What are the Best Putting Drills?

[marshmellaw1982]

Here's a little background to give an idea where I'm coming from. I'm fairly new to this game. I played baseball through high school and a little college ball. I held out with picking up golf until i realized it didn't matter if I ruined my baseball swing. This is my 2nd year and I play about 2-3 times per month. (Last year, it was more like once every 2 months though.) Initially I was using hand-me-down clubs from my father and some older ones I picked up at a yard sale until a friend of mine convinced me to spend some money on newer clubs to "grow with". So I scoured ebay and the Callaway Preowned website. I got a set of used X-20 irons 3-PW,SW,AW standard steel. Off ebay I picked up the Callaway FT-i 10° neutral driver with stiff flex and the Odyssey White Hot XG #1 putter. I wasn't thrilled about spending the money on all this, but got a bunch of good deals. Picked up all that for under ~$600 total for everything. (I won't be spending anymore money on clubs for hopefully 10+ years, now it all goes to lessons and greens fees.)

I'm driving pretty consistently. Straight and far. If I'm not at 300, I'm pretty close. So I stopped focusing on driving at the range and focusing more on irons, especially the pitching wedge because I find myself pulling that out of the bag more than any other club. I still need a LOT of work on the 3, 4 and 5 irons. But the rest I'm striking fairly consistently. (It seems easier to strike the ball better when there's more loft to the club.) So now I'm trying to practice on putting and chipping because that's what some people and my instructor said I could save the most shots. (I typically 3-4 putt almost every hole.)

SO...what are the best putting drills? Right now I head to the practice green, toss about 8 balls on the ground in the rough and practice chipping them as close as I can to the cup and then I go putt them in. I try to get the chip as close as possible to 1-put, but unfortunately that rarely happens. More often than not I'm still 2 or 3 putting. Do any of you have any suggestions on what I can do to practice? What do the rest of your do?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!!!

[Uber$winG]

One of the drills I use to groove my putting stroke is the two-tee drill. I pick a relatively straight putting point on the practice green from about six feet away. I ground my putter so that it is set to the target line – while the putter is grounded I stick one tee in the green at the toe and one at the heel so that the putter is able to make its way between the two tees. I then take my address position square to the target line and putt away.

The object of the drill is to sink the putts without hitting either of the tees.

[timwalsh300]

I started playing this game a couple weeks ago...

Find a hole that is on a slope. Place ball markers on 4 sides of it, 6-7 feet away. So you should have a downhill putt, an uphill putt, one that breaks left, and one that breaks right. Go around 4 times hitting a putt from each mark and see how many you can make. My record is 12/16. These "make-able" putts tend to hurt me the most. I'm still bad but I think I'm getting better. I used to go 18 holes without sinking anything outside of 3 feet. Now I will hit a few 5-10 footers.

I have another game that includes chipping and lag putting...

I design a little 9-hole course of par-2's. Sometimes I'm hitting my first shot from the green, 30 feet away. Sometimes I am hitting my first shot from the rough. If I had a practice bunker next to the green I would include that too. This can be as challenging as you want to make it. This is great if nobody else is using the practice area at the same time.

The advice that I have received is to make sure that practice is as realistic as possible. Vary everything. Use only 1 ball. Keep score so there is a little bit of pressure and you have something to concentrate on. You see a lot of people doing the complete opposite of this as they just go through the motions while waiting to tee off.

Tim

[marshmellaw1982]

Thank you both for your tips. I'll give them both a shot next time I take a trip to the putting green. (I'd go today, but it looks like it's going to be raining today and tomorrow.)

If anyone else has any other advice or methods, please let me know. I'm open to everything and anything that can help!!

[ControlJunkie]

If you're having problems with getting your speed correct, practice putting my not looking down at the ball, but rather looking at your target hole. Obviously, you need to line everything up correctly as you would on a normal putt. When it comes time to make your stroke, concentrate on the target and make your putting stroke. It has helped me to get speeds down on greens that I'm familiar with.

[sonicblue]

I agree with the one ball thing. It does NO good to drop five balls and hit the same putt over and over again. THE thing you need to practice with putting is TRUST. When you're on the course, you have but ONE shot at every putt. ONE chance to trust your line and your feel for speed. If your practice drills have only ingrained your ability to read four wrong putts and finally get the fifth right, you're doing yourself harm. This is what I do:

Go to the practice green with one ball. Drop it 1' from a cup and hole the putt. Pull the ball and move back on the same line to 2' and hole that putt. Continue, moving farther back each time. I'll do maybe 6-8 putts at each location/direction; the 1' increments aren't vital - I'll just keep moving back until I get to about 20' or so. What I believe this accomplishes:

The fact that you keep putting along the same line should give you confidence in the line, but you'll begin to see breaks emerge (most likely) and learn to read it. Also, the gradual addition of distance will give you a feel for adding/obtaining the proper speed. For each stroke, you have to trust that, the new line/speed you've read is correct. However, EACH putt is a BRAND NEW putt, it will never be exactly the same as the previous putt. When you do this drill, I recommend starting with something you think is relatively flat and straight, but then make sure you pick a downhill, uphill and left/right sidehill lines as well.

The second result is, hopefully you'll make the first couple real short ones you hit. The first couple 'mid-range' putts (e.g., 4-6 feet) will seem closer, b/c you'll know you just holed out two putts from 'just a little closer.' Nothing helps putting like confidence, and when you drain a couple non-tap-in range putts, your confidence will increase, and expand your confident range. It's very circular/self-perpetuating, but when you get it, you'll get it!

[marshmellaw1982]

Thanks again everyone. I didn't realize I was hurting myself more than helping.

I stopped off at the library last night on my way home from work and picked up about 6 golf guides and a few videos. I'm gonna read through them over the next week or so and I'll update the thread with their putting practice suggestions.