Putting drills/tips

Played the medal this morning, shot 75 net which obviously isn't great, but I had a rather astounding 44 putts* overall. I didn't hole anything longer than about 5 feet. Even just a couple of these dropping would have me around level par net, as the rest of my game is acceptable/ok at the moment. I think I had a single 1-putt. I had 2 four putts, and god knows how many three-putts.

So I'm just wondering what people have done to improve their putting? Any particularly good drills, beyond just standing there on the practice green hitting putt after putt? It's absolutely killing any chance of scoring I have.



* It's a links, so a handful of these were from off the green and possibly don't count as regulation putts, but they're putts nonetheless.

ShivasIrons

Gerald Narrow Logging wrote: »

So I'm just wondering what people have done to improve their putting?

Best thing to do is get a putting lesson, find out where you're going wrong, and practice effectively to improve.

e.r

A tip that helped me. Use the line on the ball and always have it pointing directly at the hole. Then when you address the ball you know where straight to the hole is by the line on ball, so adjust your putter head to where you think the break is.

Hope this makes sense

e.r

e.r wrote: »

A tip that helped me. Use the line on the ball and always have it pointing directly at the hole. Then when you address the ball you know where straight to the hole is by the line on ball, so adjust your putter head to where you think the break is.

Hope this makes sense

Makes perfect sense, will try it out.


And yeah I think a lesson is probably in order.

JOSman

Putt with your shoulders only and very short back swing.

ShivasIrons

JOSman wrote: »

Putt with your shoulders only and very short back swing.

Who of the great putters does this? Can't think of any great putter with a short backswing.

PARlance

If only someone had told Jack to putt with his shoulders. He could have beaten his own records.
https://youtu.be/YZsGuyvlGic

A New earth

Going through this myself at the moment and the two words I think of before hitting the ball is :

Ball & wrists i.e.


Ball:- keep eyes on the ball, as lifting head too early causes body to move and you don't hit ball cleanly

Wrists:- keep wrists from breaking i.e. use arms and shoulders instead of hands.

Looking at the professionals these days they all seem to be doing both of these.

Working so far for me anyway. Hearing good reports about left hand below right (for right-handers) and the claw grip but have not tried either.

I wouldn't be counting putts a long way out, say outside of 8/10 feet on a links as most people would count these as chips as they would usually be on a parkland course.

Hope some of that helps, a putting lessons is a good idea

Rikand

ShivasIrons wrote: »

Who of the great putters does this? Can't think of any great putter with a short backswing.

A short back stroke would encourage acceleration through the ball as opposed to a longer one where you may decelerate

Rikand

Gerald Narrow Logging wrote: »

Makes perfect sense, will try it out.


And yeah I think a lesson is probably in order.

When you're happy with your stroke you can try some of the practice routines from this post here. If you have the time you'll definitely improve your putting with these

http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2056502344/4/#post76306435

Rikand

Rikand wrote: »

When you're happy with your stroke you can try some of the practice routines from this post here. If you have the time you'll definitely improve your putting with these

http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2056502344/4/#post76306435

Forgive me but which post am I looking at? I can see reference to trying to get 25 putts in a row from 3 feet, is it that?

Rikand

Gerald Narrow Logging wrote: »

Forgive me but which post am I looking at? I can see reference to trying to get 25 putts in a row from 3 feet, is it that?

Yes that's the one. It's a long convoluted post but about 2/3's of the way down it you have the putting/chipping drills

Rikand

PARlance wrote: »

If only someone had told Jack to putt with his shoulders. He could have beaten his own records.
https://youtu.be/YZsGuyvlGic

While we're talking about jack he always considered Crenshaw to be the finest putter he'd seen. Some nice thoughts on putting here from crenshaw if you're interested.

https://youtu.be/NYJzuuwhGtM

spacecoyote

ShivasIrons wrote: »

Who of the great putters does this? Can't think of any great putter with a short backswing.

I've been for a couple of short game lessons with different pros & all essentially came to the same point (which Rikand refers to above) that roughly speaking your back swing should be half the length of your follow through, as it encourages you to accelerate through the ball.

Also OP, get super confident with putts from 3ft & in. If you're confident that you'll make putts from this distance then it lets you be more confident to take a roll at a putt. If you run beyond the hole, then you'll feel you have a good chance of making the putt back.

I don't really like the logic of lining up the line of the ball straight at the hole & then adjusting the putter head, I think it makes much more sense to line up with line on the ball on the line you want to hit it. Makes lining up the putter head considerably simpler I would have thought?

Also, try not beat yourself up too much. Look at the PGA tour numbers. These are the numbers for the guy ranked 50th on the PGA tour in each category (and the guys ranked 50th on the PGA tour are in a different class to us mortals):

Putts inside 5': 97.26%
Putts 5-10': 60.43%
Putts 10-15': 32.92%
Putts 15-20': 21.74%
Putts 20-25': 15.56%
Putts >25': 6.54%

ie. These guys are not making as many putts as you think they are, so don't beat yourself up if you're missing a putt!

