Divot Board / Towel Contact Drill
Place a towel behind the ball and strike irons without touching it, training ball-first contact and a forward divot.
Approach Beginner ~20 min 4 difficulty levelsDifficulty levels
Setup & execution
Place a folded towel 2–3 inches behind a ball on the range mat. Using a 7-iron, swing with the goal of striking the ball WITHOUT touching the towel. Half the 30 swings should be from a tee; the other half directly off the ground. Track towel contacts precisely.
Goal
Miss the towel on 20 of 30 swings to pass — including at least 10 of the 15 off-the-ground swings.
Tour context
Mid-handicap players who consistently achieve ball-first contact reduce fat shots by ~80%. At 150 yards, a clean strike adds ~15 yards versus a 1-inch fat contact. 20/30 is a meaningful intermediate milestone.
Scoring options
Pick how you are rewarded. Each option records different outcomes and feeds different insights.
Binary Clean
You miss the towel or you don't. Nothing else is scored.
Divot Direction
Clean contact scores; a divot straight at the target doubles it.
Ball Flight Bonus
Clean contact scores. Finding the target on top doubles it.
Streak Builder
Only your longest unbroken run of clean strikes counts.
Distance Control
Clean contact only counts if it lands in your carry window.
More approach drills
All approach
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ApproachThree Targets
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