Putting Practice

[ajschn06]

For those of you who use a line on the ball for putting, do you employ this during putting practice as well? It has helped me a lot during my rounds, but when I stop off at the putting green for a quick 20 minutes, it seems to time consuming. Am I hurting myself with this?

[kpaulhus]

I dont usually line up putts when practicing. Usually the practice greens dont have a ton of break in them so Im there just to work on my tempo and distance.

[9iron]

For those of you who use a line on the ball for putting, do you employ this during putting practice as well? It has helped me a lot during my rounds, but when I stop off at the putting green for a quick 20 minutes, it seems to time consuming. Am I hurting myself with this?

I don't use a line on my ball for practice or play. I just make sure the ball is below my dominant eye, that I know where I want to start the ball out, and that the putting face is square to the target at address. From there a correct putting motion should, in theory, work. I do use a swing arc for practice all the time. It is a simple device that forces the putter along the correct path to the ball. I still then need to control the face of the club, length of motion(swing), tempo, and speed, but at least I know it is started on the correct line. Practicing with this device helps me with timing, tempo, and balance. I believe the site operator here wrote an article on one of the putting devices that was on The Golf Channel. I don't use that specific device, but the one I use works in a similar fashion. I do believe these things help.

[Shindig]

For those of you who use a line on the ball for putting, do you employ this during putting practice as well? It has helped me a lot during my rounds, but when I stop off at the putting green for a quick 20 minutes, it seems to time consuming. Am I hurting myself with this?

I use the aiming mark on the ball: it says B330 RX in a straight-enough line. I do line up balls when on the putting green, for the same reason I pick a target when I'm on the driving range: first, I'll be doing so on the course, so I want to simulate that as much as possible. Second, if I miss, I want to know what happened, or at least narrow down the possibilities. Was my stroke bad? Did I mis-read the break?

I don't know what I'd do if I were using a Nike ball, which seem to lack these. However, given my propensity for pre-marking my balls, they'd have a line on them by the time they're in my bag anyway.

[IcemanYVR]

I place a line on my ball with a sharpie, I use it always during a round unless it's a tap in.

On the practice green, i don't usually use it when practicing bulk 5 footers or working on distance or feel. I do use it if I am doing a drill where I put 5 balls on a side slope a foot apart... this really helps, but otherwise no

[burnabao]

I'm a huge fan of lining up putts during a round, but I purposely don't do it when practising (although I kind of imagine a line to make sure I set the ball off on the right track and swing on-path). If I can make putts during practice without a line, when it comes to the round I can set the line up and just concentrate on weight, knowing that direction will take care of itself. This does, of course, assume that your green-reading is "on"!