The answer: Give every chipping session a target and a score. Hit 18 balls from six realistic situations, award three points inside three feet, two points inside six feet, one point anywhere else on the green and zero for a miss. Record the total out of 54. The score makes improvement visible and stops practice from becoming a pile of consequence-free do-overs.
The one-minute lesson behind the test
PGA Coach Angela Buzminski’s central point is deliberately simple: practice becomes effective when it has a goal. In the PGA of America’s 60-second lesson, she contrasts purposeful work with merely raking balls around a green. That distinction matters because a repeated motion is not automatically useful feedback. If every miss is followed by another ball from the same perfect lie, the next attempt can erase the discomfort without teaching you what would happen on the course.
Buzminski is a PGA Professional whose current coach profile lists short game and tournament strategy among her skills. The PGA page identifies her as an Indiana University alum who played on the Symetra and LPGA Tours and now competes on the Legends Tour. Her lesson does not prescribe the scoring system below; this is our practical translation of her goal-setting principle.
Build an 18-ball baseline
Choose one hole on a practice green and create six situations you could actually face: a clean fairway lie to a near flag, a clean lie to a far flag, light rough to each target, then one awkward uphill or sidehill lie to each target. Hit three balls from each station. Change clubs when the shot calls for it, but decide before each swing rather than after seeing the result.
Score three points when the ball finishes inside three feet, two points from three to six feet, one point when it stays on the green outside six feet and zero when it misses the putting surface. The maximum is 54. Pace off the circles if necessary; exact laser measurement would defeat the point. What matters is using the same reasonable standard every time.
Play the test with one rehearsal motion and one attempt per ball. Do not drag a poor shot back and replay it. That small restriction adds the consequence that random practice lacks. It also reveals whether the problem is contact, landing-point selection or distance control instead of letting three immediate corrections blur together.
Use the score to diagnose, not judge
A total score is useful, but the six station scores are more informative. A player who scores well from fairway lies and poorly from light rough probably does not need a new chipping motion. That player needs better lie recognition and a clearer plan for how the ball will launch and release. Someone who misses the green from every station should simplify club choice and contact before worrying about proximity.
Write down the date, total, weakest station and one sentence about the dominant miss. That is enough data. The PGA of America’s June 2026 guide to remote coaching makes the same broader case for structure: useful development combines a skill video, a practice update, a round reflection and regular feedback. Even without remote coaching, a short record turns your next session into a response rather than a restart.
A 20-minute session that transfers to the course
Spend five minutes warming up without a score. Use the next ten minutes for the 18-ball test, then spend five minutes on the lowest-scoring station. During that final block, you may repeat balls, but keep the original test score unchanged. The separation protects the baseline while still giving you time to work on the weakness it exposed.
Retest under similar conditions once a week. Compare four-session averages rather than celebrating one unusually good total or panicking over one bad day. Wind, moisture, grass length and hole location change difficulty. A trend across several sessions is more meaningful than a personal best created by a friendly practice green.
What not to copy from a tour player
Elite players can make short-game practice look like a technical laboratory. Most golfers do not need a launch monitor, multiple coaches or a tour-caliber practice area to adopt the useful part: every ball has a task, and the result is observed. Do not turn the score into a swing overhaul. If contact is persistently poor or pain changes how you move, work with a qualified PGA or LPGA Professional instead of diagnosing yourself from one drill.
The payoff is not a prettier practice session. It is a clearer answer after 18 balls: what can you already do, what breaks first, and what should you practice next? Once those questions have numbers attached, you are no longer just hitting chips.