Some Short Putts (5-15') Speed Games and Drills

[iacas]

@NatalieB has wanted to work on some shorter putts lately. She loses too many strokes putting by not getting even 10' birdie putts to the hole for fear of the come-back putt, or in being tentative on 4' putts…

So, I came up with a few games and drills for her to do. You can do them too.

From inside 15', there are almost never putts that you should leave short. You should endeavor to get these all to the hole, as your distance control should be within ± 10% or less (i.e. if you try to hit a 15' 1.5 feet from the hole, almost every putt should reach the hole and finish within 3' of the hole).

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Games

Game 1 - Every Putt Past

With tees or something, put the elastic string 18" from the hole in all directions. Hit 18 putts from 5' to 15' with the scoring below. No two putts can be hit from within 3' or 30° of the previous putt. Move around.

• -3 - anything short
• -1 - past the string (long)
• +1 - past the hole but inside string
• +3 - holed putts

Max of 54 points.

 

Game 2 - Slow/Medium/Fast

Find a hole on a relatively planar slope. Straight uphill/downhill is North/South. You'll hit three balls from each location: 7' putts from N/S, 6' putts from NE, SE, SW, and NW, and 5' putts from E/W. Three putts, 8 directions = 24 putts. With the first putt, your goal is to barely get the ball to fall over the front lip. The second is 12-18" past speed. The third is as firmly as you can reasonably hit a putt.

• +2 - holing it at the correct speed.
• +1 - holing it at the wrong speed.
• 0 - points for hitting it the right speed but missing.
• -1 - missing the hole and the speed.

Max of 48 points.

 

Game 3 - Ladder Drill

Put two pieces of string down (or just make a three-sided "box" with one side being some string). There are two sizes you can do here:

• Put string 10' and 15' away from where you putt.
• Put string 5' and 8' away from where you putt.

Mark your starting point with a tee and have a small ball marker. Your goal is to fit as many balls (mark and retrive it each time) between the start line and the end line, with all balls fitting and finishing past the marker. Your score is the number of balls you "fit" between them.

 

Game 4 - Random Six- (or Eight-) Ball Ladder Drill

The same two distances above work here, but you'll number six balls 1 to 6, then put them in your pocket or in a hat or something. Pull a ball out, and putt it to where it needs to be so that you can get all six balls between the strings and in the correct order. Bumping balls is fine, but whenever a ball stops rolling and they're out of order or outside the strings, you start over.

If this gets to be too easy at either distance, add balls 7 and 8.

 

Game 5 - Billiards

For 18 holes from 4-6' (because any farther out is really difficult), have two balls. Putt the first one so that it stops short of the hole on purpose, and then hit the second ball into the first to try to knock the first ball in. Scoring is:

• +5 - both balls go in (requires the first ball to be left JUST short - really rare)
• +3 - knock the first ball in with the second ball
• +1 - hit the first ball with the second ball, first ball misses hole
• -1 - first ball is short of the hole but you miss it with the second ball
• -3 - first ball goes to 90° or beyond the hole (so you can't possibly make it). Turn ends here - you can't earn a point for hitting it with the second ball.

Max of 54 points (realistically).

 

Game 6 - Fringe Putting

Put a tee 6', 9', 12', 15' from the fringe. Putt from each tee once and stop your ball within 6" of the fringe without going INTO the fringe (if it hits the fringe and falls back onto the green that's fine). Your score is how many you can do successfully in a row (you move to the new distance each time). 6" from 6' is obviously easier than from 15'.

Max of unlimited points. Until you get bored. 😉

 

Drills

Drill 1 - Start Line

Choose a 5-15' putt. Put a tee in the ground to precisely mark the start location of a ball, and put two tees about 2" apart (a ball is 1.68" in diameter) angled slightly outward 2' in front of your ball on your start line, OR use one of those flat plastic ball markers to roll your ball through/over the objects to the hole.

Make smooth flowing strokes back and through, and do not try to "steer" or "guide" the putter head. While you can do this toward a hole, it's better if you sometimes do it toward an old cup or toward a tee 5-15' away just to mark distance, as that way you don't have to worry about whether the read is perfect and the ball goes in or not.

 

Drill 2 - Old Cup

Find an old hole and hit putts to it from 4-6' trying to roll the ball through the center of the cup, then inside both edges of the cup. All balls should stop 12-18" past the cup.

 

Drill 3 - Deflectors

Put three or four tees on the back 1/3 of the hole about 3/4" past/outside the lip so that they angle about 60° over the hole (30° from vertical). Hit balls from 4-7' trying to almost use the tees as deflectors to knock your ball down into the cup. This will show you how aggressively you can putt a ball and still have it go in without needing to use a deflector.

[DeadMan]

Great games and drills. I'm always looking for ways to spice up putting practice and keep me focused for longer. I'll try all of these and probably incorporate most of them into my go-to putting games. Thanks, @iacas,

[klineka]

@iacas Thanks for this, I'm looking to improve in this area of my game as well so good timing.

In your experience, do you find players respond better to/improve more when doing the game portion or the drill portion? Or should it be a mixture? 

[iacas]

9 hours ago, DeadMan said:

Great games and drills. I'm always looking for ways to spice up putting practice and keep me focused for longer. I'll try all of these and probably incorporate most of them into my go-to putting games.

Let me know what you like. I already adjusted the fringe game to 12" for 12' and 15' putts.

And, note, these games are specific to Natalie, whose longer distance putting is fine. She struggles right now with the shorter "makable" putts that she often leaves short, and the pretty darn short putts that she should absolutely get to the hole EVERY time.

8 hours ago, klineka said:

Thanks for this, I'm looking to improve in this area of my game as well so good timing.

You're welcome.

8 hours ago, klineka said:

In your experience, do you find players respond better to/improve more when doing the game portion or the drill portion? Or should it be a mixture? 

Do what you like, I think. I don't know that I could answer that question because… it's not something I've ever tested. 🙂 They're all going to help, so… do what you like, and when you start to get bored or sloppy, do something else.