Should I Practice With More Than One Golf Ball (Video) - by Pete Styles
Should I Practice With More Than One Golf Ball (Video) - by Pete Styles

Should you practice on the putting green with more than one golf ball? I think yes you should, but there’s time and places. I think there’s a time and a place to only practice with one ball but I think there’s also a time and place when you need to practice with a lot more than that. And it really comes down to convenience and repetition that if I have got a certain length putt that I want to practice on and I want to practice grooving in my strokes, so the stroke is consistently grooved in to the same degree, I would probably practice with maybe half a dozen balls. Lay them all out on the putting green and then one by one just drag them forwards repeat the stroke drag them forward repeat the stroke. And it’s a lot more convenient it’s more time efficient and it helps me generate the same stroke every single time rather than hitting one, then have to run after it and pick it up and bring it back to the start and do the same again.

So just convenience and time management. It’s better to have a little pool of golf balls I can drag in from, make my stroke, and repeat it. But then also there are going to be times when I want to only practice with one ball, practicing with one ball puts me a little bit more in that real life situation of being on the golf course when I don’t have a big pool of golf balls and just have another go, have another go have another go. It make me focus on the putt I am aiming for, focus on the result, watch it a little bit more intently, get a bit more feedback, and also puts a little bit more pressure on me. And I would probably do that just before I go and play so just before I step up on to the first tee I’m probably just going to take one ball and play a few holes around the putting green as if I was actually on the golf course. My aim would be the – either trying and make the putt but definitely try and take two putts and no more. And then just before I tee off I’d probably take one ball just a couple of feet away from the hole and just knock it in pick it up, put it back knock it in pick it up put it back, do that four or five times, just to get the feeling and the sound of the ball clicking into the bottom of the hole take it out put it down roll it in again. Hopefully then when you go out into the putting green not only have you got a nice smooth stroke but you’ve also got that mental picture that feeling that visualization of the ball dropping into the hole, so you have got some good confidence. So sometimes practicing with more than one ball but sometimes just practicing on one to help you focus on more accurate results. 2014-10-13

Should you practice on the putting green with more than one golf ball? I think yes you should, but there’s time and places. I think there’s a time and a place to only practice with one ball but I think there’s also a time and place when you need to practice with a lot more than that. And it really comes down to convenience and repetition that if I have got a certain length putt that I want to practice on and I want to practice grooving in my strokes, so the stroke is consistently grooved in to the same degree, I would probably practice with maybe half a dozen balls. Lay them all out on the putting green and then one by one just drag them forwards repeat the stroke drag them forward repeat the stroke. And it’s a lot more convenient it’s more time efficient and it helps me generate the same stroke every single time rather than hitting one, then have to run after it and pick it up and bring it back to the start and do the same again.

So just convenience and time management. It’s better to have a little pool of golf balls I can drag in from, make my stroke, and repeat it. But then also there are going to be times when I want to only practice with one ball, practicing with one ball puts me a little bit more in that real life situation of being on the golf course when I don’t have a big pool of golf balls and just have another go, have another go have another go. It make me focus on the putt I am aiming for, focus on the result, watch it a little bit more intently, get a bit more feedback, and also puts a little bit more pressure on me. And I would probably do that just before I go and play so just before I step up on to the first tee I’m probably just going to take one ball and play a few holes around the putting green as if I was actually on the golf course.

My aim would be the – either trying and make the putt but definitely try and take two putts and no more. And then just before I tee off I’d probably take one ball just a couple of feet away from the hole and just knock it in pick it up, put it back knock it in pick it up put it back, do that four or five times, just to get the feeling and the sound of the ball clicking into the bottom of the hole take it out put it down roll it in again. Hopefully then when you go out into the putting green not only have you got a nice smooth stroke but you’ve also got that mental picture that feeling that visualization of the ball dropping into the hole, so you have got some good confidence.

So sometimes practicing with more than one ball but sometimes just practicing on one to help you focus on more accurate results.