The Putting circle

Far too often I see players on a putting green with a bucket full of balls hitting putt after putt at 1 specific target. This is great for practicing a specific putting flaw you or your pro have identified.  If you want to hole more putts, you need to practice pressure putting and preferably shorter putts as well.

Here’s a simple putting game you can play with a partner or even alone:

Place eight tee pegs around a hole, 4 of them at 3 feet from the hole and the other 4 at 6 feet from the hole. (See picture)

The aim of the game is to try making it all around the hole without missing a putt. You alternate 1 long putt, then 1 short putt and carry on all around the circle. If you miss a putt, start from the beginning!  You will find the first few putts are relatively simple, but as you get further around so the pressure mounts as you don’t want to start from square one again. What’s also great about this game is that you get to hit putts from every possible angle – uphill, downhill, left to right, right to left etc.

I’m a strong believer that if you improve your short putting, there’s less pressure on the rest of your game and pressure putting in practice is the only way to effectively improve your on-course putting.