Two putting drills my pro suggested...

[boil3rmak3r]

Since I've recently made the conversion from my belly putter (which I used for the past 5 years) to a short stick, I did a session with my pro on putting. The good news is, he liked my stroke and his main recommendations were to work on alignment and to get my eyes closer to being over the ball (they were WELL inside the ball line...). He gave me two drills to work on that I thought were great, so I thought I'd share them here. 1) Pick a spot on the practice green where you'll have a straight putt. Place one tee at 3' out, one at 4' out, and one at 5' out. Starting at the 3' tee, make 5 putts in a row. Once you do that, move to the 4' tee. If you then make 5 in a row from there, you need to make 5 consecutive putts from the 5' tee. If you ever miss a putt, you must start all over at the 3' tee. The idea is to take out the variable of break, so you can concentrate on alignment and mechanics. Also, if you can get to a point where you can easily complete this drill, you should become really confident when you face similar length putts in a round. 2) Practice lag putting by, at worst, two putting 5 consecutive 20 to 40 foot putts. Pick your distance and putt 5 balls from there. After that, you must hole the next putt from wherever each ball ended up, or you have failed the drill. In his opinion spending a sizable amount of putting practice on intermediate length putts (10 or 15 feet, let's say), won't lower your scores. I thought I'd share these ideas as I think they make a lot of sense. I would be interested if others agree, or think there are better ways of practicing (I know there are a million different practice routines to choose from...).

[Wally]

Since I've recently made the conversion from my belly putter (which I used for the past 5 years) to a short stick, I did a session with my pro on putting. The good news is, he liked my stroke and his main recommendations were to work on alignment and to get my eyes closer to being over the ball (they were WELL inside the ball line...). He gave me two drills to work on that I thought were great, so I thought I'd share them here. 1) Pick a spot on the practice green where you'll have a straight putt. Place one tee at 3' out, one at 4' out, and one at 5' out. Starting at the 3' tee, make 5 putts in a row. Once you do that, move to the 4' tee. If you then make 5 in a row from there, you need to make 5 consecutive putts from the 5' tee. If you ever miss a putt, you must start all over at the 3' tee. The idea is to take out the variable of break, so you can concentrate on alignment and mechanics. Also, if you can get to a point where you can easily complete this drill, you should become really confident when you face similar length putts in a round. 2) Practice lag putting by, at worst, two putting 5 consecutive 20 to 40 foot putts. Pick your distance and putt 5 balls from there. After that, you must hole the next putt from wherever each ball ended up, or you have failed the drill. In his opinion spending a sizable amount of putting practice on intermediate length putts (10 or 15 feet, let's say), won't lower your scores. I thought I'd share these ideas as I think they make a lot of sense. I would be interested if others agree, or think there are better ways of practicing (I know there are a million different practice routines to choose from...).

I do drills like these. They're definitely good drills. I also like using the spiral drill where you put balls around a hole making a spiral. That way each putt plays differently. I also will take 4 balls and place them different distances and in different places on the green in relation to a chosen hole. I have to either hole the putt or make the second one. This has made my putting very good and I almost never 3 putt. At the moment, I usually have somewhere around 30 putts per round.

[saevel25]

Originally Posted by boil3rmak3r

In his opinion spending a sizable amount of putting practice on intermediate length putts (10 or 15 feet, let's say), won't lower your scores.

I can't remember the stats on this one, but i believe it was dave pelz, with golf.com that showed that outside of 20' pro's are about as good as most amateurs in putting. Were they are way better is from 15' and in.

I agree, distance control is everything. Alot of times i wont pick a line, i will just use the hole as a target and putt to it, and trying to get the balls to line up at the back lip of the hole. I will just putt this way from all different ranges. Then i will spend time doing putts were i will putt over a mark in the green, you can put down a small ball marker if you want. Just putt over that, don't care about distance, just make sure your hitting your mark. This is how i usually think on the course. I practice my stroke so i don't have to worry about the mark when i finally make my putt, i can worry about the speed. So i seperate the two. Because if i worry about my mark, then i will try to manipulate the clubhead which throws off speed. Ever pull a short putt 3+ feet past the hole, worrying about the line to much. Did it last night, something crept in my head at the last minute, bad thought, and all went to hell on that putt.

[birlyshirly]

I can't remember the stats on this one, but i believe it was dave pelz, with golf.com that showed that outside of 20' pro's are about as good as most amateurs in putting. Were they are way better is from 15' and in.

this is just a guess, but I think that, at 20 ft most pros and ams will 2 putt on average. I expect the pro will have the advantage closer in, but also from further away. I'd guess that most pros will legitimately expect to 2 putt from 40, 50 and even 60 feet, well into 3 putt territory for most ams. Or, is that just me...