Putting Drills

[lagster]

What Putting Drills and Games do some of you like?

I'll start... Reaction Drill-- Line up three or four balls and putt them rapidly in succession to the same hole(3 to 4 footers). Don't give yourself time to think much. Do this several times until you start sinking them all without thinking much. This helps free people up who have started thinking of too many things. (Puggy Blackmon showed me this drill when he was Coach at GA Tech.)

[EdZ]

I like to begin my warm up without aiming at any cup. Putt one ball to a general area on the green 10-15 feet away, then hit a second trying to hit the first. The first putt is just to get an idea of speed, I'm not trying to hit any particular spot.

I do this left hand only, right hand only, then both hands - helps me get my feel for the pressure points for the day too. I like to start my warm up that way, then move off to the range, and back to the putting green again for some standard warm up (5 footers), before teeing off.

[tongzilla]

For curved putts, practice stopping the ball within the "upper quadrant". You'd be surprised by the number of times you fail -- but make the putt!

[birdie_man]

That's a good idea Leo.

[golf2much]

There are several I like:

My typical warm-up usually consists of putting to a very small target, like a tee in the ground. My other favorite for warm-up putting is the putting under the string drill where you stretch a string across the hole and about 3-4' back along the line of the putt. Line up the ball and putter under the string and putt several nice straight putts. This helps both your stroke and your confidence before you hea out.

Practice drills I like are the typical ladder drill both long to short, and short to long for working on distance control (works great for wedges too), and the circle drill at various distance from the hole.

G2M

[davidmac00]

my favourite drills when teaching:
1, to place two clubs on ground,parallel to target about 1 metre from hole,set up a string line over the ball to target line(this is on flat ground)place a sponge football between the elbows of pupil and have them putt the ball home.this helps maintain the triangle of shoulders and arms and if you have them lower their left shoulder directly towards their left foot then raise straight back up the blade stays square throughout making ball position less of an issue.
2,find a hole on putting green with considerable slope,pick a position with max right to left or left to right break.place a tee in the ground above the hole as a target point and another in ground as a start point and learn the speed required to roll the ball home.remember,pace dictates line!
these are my own drills,but i learned everything i know about putting from geoff mangum(puttingzone).
hope this helps,
david.