Make Sure of the Short Putt



Pupils and myself included, often find short putts a little frustrating. For such a short shot it can sometimes involve a huge amount of mental activity, which it really shouldn't. There are a couple of things that should happen when practicing to get better at short putts. The first is to practice what your coach has told you to after a lesson. The sad fact is that 95% of all putting lessons end up with the pupil not practicing anything like the drills or routines that they were shown in the lesson. So to put it bluntly, do what you were told. The second and most important is to make your practice evolve to leave you with a very very simple thought process which can easily repeated. Not a 30 point checklist for each putt, this can never lead to a smooth repeatable stroke.

Here are a few very simple drills you can do that will make you short putting much better.

1.  Aim straight, this sounds obvious, but the majority of players do not. You can put a line on the ball, and putt between two clubs laid on the ground






Aiming Sticks



Line on the top of the ball

 2.  Next you can pose at the end of the stroke with the club face is still pointing at the target
3. You can on short putts keep focused on the ground under the ball until you hear the ball drop in



Head cover, backswing length control



4. For the control of distance it is important you have an accelerating stroke, which means having a shorter backswing than follow through. This will mean the ball will always get to the hole, leaving you to focus on the line of the putt. You can put a head cover behind to control the length.

Hope this helps!!