Golf apps with short-game drills, compared
Alexandre Coulay · Published on 2026-09-07
Golf reviewed by Josh Cassin, +3.7 handicap index
Around 60 to 65 % of an amateur's shots happen inside 100 metres, and almost no golf app treats that seriously. Most add a practice tab and call it covered. This compares the ones that actually structure short-game work, and how to tell a scored drill from a video of a drill.
The proportion nobody practises
Count putts and the short game is the majority of your golf. The proportion rises as scores rise, which is the uncomfortable part — the higher your handicap, the more of your round is the part you practise least.
The reason is not ignorance. The range rewards full swings with visible feedback, and the putting green does not feel like practice. Structure is what fixes that, and structure is what these apps sell.
Disclosure: FlyAway publishes this and appears in it. The first entry is better at this than we are, and the section says why.
What separates a drill from an exercise
A drill you can complete while thinking about something else is exercise. The ones that transfer have three things: a target, a way to fail, and a number you can compare with last week.
That is the test to apply to any app in this category. A library of chipping videos is not a practice system — it answers how the movement should look, which is a different and also useful question. A scored session answers whether you can do it today under a consequence.
Scoring Zone: the one built for this
Scoring Zone is the only app here designed entirely around the short game, and it is better at it than we are. Over fifty scored drills, pressure tests that reset when you miss, and around-the-green benchmarks tied to your handicap make a training system rather than a feature.
The reset-on-miss mechanic is the part worth stealing conceptually even if you never install it. A drill that starts again when you fail reproduces the only thing the course does that the practice green does not — consequence.
If your practice happens mostly on a putting green and you want a scored session every time, it is the right purchase and we would rather say so plainly.
When you do not know which part of the short game is costing you
This is the other half of the problem, and a scored drill library cannot solve it. Practising chipping diligently for a month is wasted if your scrambling was fine and your putting was the leak.
FlyAway approaches it from the scorecard: scrambling percentage and putts per round separate a bad ball-striking day from a bad putting day, which look identical in the score column. The short-game work you get is weighted by where those numbers say you lose strokes rather than by what you feel like practising. Most golfers who blame their driving are corrected by that the first time they see it — the mechanics of tracking those numbers are in how to track fairways, GIR and putts.
The statistics side is where scrambling and putts come from, and the AI coach is what turns them into a priority. What we do not have is a scored drill system with the depth of the entry above.
When the ambiguity is how the drill should look
Written instructions for a chipping technique leave a gap that no amount of detail closes. TeechGolf's filmed demonstrations are the answer to that specific problem — seeing someone who knows the movement execute it removes an ambiguity three paragraphs cannot.
Use it for how, not for which. The programmes themselves are generated, so the choice of what to work on is still yours to make or to get elsewhere.
When repetition is the point
Chipping technique improves through volume, and stopping to start and stop a video between shots is what stops volume happening. GolfFix's guided live exercises handle that: the phone records and analyses on its own while you work through a drill.
That is a narrower use than the others here — it is a recording loop rather than a practice curriculum — but for a bucket of chip shots it is the smoothest option.
Building a session without any of them
If you would rather not add an app, the structure is simple enough to run with a scorecard: three distances, ten balls each, one point for inside a putter length and two for holed, and write the number down. Compare it next week.
That is a scored session, it costs nothing, and it beats an unstructured hour with any app open.
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Frequently asked questions
Which app is best for short-game practice?
Scoring Zone, if the short game is the whole point. It is built as a scored training system rather than a practice tab attached to a wider app, and for putting and around-the-green work it goes deeper than any general golf app including ours. A general app makes more sense if you want short-game work chosen for you from your scorecard rather than picked by hand.
What makes a short-game drill worth doing?
A score and a consequence. A drill you can complete while thinking about something else is exercise, not practice. The ones that transfer to the course have a target, a way to fail, and a number you can compare with last week — which is exactly what separates a scored drill from a video of a drill.
How much of a round is actually the short game?
Roughly 60 to 65 % of shots for most amateurs happen inside 100 metres, counting putts. The proportion rises as scores rise, which is the uncomfortable part: the higher your handicap, the more of your golf is the part you practise least, because the range rewards full swings and the putting green does not feel like practice.
Can an app tell me whether my short game is actually the problem?
Yes, if it reads your scorecards rather than your opinion. Scrambling percentage and putts per round separate a bad ball-striking day from a bad putting day, which look identical in the score column. Most golfers who blame their driving are corrected by that number the first time they see it.
Do I need a launch monitor for short-game practice?
No, and this is the part of golf where the cheap tools work. A distance, a target and a way to record whether you got up and down is enough to build a scored session. Short-game practice is limited by structure and honesty far more than by measurement hardware.