Putting Training

This article talks about the importance of regular Putting Training

Golf can be broken down into several areas of play that you will need to master if you are to become a good player.  There are a lot of parts you need to master, of course the tee shot, chipping and pitching, sand play, fairway woods, hitting your driver and our favourite ‘Putting’.

You need to practice all of these skills but we believe you need to practice putting the most.

In our opinion putting training is a must because we believe putting is the most important part of the game and you need to become the best putter you can. So we recommend practicing as much as you can.

Why do we think putting is so important?

Well ask yourself a question, in an average round of golf which club will you use the most? I’m sure after you’ve given it some thought you will agree with us and say your putter.

If you don’t quite believe us, imagine if you play 18 holes and you two putt every green.

There’s 36 shots already.

It makes sense to us to practice the most with the club you use the most. In the example above if you could one-putt half the greens, you would only take 27 putts and knock a MASSIVE 9-shots off your score.

What a great way to get your handicap lower.  Sure we know it’s not quite that straight forward. Somedays, you’ll hit the green in regulation a lot and sometimes you won’t.

But what we are talking about here is effectively a game within a game.

Irrespective of how many shots it takes you to get on the green. Once you pull the putter out of your bag and start to putt, you will always start on putt number one. Even if you have just three putted the last green, you will still start at putt number one.

You have a chance to get the ball in the hole on every putt you look at and while improbable it’s not impossible to think you can make every putt. The reality is you won’t make every putt but you can go a long way to making sure you make more than you miss.

Putting Training Ideas

Make it Harder

The best way to practice your putting is to make your practice the same, or harder where possible, than it would be while you are playing on the golf course.  The biggest mistake we see on putting greens is using more than one ball.

When you are playing in a round of golf you don’t get to putt a second or third ball just because you missed the putt. So why would you practice something that will never happen in a real game.

By using just one ball, it will help you to read the slope, the break and the pace of the green. If you use more than one ball there is a danger that you will just remember what you have seen and duplicate it.

Now in some instances this is a good thing, on the course as you will be paying attention to your playing partners putts to glean information from them for your own putt. But when you are going through your drills on the putting green we suggest using just one ball.

Making it harder for yourself is a good idea too, if you can achieve this then when you come to play a game, it will be easier for you to do this. A couple of putting drills we use are:

Putting to a Golf Tee, rather than aiming at a hole. The Tee is very much smaller and is a harder target to hit. We try to putt as close to it as we can without hitting it. When you then start to putt towards a hole again, the hole will seem much bigger.

Another drill we use is to put a Tee-Peg about 3″ directly behind the hole and try to gently roll the ball into it. This takes the focus away from the hole and puts it on the Tee-peg. You will be amazed at how many more putts you make while practicing this way. When you go out onto the course you are less likely to come up short when putting. Never up – Never in is something we always try to avoid.

By making your putting routines harder than the real thing, you will be making the games easier for yourself when you go out on to the course. Putting training is an essential part of the game of golf, you really do only get out of golf what you put in to it.

We have created a video coaching course that takes you through all aspects of putting and will teach you to become a better and more consistent putter.

We wish you luck for taking fewer putts and shooting lower scores.