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Develop Confidence in Your Putting Before the First Tee

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The December 2004 tip was about "Seeing the Line Every Time." The January 05 through March 05 tips were drills for speed control, the most important part of putting. If you have followed those drills, you are ready for a pre-play drill to build confidence before you go to the first tee.

Set 3 coins or 3 tees one foot apart starting one foot from a hole. When your drill station is set you will have a tee or coin one foot from the hole, the second tee or coin 2 feet from the hole and the third three feet from the hole. Set 3 balls at the 1 foot mark.

Go through your full routine and stroke the first putt. Work on the visualization of the line behind the ball and at the ball. Hold an image of a spot in the hole or an image of the end of your line as you stroke your putt. You should be hitting every putt as though it is the only putt you will hit on the practice green. You want to be sure you practice each putt the way you are going to play.

Regardless whether you make or miss the first putt, go through your entire routine and hit the second putt. Once again, hit every putt as though you are on the golf course; go through your full routine on every putt.

If you make the first 2 putts, don't putt the third. When you make 2 out of 3 putts, move to the 2 foot mark.

If you miss the first or second putt, putt the third. If you miss two out of three from the two foot marker, start the drill over from half the distance to the last marker (6 inches closer.) If you don't make 2 out of 3 from that point, halve the distance again. Repeat the drill until you make 2 out of 3 putts.

When you make 2 out of 3 from 3 feet, pull the first marker and move it 1 foot past the 3 foot marker to 4 feet and make 2 out of 3 from there or continue to halve your distance to the last marker. If you make 2 out of 3 from 4 feet move to 5 feet

The goal of this drill is to give you confidence with your routine of reading putts, visually drawing lines and holding target or line images through the putt. You will notice that your focus on those 3 factors will determine speed and accuracy.

Always end on success. Always make 2 out of 3 putts from as long a distance as possible before you leave the putting green. If you make it to 7 or 8 feet and make 2 out of 3 you are well on your way to a confident putting round for putts inside 10 feet.

I have two closing comments. I was playing with PGA Tour player Dennis Paulson and I heard him say, after burning the edge of a cup on more than one occasion, "I made the putt, it just didn't go in." What a wonderful way to describe a perfect execution. When you become consumed with the result, your frustration with misses is setting you up to miss more putts. Your confidence should be grounded in the process, not the result. When you are able to execute 100% focus without an intrusive thought and with great images from behind the ball (staying visual through your entire stroke,) you have done everything in your control to make the putt. This is true on every shot. If you are able to say you have great pictures through your entire routine and you are missing putts, then and only then is it time to question your stroke. Don't change what is possibly working when it may be your focus.

Lastly, I wrote about 20 or so articles for Golf for Women Magazine in the 1980s when it was a young publication and family owned. This drill appeared in that magazine. I was at one of our USC Women's team practices recently. I saw one of the girls doing this drill with an arc of tees, not a tee line that was straight. I asked Coach Andrea Gaston what the player was doing and she said, "That's the Nautilus drill." Now there is a great variation. When you have success on straight putts, create an arc of breaking putts one foot apart for variety.

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