Golf Drills for Beginners: A Week-by-Week Practice Plan

Key takeaways

• Beginners should practise in this order: putting first, then chipping, then range work, then driver, because most strokes are lost inside 100 yards.
• A 50-ball range session split into five blocks of 10, with a target and pre-shot routine on every shot, beats hitting balls at nothing.
• Progress between drills on triggers, not the calendar: 8 of 10 holed putts from six feet or 7 of 10 chips inside the target zone.
• Three 30-minute sessions per week, growing to four by week four, builds skills faster than one long unfocused range visit.
• Judge progress with three-putts per round, scrambling %, and GIR % benchmarked against your target handicap, not tour averages.

The best golf drills for beginners follow a sequence: putting first, then chipping, then range work, then driver, with short at-home reps between sessions. This plan tells you which drill to run on which day, how long to spend, and what skill signals you're ready to move on. No more guessing what to practise.

What are the best golf drills for beginners to start with?

Putt, chip, then swing. Beginners lose most of their strokes inside 100 yards, so the first drills should build a repeatable putting stroke and basic chipping distance control before any driver work. A flat list of drills ignores this order and wastes range time on the least productive area.

Why putting and chipping come before the full swing

Under the World Handicap System, your handicap is calculated from your Score Differential against the Course Rating and Slope Rating of the tees you play (World Handicap System, R&A). That differential is where strokes leak: three-putts, poor scrambling, missed GIR %. Full-swing fixes move those numbers slowly; putting and chipping drills move them fastest.

How to know which drill you need next

Symptom on the card	Drill priority
34+ putts per round	Putting stroke drills
Good GIR %, poor scrambling	Chipping distance control
Penalty strokes off the tee	Driver drills, last

Track hole-by-hole results and benchmark against your target handicap to pick the next drill honestly. SQR1 GOLF does that benchmarking across handicap tiers, though the drill progressions in this guide are yours to run regardless of which tracker you use.

Which putting drills for beginners build a repeatable stroke?

Putting is where a 18-handicap leaks the most shots per round, so start here. Two drills cover the fundamentals: start line and pace.

Gate drill for start line

Place two tees slightly wider than your ball, about two feet in front of the hole, on a straight three-foot putt. The ball must pass through the gate, which forces a square face at impact. Once you hole eight of ten, move the gate to a four-footer, then a five-footer. This is the drill to run before every round.

Ladder drill for pace and three-putt prevention

Set four balls at three, six, nine and twelve feet from a fringe or collar. Putt them in order, trying to finish each ball within a putter-length of the target, regardless of whether it drops. The goal is distance control, not holing out. Progress by shrinking your finish zone, then by putting uphill and downhill on a sloped green.

Track your three-putt count across a few rounds, and if the number stays high, log your putting stats hole by hole against your target handicap in SQR1 GOLF and adjust your practice split. If you want a coach to check your stroke against these drills, send us a note at https://www.sqr1golf.com/contact/.

How do golf chipping drills for beginners teach distance control?

Chipping distance control comes from two skills: carrying the ball a known distance onto the green, and picking the right club for the shot you face. Learn the first with one club before adding the second. Most 12-25 handicaps leak shots here because they practise by feel alone, with no landing spot and no feedback.

Towel or landing-zone drill

Throw a towel on the green about three paces in from where you'll stand, chip balls trying to land on it, then move it to five and seven paces. This is block practice: one task, repeated, which builds the initial stroke. Motor-learning summaries aimed at coaches note that blocked work suits early skill acquisition, while varied practice better supports retention (PGA coaching guidance on practice design).

One-club, many-distances drill

Once you can land a wedge on a towel, keep the same club and change the distance: same stroke, ball back in stance, hands ahead, longer follow-through for more carry. That teaches carry control before club selection. Log where your chips finish hole by hole and benchmark the misses against your target handicap, as SQR1 GOLF does across its tiers (https://www.sqr1golf.com/subscribe/).

What golf range drills for beginners make driving range time count?

Most range sessions fail because they have no structure: 60 balls hit at nothing, with no target and no consequence. A session counts when every shot has a target, a pre-shot routine, and a score.

The 50-ball structure

Split 50 balls into five blocks of 10. Spend the first block on wedges with full routine, then work up through irons. Keep the last two blocks for random practice: change club and target every shot, because that mirrors on-course decisions better than hitting ten 7-irons in a row.

Target golf simulation on the range

Pick a flag, a bunker, or a marker and treat it as a real green. Call your shot before you hit it: "9-iron to the left flag." Track fairway hits and proximity honestly. If you record GIR % and scrambling % after your rounds, use those numbers to set the targets for your next session, then check whether your hole-by-hole leaks are shrinking (https://www.sqr1golf.com/cookies/).

Which golf driver drills for beginners fix common beginner misses?

Most beginner driver misses come down to two faults: the slice and the top. The slice usually means an out-to-in swing path with an open face; the top usually means your weight falls back or you swing up at the ball. Fix the cause, not the flight.

Tee-under-outer-foot drill for balance

Place a tee under the outside of your front foot and hit drivers keeping pressure on it. This stops the weight sliding back, which is the main cause of topped drives. Hit ten balls, then remove the tee and keep the same feel.

