TIPS AND DRILLS

One of my favorite putting drills is one of the simplest. It’s structured around good putting fundamentals and you can do it on any green at any time with nothing other than a coin.
First, find a straight putt of about 6 feet (two putter lengths). Make sure it is a straight rolling putt. Now make a small indention in the green surface with your index finger, just enough so the ball will relocate it in for each putt. (You can fix the dent when you finish if you need to.)
Put a ball in the indention and now place a coin about 6 inches (a putter head and a half) behind the ball, directly in line with the ball and hole. Stand back behind the coin and get it precisely in line. This may take a couple of adjustments.
When you are satisfied the hole, ball and coin are in line, address the ball and using the coin as a reference, square your putter head to the line.

Now look toward the hole and see if the putter looks like it is aimed at it. If it looks open or closed to the hole then you, like me and a lot of other people, have “crooked eyes”. Take a couple of normal comfortable strokes with the face square to the coin and confirm that the putts go left or right just as it feels like it should since the face looks open or shut to the hole.

Ok, now the fun part. With the putter square to the coin make the middle of your putter go back over the coin. In others words straight back. Using this alignment method and path, make small adjustments (not the putter face) until the ball rolls straight down the path into the hole. You may have to adjust your follow through path or something else. Once you get adjusted, repeat and repeat. Try to get used to what a properly aimed putter looks like and a corresponding matching stroke. It may feel uncomfortable for a bit but what you are doing is practising good repeatable fundamentals. If the putter head starts off square and the ball rolls down the line, you are doing something right. The more balls you roll in, the more you will trust the look and feel of it and the better, more consistently you will putt on the course.

It’s simple and easy to do and you can do it for 5 minutes warming up or an hour practicing.

One other note. Move about every 20 minutes if you are practicing to another place on the green. If you stand in one place too long it will kill the grass under your feet. (I once made 105 in a row on the green at La Costa only to leave two brown footprints)

How and why does this align more true than just looking at the hole? It has something to do with your dominant eye. For most right handed players the right eye, or rear eye, is dominant. With the right eye generally being behind the putter, the coin and putter are easier to square up accurately than looking forward from putter to the hole. Weird, but try it. If it all looks square to you either way then you are a lucky sole and just need to practice !

TIPS AND DRILLS

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