Winter Golf Practice: How to Practice Golf in the Winter
Every winter we get emails asking us for our best tips and golf drills you guys can practice indoors from home to improve your golf game.
In addition to several articles we have written on winter golf drills, we created an indoor golf training plan with 21 days of practices to complete as well as a fitness workout plan for golfers to follow.
Make sure to check it out after reading our best winter golf practice tips we’ve got for you below. Let’s get started!
Resource: Step by Step Golf Practice Routines + Training System
Plan Out Your Winter Golf Practice Schedule
The first step is to look at a calendar and determine how long winter usually lasts in your area. How long are the golf courses closed for?
What dates do they shut down and what dates do they re-open again? Once you know how many weeks of winter practice you have, you can start creating a schedule.
Ideally, you should aim for 3 days per week to work on golf skills like putting, chipping, and the swing. I would also mix in 2-3 days of fitness related activities which we’ll get into more below. An example indoor golf practice schedule could be:
- Monday – work on putting for 1-2 hours
- Tuesday – work on chipping for 1-2 hours
- Thursday – work on the golf swing for 1 hour
- Sunday – work on the golf swing for 1 hour
How to Practice Putting at Home in the Winter
There are many ways to improve at putting while stuck indoors during the winter even without a real golf putting green to practice on.
One of the best golf putting tips I have for you is to work on starting putts on line. It’s important especially if you’re a golfer who has trouble pulling and pushing putts.
An easy drill to practice is setting a coin in front of you 1 foot away. Then take aim and hit your putt so that it rolls straight at the coin.
Greens will naturally start to break your putt after a few feet.
So this drill is focused on getting the ball to start off straight the first few feet of the putt before gravity takes over on the putting surface and starts curving the putt. To hit straight putts, you must have the putter face square at impact.
If it’s slightly angled, the ball will be pushed off-line in the direction the face is angled. So another great indoor putting drill to practice is hitting two golf balls at the same time and watching them roll equally side by side.
Set two golf balls on the ground so they’re side by side and almost touching. Then place the putter head behind them so that one ball takes up half the putter face and the other ball takes up the other half of the face.
If you don’t strike them with a square putter face, you’ll know. If the toe leads (closed face) you’ll see the top ball outpace the bottom ball. If the heel leads (open face) you’ll see the bottom ball outpace the top ball.
Overall, try both of these golf putting drills from home this winter to build a solid putting stroke that hits putts straight on line and then next spring you can spend your time on speed control and reading greens!
How to Practice Chipping in the Winter
The biggest problem most golfers have with chipping is solid contact and getting it to happen consistently, not just once in awhile. Once you get more advanced your chipping weakness will likely be distance control.
The first recommended winter chipping drill is going to help you start your chip shots straight on line with your intended target just like we did above with the putting drill.
Set down a 1 foot by 1 foot target on the ground about 5 feet away from you.
I like to use a small wash rag or fold up a towel into a smaller square target.
Use a golf club or alignment stick to make sure your set up position is aligned straight at the target so you know if you hit a straight chip shot it should go right at the towel on the ground.
If you pull or push your chip shots off-line, you’ll know it wasn’t an alignment issues but a chipping stroke issue.
Next practice hitting 25-50 chip shots at the towel until you can consistently square the wedge’s face at impact, hitting straight shots at the towel.
Film yourself from behind with the camera looking down the line at your target so you can see your set up and swing. Our next winter golf chipping drill is to work on distance control so you can land the ball on the green in the exact spots you’re trying to hit to.
For this drill you’re simply going to measure out different distances away from you and place targets on the ground to chip at again.
You can even purchase a chipping golf training aid like this chip shot net, to hit balls at and move it around different distances so you practice distance control.
It’s important to have a journal or notepad and log your daily practices. Keep track of your attempted reps and how many successfully hit your target.
Try to improve your success percentage over the winter and begin feeling confident you’re a better player from doing these indoor practice drills.
Practice Your Golf Swing in the Winter
Lastly, let’s discuss the golf swing and how to practice your swing indoors during the winter time.
As mentioned above, you can improve your swing distance by simply mixing in a winter workout routine that builds strength and keeps your muscles loose from stretching / flexibility exercises too.
As far as actually swinging the golf club, you should create space in your garage which may include backing out your vehicle(s) into the drive way.
Other locations that may work for you are in your basement or living room. As long as you can find a room that has tall enough ceilings and enough space to safely make golf swings then you should be good!
It’s also recommended you purchase a indoor/outdoor golf hitting net if you want to work on live swings that make contact with the golf ball.
We wrote a review post here on our best recommended golf practice nets you can read. But here is my favorite golf practice swing net. It has side guards and a roof guard if you want to also use it for chipping since wedge shots tend to spike the ball higher off the club face.
Indoor Golf Swing Drills to Practice at Home:
- Slow motion practice swings to work on getting to correct swing positions during the takeaway, top of back swing, and downswing
- Swing in front of a mirror to see your different positions or in front of a camera face on
- Practice gripping the driver, woods, and irons while watching TV / commercial breaks
- Practice gripping weak (fade), neutral, and strong (draw)
- Hit 50-100 balls into the practice net daily to work on contact. Focus on feeling every shot and whether it felt off the toe, heel, topped, thinned, or pure strike in the center of the face.
Final thought on the golf swing, if you have access to a Trackman or other golf simulator these are great training aids to practice your golf swing during the winter from indoors.
We are fortunate to have one at the office that was paid for by the company so it’s free to use daily to work on the golf swing.
A less expensive option than the $50,000 Trackman is the $300 OptiShot 2. But there are other simulators that fall between this range as well if your budget is higher.
Winter Golf Practice Summary
I hope these golf tips on how to practice during the winter were helpful. There are many different indoor golf drills you can mix and match to create your own practice schedule routine.
Start off determining how many weeks you have to practice golf indoors at home. Set up a schedule that includes putting, chipping, and the golf swing.
Pick out different indoor practice drills that focus on certain weaknesses you have like alignment issues, stroke path issues, distance control. pure contact, etc.
Make sure to add in strength training and flexibility exercises that are specific to golf so you can build power in your swing and hit the ball further off the tee next season. Check out our 21 day winter golf training plan + 8 week fitness workout schedule
Golf Practice Plans to Follow
- How to Score in the 60’s Golf Training Plan
- How to Score in the 70’s Golf Training Plan
- How to Score in the 80’s Golf Training Plan
- All Access: Get Every Practice Plan (Lifetime Membership)
Thanks for reading today’s article!
Nick Foy – Golf Instructor
