Golf Putting Drills
For beginner golfers, practicing putting drills is one of the quickest ways to slash strokes from your score. Putting accounts for more than 40% of the strokes made on the course, so it only makes sense to devote a significant part of practice time to golf putting drills.
Many players lose a significant number of strokes once they get onto the green. What starts as a small erosion of score can quickly turn into the Grand Canyon of flubbed shots. 3-putts, 4-putts, and even 5-putts are more common than you might think. But fear not! Simple golf putting drills can dramatically help you refine your skills on the green.
Golf putting drills should have a specific purpose and specific goal (even though you can do them just for fun if you want to). When it comes to golf putting drills, spend time working on these four essentials:
- Keeping the club face square
- Maintaining a smooth swing
- Achieving distance control
- Mastering accuracy
Keeping the Club Face Square
To help you visualize a golf club whose face is square to the target, a little club anatomy is in order. The end of the club that connects to the shaft is called the heel. The other end (the free end) is called the toe. The face is the flat area in between that strikes the ball.
The club face can impact the ball in one of three ways: square, open or closed. When the club is square to the ball, the heel and the toe form a line that’s perpendicular to a line between the club, ball and target. When the club is open, the toe is turned a bit behind the perpendicular line. When the club is closed, the toe is turned a bit ahead of perpendicular.
When the club face is open or closed, the ball will go left or right of the target and not where you want it to. To develop the skill of keeping the club face square, try this drill:
Drill: Place a ball on the practice green and put a tee in the ground about a foot behind the ball. Put a coin or golf ball marker on the ground about six inches in front of the ball. Place your putter so the club face is square to a line between the ball and the coin. Bring your putter back until it lightly taps the tee and then swing it forward, striking the ball. The face of the putter should stay square as it passes over the coin. Keep practicing until you can do this consistently.
Maintaining a Smooth Swing
The second of the golf putting drills will help you learn to swing the club smoothly. A smooth swing is essential to maintaining your tempo and striking the ball solidly. It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t a smooth swing.
Drill: Again, place a ball on the practice green and put a tee in the ground about a foot behind the ball. Bring your putter back until it lightly taps the tee and then swing it forward, striking the ball. Concentrate on moving your arms smoothly between the two points, swinging from your shoulders like a pendulum. Keep practicing until you can perform this smooth motion consistently.
Here’s a putting swing tip from our friends at PurePoint Golf:
Achieving Distance Control
Working on distance control is one of the two most important golf putting drills. The only way to master distance control is through your own touch or feel, and that comes only with hands-on practice.
Drill: One of the best golf putting drills for distance control is to put 5 tees in the ground, 4 feet apart, with the last tee being 20 feet away from you. Then practice putting the ball to reach a tee at every distance. What you’re working on here is pacing – how hard and how fast to strike the ball to get it to each of the tees consistently. If the ball rolls a few inches past the tee, that’s OK. What you don’t want is for the ball to stop short of or roll well past the target tee.
Notice that you’re not aiming at a flag or a cup with this drill, because that could distract you and cause you to focus more on accuracy than distance. While it’s true that distance and accuracy have to work together, there are times when each one should be practiced separately. Steak and lobster are great together, too, but sometimes they should be eaten separately.
Mastering Accuracy
The other of the two most important golf putting drills is for accuracy. Accuracy is a matter of proper alignment and aim. This is where the first of the putting drills — keeping the club face square — really pays off. Keeping the club face and your swing square to the target is the only way to make the ball go where you want it to — which is into the cup.
Drill: There are all kinds of practice putting green products available for indoors and outdoors. But for a beginner golfer, the simplest method for working on accuracy is the “cup on the carpet” drill. All it takes is a drinking cup or glass turned on its side on the floor and boom! — you’ve got a practice hole to aim at. Your goal here, as it is on the course, of course, is to hit the ball into the cup.
Start with 3 balls about 2 feet from the cup and make your putts. Concentrate on accuracy, accuracy, accuracy. Then move back a couple of feet each time and keep practicing. The distance is limited only by the length of your room. What could be easier?
Now watch what happens when you put distance control and accuracy together, courtesy of Putting to Win:
These are only a few of the dozens of putting drills available from golf pros and golfing websites. Learn to love golf putting drills and your putter will love you in return. And can’t we all use a little more love?
Now that you know more about putting drills, check out the putting instruction at How to Break 80.