Often overlooked by players, but the truth lies in stating that putting is one of the most vital components of the game. It’s time to hit pause on setting your goal as increasing distance, and instead, turn your efforts into maximizing your putting.
If you’re a golfer who is dedicated to lower your scores, and fast, the right way to go is developing putting drills that work. The majority of players lose a significant number of strokes once they get onto the green. By utilizing putting drills, you can learn to get the ball into the hole with a fewer number of strokes.
In terms of advice, any seasoned golfer will tell you that the short game can be stroke-hungry. On top of that, they say that what happens on the green can wreak havoc on an otherwise good score.
3-putts, 4-putts, and even 5-putts are more common than what most may think — but, there is good news. Putting drills can dramatically help players hone their skills and habits on the green which then results in a reduced number of total strokes.
Specifically, when it comes to putting drills, you should spend more time concentrating on three essentials:
• Keeping the cub face square
• Maintaining a smooth swing throughout
• Achieving distance control
And we will tackle each and everyone precisely.
Keeping the Face Square
If you are a player with the bad habit of hitting with ball with your blade open or closed, try this.
First, place a ball on the practice green and put a tee into the ground, about twelve inches behind the ball. Next, put a silver coin on the ground, approximately six inches in front of the golf ball. Now, bring your putter back until it taps the tee, and then swing it forward. As you swing, watch with your eyes to ensure that the club face stays square as it passes over the coin.
Once you’ve practiced it several times and recognize it visually and by body movement, you are at a great position to improve putting.
Another drill to keep the face square is the meter stick drill.
The first thing to do is to place a meter stick right on the edge of the hole or any target. On the other end of the stick, you can put your ball. In the event that the ball rolls down the stick or directly parallel next to the stick, then that indicates that your putter face at impact, was square, with a good, steady roll.
Maintaining a Smooth Swing
With every single golf drill, there should be a known, specific purpose and a specific goal, especially with putting drills. Through this next tip, golfers are able to learn how to swing the club smoothly, which is the key to maintaining your tempo and striking the ball in a solid, clean manner.
Similar to the other drill, place the ball on the practice green and stick a tee into the ground, about 12 inches behind the ball. Once you bring the club back, continue to do so until it barely nicks the tee and then immediately go into your fore-swing.
With this, keep your arms moving a pendulum fashion with your hands completely still.
Returning back to our first point, the purpose of the drill is to turn swinging the club smoothly into a habit, and the goal is to maintain your tempo and make contact with the golf ball with a solid, clean hit.
Achieving distance control
Among all the drills possible, one of the most crucial putting drills is learning distance control as a player. It is quite tricky as the only way to master distance control is through your own touch and feel. More specifically, nothing else can match, nor replace hands-on practice time when it comes to honing your skills on the green.
Distance control and its reputation of being vital means there are dozens of training exercises meant for it. However, this is one of the best drills to achieve it.
Simply stake out five tees, four feet apart from each other, with the last tee placed 20 feet away. This is then followed by concentrating on getting the ball to each of the tees consistently. If the ball ends up rolling a few inches past the tee, don’t worry, that is fine. On the other hand, what you don’t want to occur and witness is the ball stopping short of or rolling well beyond the target tee.
With this specific exercise, take note that as the player, you are not aiming at a flag or a cup. The reason behind this is, either of these two can distract you and lead to a mentality wherein you focus on accuracy over distance. While it holds true that distance and accuracy must work hand in hand, there are times when they should not be learned together — and this is an instance of such.
However, if you are a player who finds motivation and drive through a flag or a hole, here is a drill for you.
First, place a club or any indicator about to two feet behind your designated target. As the golfer, start off 20 feet away or so and putt. The goal of the exercise is to have the ball land into the hole or past your target. You can go past it, but the ball must not touch the club behind or your chosen indicator.
To close it off, these are only a few of the many, many putting drills and exercises that a player may find on golfing websites or hear from golf pros. In order to master your skill on the green, you will need to invest the necessary time and energy to do so.
It is important to learn how to read the green and how to lag a putt. Though, most of all, a golfer must learn to love putting drills — they really do work with the right amount of practice and motivation.
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