through the ball. Skipping a Stone on the Water helps players feel a better path from the inside. The Care Bear Stare Drill gets the body moving through impact and into a complete finish.

Simple drills. Clear feels. Better golf.