Putt, Chip, or Bump?
Why this drill
From just off the green, the shot you choose matters more than how you hit it. Playing the same five lies three ways each — putter, bump-and-run, chip — and keeping the numbers settles golf's oldest argument with your own data.
Setup
Five stations off the green: fringe, two paces into fairway cut, light rough, a tight lie, and long across the green. Putter, 8-iron, and a wedge. Scorecard with a row per station.
The drill
From each station, play three balls — one putted, one bumped with the 8-iron, one chipped with the wedge — and record each finish's distance from the hole in putter-lengths. Fifteen shots, fifteen numbers, no opinions. The table that emerges is your personal chart: most players find the putter wins from twice as far out as pride had allowed, and the wedge wins from almost nowhere. Take the chart to the course and obey it for a month.
One thought to take with you
Lowest, safest thing that works — the menu reads bottom-up.