After observing my playing partners over many years on the golf course, I am convinced that most golfers would drastically improve their scores if they could hole more of those crucial six- to eight-footers.
Whether you practice your putting drills at the golf club, or on a putting mat at home, incorporating time to work on short putts will help to alleviate stress and pressure when standing over the ball in your next club competition.
In this article, expert golf coach Peter Dawson shares his best putting tips to help you feel more confident that you will find the hole from short range...
Short Putting Drills: Hole Out More Effectively
It goes without saying that embedding the correct putting set-up will inevitably help your success rate over any putt, so ensure you have worked out how to grip the putter in a way that suits you best.
The first drill involves setting up a number of balls in a line close to the hole about a foot apart. In the image below I've got five balls, but you can have six, eight or however many you want. You can do this on a putting green, or using one of the best putting aids to take your practice mobile.
You must then hole them all in sequence. As soon as you miss one, it's time to drop down the ladder and start again. It’s a great drill for concentration and confidence, especially if you promise yourself a little treat when you’ve holed them all.
The second drill (to the left of my feet in the image below) requires six tee pegs. Two of them are used to form a smaller gate for the ball to go through a couple of feet out from the hole; the other four are for a bigger gate for the putter head to pass through.
The idea is to putt the ball through the little gate and into the hole without clipping any of the tee pegs with your putter, and obviously missing the two tee pegs in the smaller gate as they will deflect your ball off-line.
The key is to listen for the ball to drop rather than looking up early, as looking up invariably causes you to clip the tee pegs with your putter and miss. This drill really improves your concentration, encourages you to keep your head still with your eyes over the ball, and promotes a real pendulum stroke.
Here are three key takeaways for short putting drills:
1. Hole them all - Incentivise things by promising yourself a coffee or a nice cold drink once you’ve managed to hole all five, six or however many you’ve laid out in one go.
2. Start again - As soon as you miss one, retrieve all the balls and start again! Seeing ball after ball dropping into the hole will do wonders for your confidence.
3. No peeking - The real key to the double gate drill is to keep your head still and your eyes over the ball rather than anxiously looking up early to see if you’ve holed it.
