Holing more putts is the key!

Your success on any given day on the golf course relies heavily on your success from within six feet of the hole. If you had the ability to break down your best ever round of golf, I can almost guarantee that you would have had an abnormally high success rate from within that range. With a change in the way you approach these putts mentally and a little extra time spent on quality practice, you can dramatically improve your ability of consistently holing shorter length putts.

You can lay the foundations of your putting success by first becoming competent from three feet. Place 10 tee pegs in a 3ft circle around the hole. Move around the circle striking the putts into the cup, only moving on to further practice after completing 10 consecutive putts in a row. Eventually, from 4ft you should be able to hole seven out of 10 putts and from 5ft you should be able to achieve six out of 10 putts.

The PGA Tour average for putts held from 3ft is 97 per cent, so with some more practice you will become very confident from that range. The tour average from 4ft is 75 per cent whilst from 5ft it drops to a staggering 56 per cent success rate.

These statistics emphasise the importance of getting your longer putts into that magic 3ft circle so, leaving the circle of tees around the hole, you should hit three putts from 20ft, 40ft and 60ft attempting to get all nine balls in that zone. You should aim to spend at least one session per week where you complete all of the listed drills. Without practise to strengthen your technique and give you confidence, you will not make any significant change to the number of short putts held on any given day on the course.

With quality practice time behind you, you can now approach the course with a new attitude - your technique on the green will feel more automatic and should not need any conscious thought. The best putters will only need to see the ball in their mind's eye travelling along its path and dropping into the cup, and without any conscious thought they will produce the action.

Players in all sports are at their best when they perform the skill free from control or mental chatter. This state of mind is crucial to achieving your best results whilst putting, but it cannot be achieved without the experience gained from the correct forms of practise.