Putting Drills

This Post’s focus is helping you putt better.  Almost everyone who plays golf has gone through a stretch when they miss a lot of 3 or 4 footers or struggle to control the speed on their putts.  It’s no accident that I have about 20 putters in my workshop just waiting for their next chance to get back into the line-up!  If you want to be a better putter, you will have to practice. The following are a few of my favourite drills.

Aim the Putter Face Correctly for Direction Control

The single biggest factor, which controls direction, is the aim of the putter face.  You must learn how to aim the putter face correctly if you want to putt effectively.  The putter face must sit perpendicular to the line you want to start your ball on.  The easiest way to check you putter aim is to have someone stand behind you and tell you where your putter is aiming.  If you are aiming incorrectly, have them adjust your putter until it sits correctly.  Do this a few times so you can begin to recognize a correctly aimed putter.  There are also many training aids on the market, which can help you learn to aim in the right direction.

An easy way to check your aim on your own is to put two clubs down to form a track towards the hole (as in the drawing).  You will be able to easily see if your putter is perpendicular to the shafts on the ground.

Once you have your putter aimed correctly, a good stroke will be much easier to execute because you won’t have to compensate for you bad aim during your stroke.  There are a few fundamentals with respect to set up and stroke, which you may also need to improve but those issues are better dealt with in person with a CPGA Teaching Professional.

Develop a Feel for Distance Control

The other major factor, speed control is a learned skill.  You can very quickly acquire a sense of distance by going to a practice putting green and rolling some balls.  The best drill I know of to improve distance control is to roll a series of putts with each putt rolling a few feet further than the putt before it.  You should be able to roll 4 or 5 putts and have a consistent distance between them.  If you struggle to do this, spend more time practicing because distance control is entirely a learned skill.

Do You Expect to Make the Putt?

The final component of being a good short putter is attitude.  You have to expect to make every putt you attempt.  To develop this confidence, I have a couple of drills I use with my students; the “Compass Drill” (pictured below) and the “Line Drill”.  The compass drill involves rolling putts from north, south, east and west from a distance of two feet.  You must make all four in a row to move on.  You then do the same from four feet and after you make all four of those putts in a row, you move out to six feet.  If you’re like me and you have limited time to practice, you may not complete all the six-footers!  There are two really strong benefits of this drill.  First, you may not make four putts in a row very often but you will make a lot of putts as you go through the drill.  Secondly, as you stand over that fourth ball, needing to make it to move on, you will feel just a little bit of pressure and this will help prepare you for the golf course.

The line drill (pictured below) is a simple one as well.  You line up four or five balls, every three feet, in a straight line back from the hole.  To complete the drill, you must make all of your balls in a row.  Once again, you will make a lot of putts as you attempt to complete the drill and when you get to the last ball, you will really want to make it so you can go home!

I hope this post will help you make more of those 3 and 4-footers.  Remember, aim the putter correctly and then forget about direction.  Switch your brain over to speed and roll the ball the correct distance.  It may take you some practice to rid yourself of that need to control direction with your stroke but once you do, your putting will really improve!!

Please let me know if you have more questions about putting or if you have other drills you have used to help your putting game.

Today’s topic is chipping.  Strictly speaking, a chip shot is one played very close to the green and spends most of its time rolling on the green like a putt.  We teach chipping in three steps:

1. Good Technique = Consistent Contact
2. Consistent Contact allows you to learn feel for distance through the air
3. Practice teaches you which club to use for different amounts of roll

Consistent Contact

We have all hit chip shots when we hit well behind the ball and the ball goes only a few feet.  We have also hit the ball near the equator and watched in horror as the ball goes zipping across the green.  To become a good chipper it is imperative to have the ability to consistently strike the ball solidly.  To accomplish this we need a good set and a solid chipping stroke.

SET UP

Our set up should discourage excess lower body motion and promote a descending blow on the ball.

• To limit lower body movement, position your feet closer together, and bring your front foot back slightly away from the target line.  This is called opening your stance and it will help allow your follow through to happen more naturally.
• Stand more upright and closer to the ball.  Do not bend too much at the hips or with your knees.
• The position of the ball will be between your back foot and the middle of your stance.
• Position your hands in the middle of your grip (choking down).  This will bring you closer to the ball and will also give you more control over the clubhead.
• Your hands will be slightly ahead of the ball.
• You should have more weight on your front foot than your back (60% front – 40% back).

THE STROKE

Now that you are in a good set up position, your stroke should be like a putting stroke.  It should be an arm and shoulder pendulum motion.  There should be very little wrist hinging.  The loft of the club we choose will determine how high the ball flies, so we do not have to chop at the ball or help the ball up with our wrists.  By using this set up you should hit the ball solidly on a more consistent basis.

DISTANCE CONTROL

Once you can achieve solid contact most of the time you can learn to control the distance your ball flies with each club by changing the length of your stroke.  This skill will allow you to land the ball where you want, on the green whenever possible.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT CLUB

In order to determine what club to use you must decide how much you want the ball to roll after it lands.  The best thing to do is take your Wedge and your 7 iron and hit it from the same area and try to land them in the same spot.  What you will see is that the 7-iron will will not go as high in the air and will run a lot further than the the wedge.  As you practice this shot, try using your 8 and 9 iron as well.  In time you will know how much roll each club will give you.

Remember to always plan the type of shot you are going to play, don’t just step up and hit the ball without visualizing how much roll you want.  Your target is the spot you want the ball to land, not the hole.  The sooner the ball gets on the green, the better.  Try to land it 2 – 3 feet onto the green whenever possible.

With a little bit of practice around a chipping green, you can quickly become a good chipper.  When you are a good chipper your scores will go down and your fun will go up!

I hope this helps your chipping game and those up and downs start happening all the time.  Let me know if this article was helpful for you.  Good Luck!!