Luke Donald relied on an excellent short game to become one of the best players in the game.
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During its peak, Luke Donald there was one of the best short games in the world. He routinely ranked in the top five on Tour in strokes gained, and he parlayed that ability into scoring atop the Official World Golf Ranking in the early 2010s.
In an age dominated by power, it’s easy to forget how successful you can be when you get into the wedge and putter. But as Donald has shown, you can be very successful when you’re on point with scoring clubs.
One of the biggest keys to Donald’s success was his own dead eye accuracy with the flat stick – especially within 10 feet. So how did he become one of the best players in the game? It was all thanks to this training.
Luke Donald is doing the training
Hitting shots within 10 feet is absolutely essential if you want to post low scores. Donald was well aware of this fact and made sure to emphasize this distance every time he was on the practice green.
“I would create this workout with legs four through eight,” says Donald. “Twenty shots around four different holes.”
Setting up this workout is simple. Grab five balls and go find a hole-in-one spot on the practice green. Throw a ball at four feet, another at five feet, another at six feet, another at seven and a final ball at eight. Then go through the sequence and try to do as many as you can.
After the first sequence, go find another hole location and repeat the drill again. Do this around four different hole locations and keep track of how many shots you hit.
When Donald was in his prime, he would aim to hit 16 long shots during this drill—good for an 80 percent win rate. This target may be a little high for most weekend warriors, but even if you can do about 50 percent in this range, you’ll be in good shape.
Implement this drill into your practice routine, and you’ll be sure to become an underdog in no time.
