Putting Drill to Improve Feel and Distance Control

Hi, Robin here. Something all of us don’t consider enough in our putting is speed control, controlling the speed of your putt. We all stand there, working our stroke all day, trying to get the ball starting on line. But controlling your speed is equally important as to the direction of the putt. It’s essential before you play your round of golf that you develop a feel for the speed of the greens. So, I’ve got a simple drill, exercise, one that will only take you five or ten minutes before you play. It’s going to tune you into the greens in that day. It’ll give you a much better chance of making some putts and increasing your green putts.

We call it edge to edge. Anybody can stand with five balls from one distance, going to a pin to start to get the ball close. But that’s not really tuning yourself into the green. You need to hit a variety of putts. In this drill, using different edges all the time, you’re going to hit some uphill; you’re going to hit some downhill; you’re going to hit some longer putts, shorter putts, some across the slope. Within a short time, you’re going to have a really good feel for the green. I’ll be doing some shorter ones here. But, as the practice session went on, as the warm-up went on, I started to hit longer ones. There’s not too many guarantees in golf. You see, if you improve your feel of the speed of the green before you play, if you’ve got a better sense of the speed of the greens, your scores will be lower.