Alignment-stick path drill for the slice

Lay an alignment stick along your target line and another angled slightly right of it (for a right-hander). Swing so the club tracks along the second stick. This grooves an in-to-out path that neutralises the open face.

Remember that Tour-based strokes gained benchmarks fit tour players, not 18-handicappers (The DIY Golfer), so judge these drills by your own fairway-hit trend, not tour averages. Track both misses hole by hole on SQR1 GOLF to see which one leaks more strokes.

What golf drills for beginners at home need no course or range?

Coin and gate putting on carpet

Lay two coins a putter-head width apart on carpet and putt through the gate from three feet. The gate punishes a stroke that cuts across the ball, which is the fastest way to spot a face problem without a hole to aim at. Once you hole ten in a row, move back a foot. Three-putts usually start with a stroke that never started straight.

Mirror or phone-video swing checks

Set your phone face-on at chest height and record five slow swings with a wedge. Compare what your wrists, hips, and clubface do at the top against one swing thought at a time. A mirror works too, but video shows the positions you cannot feel. Ten minutes a night keeps grip and posture honest between range sessions.

How should beginners combine these golf practice drills into a weekly routine?

The four-week schedule

Weeks 1-2: three sessions of 30 minutes. Two putting sessions (ladder drill, then gate drill) and one chipping session (landing-spot drill). Week 3: keep the two putting sessions but swap one chipping session for range work, 40 minutes of the tee-to-green drills. Week 4: add a fourth 20-minute at-home session for grip, posture, and takeaway reps, and keep everything else.

That ordering matters more than the drills themselves. Most golfers collect strokes gained data but struggle to turn it into practice priorities, which is exactly the gap a fixed sequence closes (The DIY Golfer). If you want the benchmarks to sit against, SQR1 GOLF benchmarks your round hole by hole against a target handicap across 14 tiers, from +4 to 54, and now attaches drills to what it flags. It costs £8.99/month or £69.99/year, with one free round to test it.

When to move on: progression triggers

Progress when you hit a trigger, not when the week ends. Move from ladder to gate putting at 8 of 10 from six feet. Leave the chipping drill when you land 7 of 10 inside your target zone. On the range, graduate when your strike pattern tightens to a consistent miss rather than scatter. If a trigger takes three weeks, hold the schedule and repeat the week rather than stacking new drills on unstable ones.

How do you know the drills are working?

Track the leak, not the swing

Feel is a bad scoreboard. Three stats tell you whether the practice plan is fixing the right leak: three-putts per round for the putting weeks, scrambling % for the chipping weeks, and GIR % for the range and driver weeks. If GIR % is stuck but scrambling is climbing, the drills are working and the priority just moves. Give any change six rounds before judging it.

Benchmark those numbers against your target handicap, not the tour. A 15-handicap comparing strokes gained against PGA baselines is comparing against a different sport. Hole-by-hole benchmarking against where you want to be is what sets next month's priority.

Where a tracking app helps, and where it does not

SQR1 GOLF benchmarks your round against your target handicap across 14 tiers and points at the hole-by-hole leaks, so the weekly plan starts from your numbers rather than a generic list. It now adds the drills to fix what it flags.

Its honest limits: total beginners have no rounds to benchmark yet, so the sequence in this article is the better starting point. And no tracking app corrects a swing. Apps like SwingU, Arccos, and 18Birdies cover on-course data; if you want a coach reviewing video between lessons, CoachNow is built for that. SQR1 GOLF covers the tracking-to-practice-priority gap, not the rest.

FAQ

How long should a beginner practise golf each week?

Three sessions of 30 minutes in the first two weeks, growing to four sessions by week four with one added 20-minute at-home block, roughly 90 to 140 minutes weekly. Short, frequent sessions with a single drill each beat one long, unfocused range visit, because each session should target one skill with a clear progression trigger.

Can I get better at golf without going to the range?

Yes, for putting and the basic motion. Carpet gate putting with two coins trains a square face from three feet, and ten minutes of nightly wedge swings on video keeps grip, posture, and takeaway honest between sessions. What you cannot build at home is chipping distance control and driver strike, which need a green and space to carry the ball.

Should beginners take golf lessons or just practise drills?

Do both, in the right split. Drills build the repetitions; a coach checks that you are grooving the right positions. If you want video reviewed between lessons, CoachNow is built for that. Tracking apps like SQR1 GOLF benchmark your rounds and point at which drill should come next, but no app corrects a swing.

What order should I learn golf skills in?

Putting first, then chipping, then range work, then driver. Beginners lose most strokes inside 100 yards, so a repeatable putting stroke and chipping distance control come before full swings. The four-week schedule reflects that: two putting sessions and one chipping session in weeks 1-2, range work added in week 3, driver and at-home reps in week 4.

How many balls should I hit at the driving range as a beginner?

Fifty, split into five blocks of 10. Wedges first with a full pre-shot routine, then work up through irons, keeping the last two blocks for random practice where you change club and target every shot. Fifty balls with targets and consequences beats 60 hit at nothing. Graduate to a new drill when your strike pattern tightens to a consistent miss.