Help my putting !!

[Xbmchs12X]

well I had a match yesterday and noticed that I was cutting across the ball again on my short putts. Does anyone know a good drill to use so that I can fix that? I have a match today and would like to get some of my confedence back on my short putts

Also I cant seem to get my lag putts any closer than 6 feet, anyone have any good tips on how to lag 'em close?

[supercow]

Could try the gate drill where you have two pegs spaced slightly wider than putter at your strike zone. If your path it incorrect you'll hit one of them, it not all is good.

For lag putting, I normally have one of two thoughts. If I'm on super fast greens, I just think about changing the length of my swing and maintaining the same tempo throughout the stroke. If I'm on slower greens, I just think about accelerating through the stroke straight towards my target.

Oh, one more thing. I tend to think about rotating my entire upper torso instead of just my shoulders. Seems to make things easier for me since my grip tension is to slight.

[Diggitydog]

My lag putting has improved by focusing on the hole and trusting my insticts that I know how hard to hit the putt. Not very scientific but my distance control is improving.

[The Rambler]

i practice my speed by going to the practice green and looking at the hole while i putt.

[Flopper218]

What grip do you putt with? I do the reverse grip, Left Hand on bottom and that helped my distance control and my 'cutting across' AKA 'yips' on the shorter putts.

I like the reverse grip because it changes my mentality... there is no rotation in the wrist as there is with everyother golf shot you hit. Also, focusing on pulling the Left hand thru rather than pushing the right seems to help me on the short ones.

Everything I have read and everyone I have talked to says that lag putting is all about figuring out what the putt will do and picking out a spot 10 feet in front of you that you want to hit and trusting your read the rest of the way. I imagine you are playing your matches on your home course so your lag putts should be closer than 6 feet since you know speed and break pretty well.

If I were to guess I would just say it's that you aren't using your tools on the course. Are you using the side hill to kill the speed on a downhill putt? Are you trying to power through the break rather than play for it? Are you playing too much break too much early in the putt and not enough late in a long putt?

If you want to practice your lag putts go out to a practice green with a lot of hills and stuff. Practice different lines with different speeds and see what happens. Maybe you will learn a new strategy for those long putts... of course you are pretty low handicap... but just my .02

[Xbmchs12X]

What grip do you putt with? I do the reverse grip, Left Hand on bottom and that helped my distance control and my 'cutting across' AKA 'yips' on the shorter putts.

great thanks, and my matchs are sometimes at home and sometimes away, today it was away and I played horrible, but is was all my short game, so I know what I need to work on, and im thinking about trying some new putting grips, one of the kids I was playing with today used the grip that your talking about and putted extremely well

Rambler- just wanted to let you know that I always putt like that, on and off the course xD

[countjyro]

I am not a great putter, especially on long putts, but recently I improved my short putts (2 feet and in). I would usually decelerate the putter so I don't know if this will help you. I read somewhere to shorten the backstroke for short putts, so now I only take the club back about 2 inches and "power through" the ball. Granted, if you miss the ball does roll for a bit, but I went from making about 1 of 5 short putts, to 4 of 5.

Again, I don't know if this will help your "across the ball" problem, but I figured I would mention it.