Tips to perfect your putting

Leaving a putt short, in the ‘jaws’ of the hole has got to be one of the most frustrating things that can happen on the golf course.

It is about as frustrating as when one of your playing partners comment on said putt with the amazingly annoying clichés, ‘never up, never in’ or ‘You’ve dropped your lip stick, Doris’.

As much as you might feel like throttling them, they do have a point. If you watch elite golfers putt, you will notice that most of their putts do get past the hole, thus giving them a chance of going in. Let’s discuss a drill that encourages you to become a more positive putter.

SET-UP
Head to the practice green with your putter, three balls and seven tees. Use one of the tees to mark a spot roughly twenty feet below a hole and then organise the remaining tees as shown in the diagram, pictured left. The space between the first two sets of tees should be two feet and the second sets should be one foot. The goal of this drill is to help you become positive with your putting as there are absolutely no prizes for leaving your putts short!

SCORING
In this drill, if you hole the putt, you get three points and if your ball finishes in box A, you get two points because it was a controlled positive effort. If your ball finishes in box B, you only get one point because although you got it past the hole, it was a little too strong.

If your ball finishes anywhere other than the hole, box A or box B, you get minus five points.

The idea of the drill is that you become very focused on your pace and learn to stroke the ball at a speed where it has a chance to drop into the hole.

Naturally, there are circumstances on the golf course where you cannot be overly aggressive with your putting and lagging the ball at the hole is a sensible option. However, if you spend some time practicing this drill, you will become more confident with your speed and therefore give more of your putts a chance.

Also, if getting the ball up to the hole means that you don’t have to listen to your smug playing partner’s remarks, it might just be worth the practice!