Masters-Inspired Practice Drills You Can Do This Week

📍 This article is part of our Masters 2026 Hub — your complete guide to the most beautiful week in golf. Masters week is the one week of the year where every golfer suddenly wants to get better. You watch Scottie Scheffler butter a 4-iron into the heart of a green with more undulation than a waterbed, and something clicks in your brain: I should practice more.

The good news? You don't need Augusta National to practice like someone who plays there. These seven drills are stolen directly from what Tour pros work on during Masters prep — adapted for the guy who practices at a public range with mats that haven't been replaced since 2014.

1. The Augusta Speed Drill

Augusta's greens are infamous. They run 13+ on the Stimpmeter during tournament week — roughly twice as fast as your local muni. The pros don't just putt on fast greens; they practice speed control obsessively before Masters week.

The drill: Find the fastest green on your practice putting green. If your course doesn't have a speed green, putt downhill on the slickest slope you can find. Now:

• Set a tee 30 feet away
• Putt 10 balls, trying to stop each one within a putter-length past the tee
• Not short. Not two feet past. Just past the hole

Why it works: Most weekend golfers leave putts short because they're afraid of the comebacker. This drill trains you to die the ball at the hole with confidence, not fear. At Augusta, three-putting from above the hole is a death sentence. On your course, it's the difference between a bogey and a double.

Bonus round: Once you can consistently stop balls within a putter-length, shrink the zone to six inches. Welcome to Tour-level speed control.

2. The Amen Corner Chip

Holes 11, 12, and 13 at Augusta are called Amen Corner because you're praying by the time you get through them. The shots that define this stretch? Delicate chips over bunkers to tucked pins on rock-hard greens.

The drill: At your practice green, find a bunker between you and a pin. Set up on a tight lie — no fluffy fairway grass, no tee to sit on. Just bare ground and consequences.

• Hit 10 chips with your 56° or 60° wedge
• Goal: land the ball on the green (not in the bunker) and stop it within 10 feet of the pin
• Track your success rate out of 10

Why it works: This is the shot most amateurs avoid practicing because it's scary. Thin it, and it rockets over the green. Chunk it, and you're in the sand. But this shot comes up 2-3 times per round for most players, and it separates single-digit handicaps from everyone else.

The Bogeylicious adjustment: If you skull three in a row, put the 60° away and use a 52°. Less loft is more forgiving, and you'll actually get the ball on the green. The pros use 60° because they practice this eight hours a day. You don't.

3. The Par 5 Decision Maker

Augusta's par 5s (holes 2, 8, 13, and 15) are where tournaments are won and lost. The decision is always the same: go for the green in two, or lay up to your favorite yardage? The pros make this call based on lie, wind, and risk tolerance — not ego.

The drill: On the range, alternate between these two shots:

1. Go for it: Hit your 3-wood or longest hybrid from a fairway lie. Visualize a green 240 yards away with water in front.
2. Smart play: Immediately after, hit an 8-iron or 9-iron to a specific target 100-110 yards away. This is your lay-up yardage.

Do 5 rounds of each (10 shots total per round).

Why it works: Most amateurs never practice the lay-up. They either go for it every time (hero ball) or they lay up to whatever random distance the ball goes. Tour pros lay up to specific yardages — usually their most comfortable wedge distance. This drill trains both decisions so you're prepared for either.

The real lesson: If you're hitting your 3-wood sideways more than 30% of the time, the lay-up is the better play 100% of the time. Augusta punishes ego. So does your course.

4. The Sunday Back Nine Pressure Drill

Nothing in sports matches the tension of Augusta's Sunday back nine. Players who were cruising suddenly can't feel their hands. The drill below simulates that pressure on a small scale.

The drill: Play the last three holes of your home course as a standalone mini-tournament. Here's the key — keep a separate scorecard just for these three holes, and do it for four rounds.

• Track your three-hole score each time
• Your "tournament" is trying to beat your running average
• If your average for holes 16-18 is +4, try to play them in +3

Why it works: The Sunday back nine at Augusta is pressure-cooked because every shot matters more. By isolating your finishing holes and tracking them separately, you create artificial pressure — you know every shot is being measured. It's not Masters pressure, but it's better than mindlessly playing through.

