Throughout the amateur game, and indeed the professionals, the person that holes the most putts from inside of 6 feet is generally the person that wins the most often.
It is something that many amateur golfers fail to notice as a major shot saving skill and therefore rarely practice from this distance, instead focussing on longer putts and learning the speed of greens.
But if you can dedicate at least 50% of your practice time to putts of up to 6 feet, then you will see a reduction in your scores of around 3 shots per round.
Increase the number of hours you spend practicing holing this length of putt and the number of shots saved could be even greater.
OK, I know that putting practice can be tedious and boring, but you need to try and spice things up on the green.
There are a few things you could do;
1 – Practice with a friend
Practicing with a friend offers up two benefits; a) you are not alone and the boredom is removed and b) you have someone to compete with in friendly competitions
2 – Practice at home
By including at home practice you are immediately reducing the “block” of time that you need to practice, by doing it in small bursts practice sessions become more interesting and more intense. Increasing the intensity of your practice sessions yields better results.
3 – Set goals
By setting goals you can track your progress.
Tracking your progress can help to motivate you so that you continue to develop.
4 – Use practice drills
Practice drills are the main stay in any practice regime
Using drills ensures that you are sticking to the plan.
There are a number of drills that you can use for your putting practice.
But for me the two most productive drills are;
The compass drill.
At each point of the compass place a ball a 12 inch intervals, back to 6 foot (6 balls). Starting with the closest see how far you can get before you miss.
Ideally you want to keep trying to do this until you can hole all 24 balls, to build confidence you can start with just three balls at each point.
The Clock face
Place a ball on each hour. You can start at 12 inches from the hole.
Work your way around the clock face, holing each ball.
With the juniors I taught I used to select 4 balls numbered 1 to 4 and ask a junior to pick the number of times they must complete the clock face before they could move on to the next drill.
The same idea could be applied to the distance you set the balls from the hole.
If you want to improve, you must look at your putting and become more efficient from 6 foot and closer.
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