Putt training is not necessarily everyone's favorite activity. However small the motivation may be, you should still get up and practice regularly. One of the most important things when putting is confidence. If you have to tremble on a 1-meter putt because you are afraid that the putt might not go in, you often subconsciously influence your swing path and you actually miss the hole. Training is required to get this security with short putts. We have already introduced and explained one or the other exercise for this in other blog posts. In this blog post we want to explain two more exercises or drills. The first exercise is called Phil’s Circle Drill, the second exercise is called 100 Straight Putts Drill. For the second exercise you can probably already guess what it is about. But let's start with the Phil’s Circle Drill first.
Phil’s Circle Drill
This exercise got its name from Phil Mickelson, one of the best players in the world. Phil Mickelson regularly uses this exercise, among others. The Putting Drill is about gaining more security and consistency with short putts.
If you make 90 percent (or even more) of all the 1 meter putts, I can promise you that your score will improve. Knowing that you are certain to get short putts into the hole will make you more relaxed, even with long putts, because you don’t have to get the ball right next to the hole to have a safe 2-putt.
How the exercise works:
- Place 10 balls in a circle with a radius of one meter from the hole.
- Now try to putt each of these 10 balls into the hole. If a putt misses the hole, start over again.
- You can start with one round at the beginning, then increase the number of putts to be holed. 20-30 putts are a good start. Gradually increase to 50, then to 75 or even 100.
Phil Mickelson practices this drill before every competitive round of golf, which is very impressive. But even if you do this exercise once a week, you will see significant improvements after a few weeks.
100 Straight Putts Drill
The saying “repetition is the mother of learning” was already present in ancient Latin. And this saying also applies to golf. The 100 Straight Putts Drill is similar to the Phil’s Circle Drill. It is also about repeating a movement over and over again, in order to build up security and consistency, so as to take away the pressure and fear of the short “tap-ins”, the putts that should be putt with ease. Because, to be honest, under pressure, even 60 cm putts can look a little longer than they do on the practice green.
How the 100 Straight Putts Drill works:
Find a flat and straight spot on the practice green and stick a tee in the ground at a distance of 60 cm to 90 cm from the hole. Putt the ball into the hole from this distance. Repeat this process 99 more times. If a putt doesn't go into the hole, start again from scratch. It is very important that you stay focused and realign yourself before each putt. In the beginning, it will take a few more tries to get to a hundred putts, but after a lot of practice, the challenge becomes easier and easier.
The exercise not only helps to improve and consolidate one’s technique, but also to strengthen one’s self-confidence. Knowing that you can make a hundred putts without mistakes increases your self-confidence enormously and will take away a lot of pressure and fear from you.
Conclusion
In the beginning, the two exercises will be difficult to master, but as soon as you see some progress, it will become easier and easier. Stay on it and you will see that the short (and also the long) putts on the round are suddenly not that difficult anymore.
