How to practise golf at home: drills, space and a weekly plan

Practising golf at home won’t show you where a full shot goes, but it can sort out most of what decides it: how you stand, how you hold the club, where the club bottoms out and the rhythm of the swing. Do a little and often at home, and the range becomes the place you test your swing rather than rebuild it.

Give each session one target. “Grip and posture” or “7 chips out of 10 on the towel” is a session. “Practise golf” isn’t.

Check the room before you swing

Rapsodo, which sells launch monitors and simulators, puts the minimum ceiling for an indoor golf simulator at 9 feet (about 2.7 m), and 10 or 11 feet for taller golfers. Most rooms in a house are lower than that, so indoors keep to half swings, putting and slow drills unless you’ve measured.

In any new spot, take your address and swing very slowly to the top and on to the finish. If the club touches the ceiling, a light or a wall, that swing is off the list in that room. Clear a circle wider than the club plus your arms, and keep pets, children and anything breakable out of it. Glass doors and televisions are the usual casualties.

Indoors, and in a small garden, hit only foam or soft practice balls. A real ball off a hard floor can go anywhere. A short iron or a wedge is the safest club to swing inside.

Without a net

All you need for this section is a club, a mirror, a towel and a few soft balls.

Setup and posture in a mirror

Stand side-on to a full-length mirror with a 7-iron and check four things: knees slightly flexed, a tilt from the hips with a straight back, arms hanging straight down from the shoulders, and weight over the middle of your feet. Then turn to face the mirror and check that your ball position and stance width match what you use on the course.

Set up, step away and set up again. Ten setups, checking each one, takes about five minutes.

Grip

Take your grip and look down. On your lead hand (the left, for a right-hander) you should see two or three knuckles, and the V between thumb and forefinger should point somewhere between your chin and your trail shoulder. Let go, put the club down and grip it again. Twenty goes in front of the television is plenty. A changed grip takes weeks to feel normal, so this is one to do often rather than for long.

Swings without a ball

Slow swings with no ball let you feel positions you can’t feel at full speed. Do them on a mat, carpet or the lawn, never a hard floor.

For half swings to a pause, swing back until your lead arm is level with the ground and hold it there for two seconds while you check the clubface in the mirror. Then swing through to the matching position, trail arm level with the ground, and hold again. 10 reps.

To brush the spot, put a coin where the ball would be and lay a folded towel a hand’s width behind it. Make half swings that brush the carpet or grass at the coin or just past it without touching the towel. If you catch the towel, your low point is too far back. 20 reps.

Finish with a few swings at half speed to a full finish, held for three seconds: weight on your lead foot, belt buckle facing the target. If you wobble, slow down.

Tempo to a count or metronome

Tour players swing at very different speeds but in much the same rhythm. John Novosel, who timed tour swings frame by frame on video, wrote in Sports Illustrated that the backswing takes about three times as long as the downswing to impact. Ernie Els in his prime was 24 frames back and 8 down. You don’t need their speed, only the ratio.

Count “one, two, three” on the way back and “one” on the way down, or set a metronome app to a steady beat and swing to it. Start slow and only speed the beat up once you can keep the count. 15 swings is enough. The count works on the course too: say it in your head on the first tee.

Chipping in the garden

With foam or soft practice balls and a bit of lawn, lay one towel 3 metres (10 feet) away and another at 6 metres. Chip 10 balls at each with a wedge and count how many land on the towel. Then try the same with a 9-iron to feel the lower flight. Next time, beat your score.

A laundry basket or bucket at 5 metres is a good second target, because the only way in is to fly the ball there and drop it softly. Soft balls don’t go far, so a small garden is usually big enough.

Putting on carpet

Carpet rolls true but rarely at the speed of a green, so use it for start line and stroke rather than pace. Two drills need nothing extra. Putt along a seam in the carpet or a strip of masking tape and watch whether the ball stays on it. Then put a coin 30 cm (12 inches) in front of the ball on your line and roll 10 putts over it, aiming for 8 out of 10. The putting practice at home guide has more drills, targets and a 15-minute routine.

With a net or a hitting mat

A net and a mat let you add real strike work. The net can’t tell you where the ball would have gone, so judge each shot by contact and start line, not distance.

To check your strike, put impact tape or masking tape on the clubface, or spray it with foot powder, then hit 10 balls with a 7-iron at three-quarter speed and look at the marks. You want a tight cluster in the middle of the face. In a garage, that tells you more than the net can.

For start line, stick a strip of tape on the net as a target and hit 10 shots trying to start each ball on it.

Finish with three balls, going through your full pre-shot routine before each one as if you were on the course.

Put the mat on a firm, level surface, and check the net for holes and the frame for wear before every session. At that range, a ball through a gap does real damage.

Golf fitness at home

The swing needs your hips and upper back to turn while your head stays fairly still. Gentle mobility work helps you turn more freely and makes home practice more comfortable. These are general exercises, not treatment. Stop if anything hurts, and if you have an injury, ask a physiotherapist or doctor before you start.

• Seated rotation: sit on a chair with a club across your chest and turn your shoulders slowly left and right, keeping your hips still. 10 each way.
• Hip turns: stand with a club held across the front of your hips and turn them while your shoulders keep facing forwards. 10 each way.
• Open book: lie on your side with knees bent and both arms out in front, then open the top arm across to the other side, following your hand with your eyes. 8 each side.
• Balance: stand on one leg in your golf posture for 20 seconds, then swap.

Five minutes of these before you play also makes a good start to the golf warm-up routine.

A weekly home practice plan

Three 20-minute sessions a week fit around most diaries. Each has a theme and every block has a target.

Session	Minutes	What you do	Target
1: setup and swing	5	Mobility: seated rotation, hip turns	Full set, no rushing
	5	Setup and grip in the mirror	10 checked setups
	10	Half swings to a pause, brush the spot	Miss the towel 15 times out of 20
2: short game	5	Mobility: open book, balance	Full set
	10	Chips to towels at 3 m and 6 m	Beat last session’s score
	5	Coin drill on the carpet	8 of 10 over the coin
3: tempo and routine	5	Mobility: seated rotation, balance	Full set
	10	Tempo swings to a count or metronome	15 swings holding the 3 to 1 count
	5	Pre-shot routine, into a net if you have one	3 balls, full routine each time

When you can get to the range or out on the course, swap a session for it and take that session’s theme with you.

Keep track of what you practise

A line after each session, saying what you worked on and what to try next, saves starting from scratch every time. In Golf Journal you log a practice session with its area (putting, chipping and fitness are all there), how long it took and your notes, or start the practice timer when you begin and fill in the rest at the end. Swing cues and drills carry from one session to the next. After a round you can plan a practice session from that round’s notes, so the next home session goes on whatever cost you shots. The golf journal guide has more on what to write down.