THE PLAYERS COACH

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Putting Practice For Speed & Starting Line

Gotta match that line to your speed if you want to make putts!

1. Starting Line Drill

Start Small

Starting Line Drill First drill is designed to help you hit your starting line over and over, meanwhile making putt after putt to build your confidence by seeing the ball go in the hole.

  1. Pick a straight putt no farther than five feet away from the hole
  2. place two tees outside of the toe of the putter and heal of the putter (see image below)
  3. Place a small flat ball marker 12-18 inches ahead of the two tees of where you will putt from (the marker should be placed on the intended starting line to make the putt.
  4. Make 5 putts in a row, hitting the flat marker on the way to the hole.

2. Speed Control 10, 20, 30 feet

Its all about SPEED

Ladder Drill  speed control from 3 different distances. Establish a baseline for these 3 distances. When working on putts and speed control from outside of 10 feet, you do NOT want to putt to a hole, putt to an object. This will eliminate any doubt or loss of confidence from seeing putts miss a hole. 

  1. Pick a flat putt, place a string or alignment stick down 10 inches behind your simulated hole
  2. Place a coin in between the simulated hole and alignment stick/string
  3. Place a coin 5 inches after the alignment stick/string
  4. Place 3 tees – one at 10 feet, one at 20 feet, one at 30 feet from the simulated hole
  5. Hit 5 putts from each tee before moving on to the next tee. Pay attention to the length of your stroke and speed of the stroke. You want to have consistent length of back swing and tempo that repeats. 

5 Important putting facts

  1. We place the alignment stick 10 inches behind the simulated hole for a reference of what proper speed would be to get it to the hole and it have the best chance to fall in on the edges
  2. PGA Tour players error within 5% of their intended speed. That is why we place a coin 5 inches in front of the stick/string and 5 inches behind it.
  3. Putts that go too fast will not break as much, putts that go too slow will break more. This is why repeating the same speed is crucial to reading greens and making putts consistently. 
  4. Your back stroke tempo should be the same for all putts
  5. Your back stroke length should be 2 to 1 ratio longer every 10 feet. Find your 10 foot back strong length (ie. 10 inches) 20 feet should be 15 inches, 30 feet should be 20 inches…. 

If you have a blast motion sensor it makes this real easy. It gives you the exact back stroke length and back stroke time. You find the right length and time, then just repeat it for each distance. 

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