Natalie Adams – PGA Teaching Pro
It’s absolutely crucial if you’re going to be a good putter and really lower your scores that on short putts you hole them and that you’re not missing them. And if you think when you’re out on the course you’re always going to be faced with short putts, if you miss a short putt in every green that’s 18 extra shots that you could have knocked off your score. So work in on improving your short putts really can improve your score. The best way to do this is to get your attention onto something really specific. So what I would practice with this drill is just take a tee peg and put the tee peg into the ground on the far side of the hole. So you’re really focusing on this area of the hole just behind the hole and a very small target. Now if you make your target a lot smaller, it gives you a lot more leeway. If you’re focused on getting the ball to hit that tee peg you can miss it to the right or to the left of the tee peg, but the hole is much bigger, so you’ll still get the ball into the hole. So practice on the putting green with the tee peg in the back of the hole just pushed into the ground like we’ve got set up there, and then just work on thinking about the tee peg and getting the ball to hit the tee peg as it goes into the hole.
When you’re out in the course obviously you can’t put the tee peg into the ground, so just pick something at the back of the hole, something very small like a blade of grass or a piece of mud that is in the cap at the back of the hole, something really small that you can say just focus on that and hit the ball into the hole. And to help you to learn to focus on that a little bit better once you’ve set up ready to hit the putt look at the small item either the tee peg or the blade of grass if you’re out in the course and then close your eyes. If you can still imagine that small object of the tee peg or the blade of grass then just hit your putt without thinking just focus on this really small target and just let the putt to move to the hole. All the information you need will go from your focus, from your visualization into your muscles and you’ll hole the ball no problem. So really focus on the small item at the back of the hole, hit the putt and you’ll get the ball up to the hole, even if you’re slightly out on the blade of grass, you’ll hit the much bigger target of the hole and you’ll hole the putt more often. 2014-04-14 Natalie Adams – PGA Teaching Pro
It’s absolutely crucial if you’re going to be a good putter and really lower your scores that on short putts you hole them and that you’re not missing them. And if you think when you’re out on the course you’re always going to be faced with short putts, if you miss a short putt in every green that’s 18 extra shots that you could have knocked off your score. So work in on improving your short putts really can improve your score. The best way to do this is to get your attention onto something really specific. So what I would practice with this drill is just take a tee peg and put the tee peg into the ground on the far side of the hole. So you’re really focusing on this area of the hole just behind the hole and a very small target. Now if you make your target a lot smaller, it gives you a lot more leeway. If you’re focused on getting the ball to hit that tee peg you can miss it to the right or to the left of the tee peg, but the hole is much bigger, so you’ll still get the ball into the hole. So practice on the putting green with the tee peg in the back of the hole just pushed into the ground like we’ve got set up there, and then just work on thinking about the tee peg and getting the ball to hit the tee peg as it goes into the hole.
When you’re out in the course obviously you can’t put the tee peg into the ground, so just pick something at the back of the hole, something very small like a blade of grass or a piece of mud that is in the cap at the back of the hole, something really small that you can say just focus on that and hit the ball into the hole. And to help you to learn to focus on that a little bit better once you’ve set up ready to hit the putt look at the small item either the tee peg or the blade of grass if you’re out in the course and then close your eyes. If you can still imagine that small object of the tee peg or the blade of grass then just hit your putt without thinking just focus on this really small target and just let the putt to move to the hole. All the information you need will go from your focus, from your visualization into your muscles and you’ll hole the ball no problem. So really focus on the small item at the back of the hole, hit the putt and you’ll get the ball up to the hole, even if you’re slightly out on the blade of grass, you’ll hit the much bigger target of the hole and you’ll hole the putt more often.
