Putting practice?

[Needtobreak80]

How do you practice putting? what is your routine and how often do you practice putting?

[AK jr.]

i usually practice putting about 45 minutes a day. sometimes i go for more but that is my average time. i do a drill where u pick a hole and hit 5 footers from above, below, and each side of the hole. Hit 5 putts from each location which totals 20 putts if you make them all. The way i do it is that if i miss more than 3 out of the 20, it doesn't count. i do this drill about 4-5 times meaning that theoretically, if u did it 5 times, u would make 85 putts at the worst without starting over. it is really beneficial and u could also slim it down to 2-3 rounds if 4-5 is too much. the only other thing i really do for putting is 15 minutes of 10-15 footers. hope that helps

[BigDave]

Practice? What's that?

[N.V.M.]

i practice putting at least 30 times a round.

[ks8829]

Solid contact and distance control

solid contact
I try to make consistent solid contact with my putting stroke. I will practice focusing on making the proper backswing take away that I can repeat under pressure. I will make sure I have 60% of my weight on my front foot, I will make sure that I take my wrist out of the putt and concentrate on putting with my shoulders only.

distance control
I try to practice distance control by knowing how far I need to take the club back and forward to result in a certain distance. For example for a 10 foot putt I will take the club back 2 feet (from the ball) on my backswing and about 2 feet on my forward swing to get the ball just pass the hole for a 10 foot putt. This distance will vary for each player depending on your tempo and acceleration on the follow through.

final test
I practice long distance putts and try to get the balls to end up the same distance. This ensure that I am making both solid contact and have good distance control for on the course

[Needtobreak80]

Thanks for the replies. That makes a lot of sense KS. I will try and do something similar in the future. I really hope to get better at putting which is kind of the weakest aspect of my game. If I just get a little better at it I will cut 5+ shots of a round instantly!

[FortAsel]

Putting, being a feel game (even though you have all that mechanical theories), cannot have a very strict practice routine. What I do is, when I'm alone, I'll grab 1 new Pro v1 and try and beat my personal best throughout 36 holes. My best score, so far is at -9, which isn't that good, because my problem is that I just cannot eliminate those pesky 3-putts.
When I have a friend around, I just play those same 36 holes against the guy, weather it is stroke play or match-play. Sometimes we are around 6/7 guys, so we make a stroke play format and after 18 holes the last 2 guys are out of the tournament. I'm proud to say that I've never missed the cut, but the best I've done is a t-2 finish, 5 strokes behind the 1st place. Anyway, I think that this is the best way you have to improve putting. When you're playing in a mini tourney, your focus gears up. And it is very good to play against somebody that is better than you, cause it makes you want to beat that guy.

Anyway, when I'm on the golf course, I always set this goal, no 3-putts. In August, even though my handicap didn't drop a stroke, I managed to only have (1) 3 putt green, and that was actually a par five that I hit in 2. My record of greens without 3 putts now stands at 45 greens. Not to shabby eh?