Jawgap

After the weekend of putting I had, it's probably ridiculous that I should offer a tip but here goes......

.....when I practice putting I put two coins down behind each other and the ball so all three line up and putt - the objective is not to disturb the coins. It helps make sure you're not dropping the toe or heel and encourages a solid contact through the middle so the ball rolls rather than skids or jumps.

Also, putt 2 balls at once - in theory if the face is square they should both roll the same distance and stop at roughly the same time - if one gets there 'first' ahead of the other then either the face is open or closed at the point of impact.

Finally, generally when I practice, I spend most of the time practicing the 'knee-knockers' - anything out to about 6 feet.

mike12

Buy a putting fork or a peltz putting gizmo both basically ensure that u are starting the ball on the line u are aiming.
Once u are starting the ball where it should be going it is then down to reading the line and pace.
Both are very useful when it comes to reading greens as well.
My favorite drill is start at 3 foot and work your way back in 3 foot increments gives u a good feel of line and pace required to hole a putt.

Montgolfier

Putting is an art so get your mechanics right ask a pro, then stick to that set up. Once you have it engrained then you can start learning to putt. Point is you can't putt well thinking about mechanics you putt with feel and touch.

newport2

Gerald Narrow Logging wrote: »

So I'm just wondering what people have done to improve their putting? Any particularly good drills, beyond just standing there on the practice green hitting putt after putt? It's absolutely killing any chance of scoring I have.

I got Stan Utley's "The Art of Putting" and it has worked great for me. Didn't take long to get it to work either, although I must say I putted fairly similar to the style he teaches anyway. Wasn't putting too bad before I got it, but I wanted a solid set of references (to grip, stance, setup, etc) that I could keep going back to in the future if things started going awry. It's worked well and is worth a look. Book takes about an hour to read.

ShivasIrons

Rikand wrote: »

ShivasIrons wrote: »

Who of the great putters does this? Can't think of any great putter with a short backswing.

A short back stroke would encourage acceleration through the ball as opposed to a longer one where you may decelerate

It's a myth to suggest that acceleration is required in a putting stroke. Many great putters decel, think Ben Crenshaw and his long to short stroke.

Another way to look at it is how would you roll a ball from your hand across a green. That would be a very smooth movement with little or no acceleration.

The concept that acceleration is required leads to many problems for golfers.

Potential Underachiever

Last week I decided to try the 'Claw Grip' having always thought it looked ridiculous and there was no way it could ever work for me, surprisingly it feels so good.

I feel like there's a lot more flow in my stroke a better follow through and also feels like I'm just rocking my shoulders and eliminating any unwanted wrist action, I managed to play one round with it because of course playing on the practice putting green is one thing but a proper round another, I putted pretty well, definitely sticking with it.

Could be worth a go OP, just from changing grip I feel like my action has changed dramatically.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I may give thy claw grip a go, things can hardly get much worse.

fourinarow

I bought Ken Browns book 'One Putt', thought it was a great read and helped my putting a lot.

frostie500

Best think I did for learning to putt better was to just to relax about it all! Easiest thing in the world to say but hardest to do obviously! The way that I relaxed was to just practice a little at home with a pretty simple drill.
I'd take my putter onto the carpet and try and putt along the straight lines of the design. The way I look at it is that with putting the key is to make sure that I have the face back square at impact and if I can putt along this line it's a sign that I'm doing that correctly. With a long carpet I could practice putting straight for 3 feet then 10 feet then 15 feet and get solid results and feedback on what I was doing. If it was going to the side I knew i'd opened or closed the face.
When I went out on the course I had more confidence as a result of doing that at home because I knew that once I looked at the line and understood the break of the green that I'd be able to strike the ball confidently. When I was play on the course I always try and line up something on the ball with the line I want to take and extend that back through the lines on my putter. I'll pick a point 12 inches in front of the ball on my line and make sure that I run over that point. If I've done that then I've hit the ball with a square clubface and know that I'm halfway there.
The stats above dont lie about putting but if you run over that spot and have the length close enough (inside 3 or 4 feet of the hole) you're always giving yourself the chance of a two putt.
I did this and went from being a terrible putter to a decent one (mostly two putt but come away with about 30 putts a round) just because I could get more confident and understand that the odd three putt wasnt the worst thing in the world

BigChap1759

Routine I got from Neil Manchip is good - take 6 balls and put them around the hole in a circle at one pace distance(3 feet). Use your full routine to make them.

Keep your score out of 6 and then repeat at 2 and 3 paces from the hole(6 & 9 feet).

Always try and beat your personal best for 18 putts - works well for me for getting your eye in before a round as you're really concentrating on every putt instead of just putting aimlessly