Golf Instruction -
Improving Putting Practice
Here's How:
1. Use the practice green to guage speed and work on distance control.
Distance control (sometimes called speed control) should be the focus
when practicing putting.
2. Hit your putts at a ball marker, not at a hole, to start with. Don't
immediately try to make putts - simply roll the ball toward a ball
marker you've put down about six feet away. Think about the stroke and
centering the ball on the putter face.
3. Set down distance markers and alternate putting to different
distances. Set ball markers, clubs or some other markers at 10-foot
intervals, out to 30 feet. Alternate hitting balls to the different
distances.
4. Hit from one side of the green to the other to practice long putts.
Making a 70-footer is something we're very unlikely to do, it doesn't
make sense to aim at the cup. You'll only be disappointed when the ball
doesn't go in.
5. Practice making putts, not missing them. Putt from no more than six
feet out, and preferably around four feet out. Even the pros make only
about half their 6-footers. If you're practicing 15-footers, you're only
hurting your confidence.
6. Putt on a flat part of the practice green. On a practice green, you
want to practing making putts. That means putting from a short distance
- and on a flat part of the green. Short, flat putts are the ones you
have to make to get better.
7. Always end your practice session by making short putts. Don't walk
off the green on a miss. Force yourselve to make five or six putts in a
row to end the session - even if you have to putt from 6 inches to do
it.
Tips:
1. Visualize to stay positive. Confidence plays a huge role in putting.
As you stand over putts on the practice green, visualize a trough
leading from your putter to the cup and imagine hearing the sound of the
ball dropping into the cup.
2. Put down a chalk line to practice keeping your putter on-line. You
can find a chalk line in a hardware store - it's that string carpenters
snap to a surface to leave a chalk imprint.
3. Practice keeping your putter on line and hitting the sweet spot in
your living room. Use an alignment tool (a ruler, for instance) and
putting aids you can buy to affix to your putter's head that will help
with centering the stroke.
From:
http://golf.about.com/cs/2003seniortour/ht/puttingdrills.htm
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