Advanced version: Text your score to a friend after each three-hole "round." Nothing creates pressure like knowing someone else is watching the number.

5. The Magnolia Lane Warm-Up

Watch Tour pros on the range at Augusta Monday through Wednesday, and you'll notice something: they don't just beat balls. They follow a structured 15-minute warm-up sequence that prepares their body and calibrates their feel for the day.

The routine (15 minutes, in order):

1. Wedge swings (3 min): Half-swings with a sand wedge. 50-60 yards. This is about loosening up, not scoring.
2. Mid-iron stock shots (3 min): 7-iron, full swings, to one target. Don't change targets. Same club, same swing, same spot.
3. Driver (3 min): Five drives. Focus on finding the center of the face, not distance.
4. Scoring wedge (3 min): Your most-used wedge distance (probably 80-100 yards). Hit to a specific target.
5. Putting (3 min): Five 3-footers, five 15-footers. End on makes.

Why it works: Most amateurs warm up by pulling driver first and hitting it until their back hurts. The pros start small and build up. By the time you get to the first tee, you've already made solid contact with every club length, and your last memory is a made putt.

The shortcut: If you only have 5 minutes, do steps 1 and 5. A few wedge swings and some made putts will do more for your round than 20 full-throttle driver swings.

6. The Green Reading Academy

Augusta's greens have more break than a politician's promises. Pros spend hours walking greens, reading slopes, and mapping pin positions. You can develop the same eye at your home course.

The drill: Next time you're on the practice green, grab your phone and download a level app (free, every phone has one). Now:

• Place your phone on the green surface at various spots
• Read the actual slope in degrees before you putt
• Putt, then check: did the ball break the direction the level said it would?

Do this for 20 putts across different spots on the practice green.

Why it works: Most golfers can't read greens because they've never calibrated their eyes to actual slopes. A 2% slope looks flat but creates 6 inches of break on a 20-footer. This drill trains your eyes to see what's actually there, not what you think is there.

Long-term payoff: After a few sessions, you'll start seeing breaks you missed for years. That subtle left-to-right on the 7th green that always burned you? Your eyes just couldn't see it before.

7. The Tiger Stinger

Tiger's 2019 Masters win featured some of the most controlled iron play in tournament history. His signature stinger — a low, piercing shot that bores through wind — is one of the most practical shots in golf, and almost no amateurs practice it.

The drill: Grab a 5-iron or hybrid. Set up with:

• Ball position one ball-width back of center
• Hands pressed slightly forward at address
• Abbreviated follow-through — stop your hands at chest height

Hit 10 shots. They should fly low, with a penetrating trajectory, and run out on landing.

Why it works: The stinger is the ultimate control shot. Windy day? Stinger. Tight fairway? Stinger. Need to keep it under tree branches? Stinger. Tour pros carry this shot the way a carpenter carries a hammer — it's not fancy, but it solves problems.

Reality check: Your first few stingers will probably be tops. That's fine. The key is the abbreviated follow-through. If you're finishing with the club over your shoulder, you're swinging too hard. Think "punch," not "smash."

The Masters Practice Plan

If you've got a week before the Masters (or before your next round, which is probably more relevant), here's how to structure these drills:

The Honest Truth

You're not going to win the Masters. I'm not going to win the Masters. But the guys who do win it aren't doing anything mystical on the practice range — they're drilling the fundamentals with more intention and structure than the rest of us.

These seven drills won't transform you into a Tour player. But they'll make you a more thoughtful, more prepared, more dangerous weekend golfer. And when you're watching the final round on Sunday and someone sticks a stinger down the middle of 18, you can nod and think: I practiced that this week.

That's worth something.

updatedAt: "2026-03-15"

Get ready for Masters week with our free printable Masters Pool Sheet — perfect for watch parties and office brackets. Check out our Masters 2026 Betting Guide for picks, and steal course management secrets from our Augusta National Strategy Breakdown. Want more ways to practice without hitting the course? See how to practice golf at home and our 5-minute pre-round warm-up.