Putting Drills

You’ve done the hard part. Smashed a drive down the fairway, struck a 7 iron into the heart of the green… then you 3 putt for Bogey 🤦‍♂️ so why is it that you can take 2 shots to hit it 400 yards, then another 3 to hit it 20 ft?! Well, chances are like most Ams you aren’t practicing the most important part of the game enough. Try these simple drills next time you are at the course:

Short Putts - those nasty little 5 footers that we think we should hole every time but don’t. A good drill is to put five tees in a circle around the hole and practice holing every single one from each spot. Once you have completed the circle once, try and do it twice in a row. And to progress even further you can try from longer distances. 

Long putts - a lot of you will have heard of leaving it within the ‘dustbin lid’, and that is definitely good advice. A good drill is to again make a circle of tees approx 3ft around the hole, take 3 balls and begin at 20ft away, trying to get all of them within the circle. Once complete, move to 25ft and so on. 

Technique - a common mistake (particularly with short putts) is looking up too early to see where the ball is. Following the ball isn’t going to help it go in… practice keeping your eyes looking directly down and ‘listening’ for the ball dropping in the hole. This will hugely help with your putting stroke and where you strike it on the face.