5 Putting Practice Tips to Sink More Putts

Putting is arguably the most important part of your golf game and thus you should be spending the majority of your practice time working on close range putts 2 feet to 8 feet. In addition to these closer putts we face many times per round, you also want to incorporate longer lag putts into your golf practice routine.

Before you spend hours working on various putting drills, make sure you have a solid fundamental putting stroke. One that can swing back and through straight while keeping the face square to hit the ball straight.

A great drill for this is the book path or box path drill. See video here.

Here are 5 additional practice tips to make the most of your time and see fastest improvement in your putting skills.

Putting Tip #1: Never leave breaking putts below the hole.

Every time you set up to hit a putt, make sure you play enough break! If not, you never give yourself a chance to make the putt.

Place a tee on the low side of the hole and in front of the hole so that the tee is between you and the hole. This way for breaking putts if you don’t play enough break the tee will block the ball from entering the low side of the hole.

It will train you to always give yourself a chance to make the putt by never leaving putts on the low side. Play enough break and you’ll see more putts go in.

Putting Tip #2: Keep track of your putts made versus putts attempted.

It’s common to go to the golf course and putt around on the practice green without much focus. If you have a habit of grabbing a few balls out of your bag and putting to random holes for 15 minutes before heading out to play 18, then this tip will help you improve the quality of those 15 minutes.

When you get onto the golf course grab 5 balls out of your bag if the green is pretty open and 3 balls if it is busy. We recommend 5 balls because it can be easier to record sets counting by 5’s and 10’s.

Once you’ve stepped onto the green focus on how many putts you make vs attempt. This extra focus will make you try harder on each putt. You can set a percentage requirement to hold yourself accountable to before going out to play on the course.

For example, set a goal to make 60% of the putts attempted. This means you’ll need to make 3 out of every 5 putts from inside 20 feet. Putts outside of 20 feet are not worth keeping track of because they are in the range of two putts.

Check out our golf practice plans to follow step by step.

Putting Tip #3: Start with putts at 3 feet and work your way back.

When you first step onto the practice green to putt, start at 3 feet and make several putts to get yourself in the mindset of seeing the ball go into the hole.

This can boost your confidence right off the start by seeing yourself make several putts in a row. It will also get your stroke warmed up. You can putt 1 handed putts from 3 feet as well to train your putting stroke.

Putting Tip #4: Lag putt with your eyes closed for feel.

Find putts from 30ft to 50ft away from a hole on the practice green and stroke putts with your eyes closed. Get yourself set up like you normally would for a putt of this distance and right before you make the stroke close your eyes.

Then while your eyes are closed use your senses to judge how hard you think you hit the putt.

Guess in your head whether your putt will be short, the right distance, or long. Open your eyes and evaluate your putt and if you were right or wrong.

This teaches you feel. Feel is important for stroking lag putts that roll the proper distance so that you can have tap-in’s for the next putt and avoid a dreaded 3 putt.

Putting Tip #5: Perform the 100 putt test once a week

Each week you should test yourself and compare with previous weeks to see if you are improving. Pick a distance to putt from such as 5 feet and place a tee there to hold the spot.

Using 5 or 10 balls perform sets of putts until you’ve putted 100 times from 5 feet.

Record how many you made out of 100 and this is your make percentage at 5 feet. If you putt with break then make sure to use the same break if possible every week. Otherwise it may be beneficial to find a flat putt.

Again, these are 5 simple putting tips to take to the course and make your practices more focused even if it’s only a few minutes of warming up before heading out onto the course. Pride yourself in getting better and take all putts serious.

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