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"5 Minutes Daily" Practice Challenge 1 2 3 4 1051
By iacas, in Instruction and Playing Tips
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Amazingly, I found this thread while looking to see if others have answers to the same question. My preferred putting drill is a variant of one from LSW. For context, as I type this, my handicap is at 10.3, and in my total 2026 rounds, I am at -0.20 strokes gained putting vs a 20 handicap baseline, and I am just shy of losing a full two strokes putting to the 10 handicap baseline, all this despite yesterday's round being marginally better than the 5 handicap baseline (yay for high variance statistics). I also didn't practice much putting on a real green in 2026 (or 2025) until about two weeks ago, other than pre-round warm-ups. This is obviously something I need to work on. I think I last actively practiced (as in, many days, regularly) putting, on a real green, actively in Spring/Summer 2022. Anyway, the double around the world: pick a distance (I often use 4' or 6') and lay down 12 coins, face-up. The "standard" version is to do this at 3' and have to make 12 in a row. That's worth doing periodically. I know some people do this at 4' or even 5', but with scratch players making 80% from 4', I worry that if I tried to do this at 4', I wouldn't finish by sundown, and I'd certainly just get frustrated. But the version I enjoy is to have to make them all, twice, eventually. Pick a starting point and putt from there. If it is made, and the coin is heads-up, turn it over. If it was tails-up, pick it up. The coins are tracking how many times you've made it from that spot so far. A good score from 4' is 37 total putts for a bogey golfer (65% make rate) and 30 for a scratch player (80% make rate). At 6', a bogey golfer (39% make rate) should be happy with a 61, while a scratch player should aim to do better than 44. To make counting easier, I remember (or otherwise mark) the first spot, and when I reach that, I count how many coins are still on the green and add them to my total. I actually don't count the first two times around (since the count after two go-arounds will be 24, right before counting to start the third) and add 24 at the end. ----- I also like the "Fall Line" drill from ESC. I stopped doing it a while back because I couldn't distinguish my own failure from being bad at hitting a 6' putt. Now that I think I can hit a 6' putt successfully, it's time to go back to that one. Lastly, there are two indoor drills I have enjoyed in the past and am getting back to. One is the ruler drill from LSW. The other is one that I was shown in another thread that involves basically seeing what it is like to line up square, something I could have been missing. ----- Okay, lastly for real, before a round I will also try to figure speed for 12', 21', and 30' putts. I find a flat (or flat enough) spot on the practice green and step off 4, 7, or 10 steps. I aim to hit the ball that exact distance (with the 12', I prefer to hit just past it; with the others, I aim to hit the exact distance). I view this as similar to learning some partial clock positions (or similar) with wedges to use as a baseline for preparing a shot. Amazingly, for all my overall putting woes, when SG is broken down by distance I'm usually doing quite well outside of 12'. This is one of those reasons I'm glad to see SG:P broken down by distance -- it tells me where I need to focus to improve. While a three-putt from 30' has the same effect on SG:P no matter why, there's a difference in what practice priority to make if that's because the first putt rests 8' from the cup (where Tour players are 50/50) versus if the first putt regularly cozies up within 3-4' but that resulting putt is missed. I almost never work on speed like this outside of pre-round warm-up. -
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