4 Putting Drills Guaranteed To Lower Your Scores

Oct 08, 2018

Improve your confidence on the greens by following these four steps...

4 Putting Drills Guaranteed To Lower Your Scores

Suffering with a lack of confidence on the greens?

Try these four simply, yet superb, practice putting drills devised by Golf Monthly Top 25 Coach Ged Walters…

1) Gate drill

Being a great putter is almost entirely about starting the ball rolling on your intended line.

Consistently pushing or pulling your putts can be due to technical issues, so check your strike and start line regularly.

Start by laying down alignment sticks to check your ball position and body alignment, then create a gate.

Use tee pegs as gateposts a few feet away from you and try to hit the ball through the opening.

2 Goldilocks drill

Try this drill to find just the right pace

Once you are confident you are starting your putts on your intended line, it is worth devoting some time to your pace control.

There are numerous ways to do this, but I like the Goldilocks drill.

This involves picking a target about 20ft away from you on the practice green and hitting three putts.

Hit the first one a little too hard, hit the second one too soft and then try to get the third ball just right.

You should notice how the more you do this drill, the better your pace control becomes.

This is one of the quickest ways to get a feel for the pace of the greens and is a great one to use just before you go out to play.

3) 3×8 drill

This is my take on a classic round-the-clock drill.

Place eight balls around the hole, about 5ft out.

The idea is that you hole all eight balls and repeat it three times.

This is a great drill for two reasons – firstly, it will help you ingrain your pre-putt routine and secondly, it adds pressure to your practice.

As the break changes by a small amount for every putt, you need to stay focused throughout.

If you manage to complete it, you will be prepared for the challenge of compiling a good score.

4) Two-ball drill

The problem if you are trying to improve your putting is that over-thinking can reduce the fluidity and freedom of your stroke.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how you use the putter, as long as the face is square through impact.

To hone your striking, place two balls next to each other and putt them at the same time.

Can you get them to go in the same direction?

If you can, it shows that your face is working at the target through impact.

If you can’t, it shows that you’re either coming into them with a closed or open face and striking one before the other.

This is a simple way to check what is often the most complicated part of your putting technique.

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