Best Way to Practice Short Putting in Golf

Practice is vital to success in any area of golf and none the less so in putting. After all, remember that putting can make up as much as 40 percent of your game as a high handicapper and even more as you improve at your handicap.

To become a good short putter, practice repeatedly from 1 metre (3ft). From this distance you really should be able to get a 100 percent success rate. Firstly, this gives you confidence. Secondly, if you miss putts you get feedback.

You start learning about your own stroke. Even putting machines cannot get the ball in the hole every time from 1.5 metres (5ft) or 1.83 metres (6ft), so putting from these distances you lose confidence and learn far less. If you learn to become a good putter from 1 metre (3ft), you soon get more confidence with your long putting and your chipping from around the green. So, practice from 1 metre with a straight putt and see how many you can get in. Set a target, whether 20, 50, or 100, and don’t go home until you achieve it!

Line up a row of six balls from 0.6 metre-2.4 metres (2-8ft). Try to keep your head and eyes still and keep your same good short putting stroke as you progress further along the line. If you should miss one, take the balls out and start all over again. By the time you get to the last putt, your head and eyes should stay still and you should hear the ball drop in!

Practice with a coin behind the ball. This encourages you to hang the putter from your arms and shoulders. Stay looking at the marker to keep your head and eyes still.

Put a tee peg in the back of the hole. Learn to make the ball hit the tee peg as it drops in. This teaches you to be positive rather than under-hitting putts. A putt travelling too slowly can wobble offline before it reaches the hole. A firmly hit putt holds its line.

Some players do well on the practice green and not on the course. Make your normal practice to keep repeating the same straight putt. But to practice for the pressure of the golf course, put four balls round the hole in a circle. Treat each putt as if it were to win a tournament. Mark it with a marker, turn the ball round so that the writing faces the hole or lines up with the hole – just as you prefer. Do a practice swing or don’t do a practice swing. It’s up to you.

Use exactly the technique you intend to use on the course. Make each putt count. Take the same time and care you do on the course. Marking the ball is all part of the routine.