Natalie Adams – PGA Teaching Pro
In this swing tip we are going to look at why you should practice with just one golf ball when you are putting, rather than use a lot of golf balls. And it’s something that’s really overlooked by the majority of golfers. When you play golf, you play golf with one golf ball. And when you practice, you need to practice under the conditions that as closely as possible resemble the conditions that you need to play in and you need to perform in. So if you are playing on the golf course and you’ve only got one chance, one golf ball to make that putt, you need to be replicating that when you are training yourself. If you’ve got all these golf balls here and you are trying to make this putt, there’s not as much pressure on you to do it as if you’ve only got one golf ball left. So instead of having a whole basket of balls, which is more traditional for golfers to practice with, do what the pros do, just have one ball to simulate the conditions that they have to play under. Start to simulate the pressure you’d be under on the course. You’ve got one go at it and you’ve got to make the putt. It’s no good being able to do it if you’ve got ten balls there because that’s not how it is when you play. So as closely as possible, replicate the conditions that you play under when you practice and you train yourself.
Now a great drill to do to replicate just using that one ball when you are on the green is to play par 18. What I do is go to the putting green where you’ve got nine holes available. Throw the ball down on the green and putt at the first hole, okay. And play your shots and so you’ve got the ball into the hole. And then from hole number one, play to hole number two. And again, putt until you’ve got the ball into the hole. And you are just counting the number of shots that it’s taken you. And ideally, you want to try and break 18 shots. Because if there’s 9 different holes, that would be you are playing each hole as a par two, but if you manage to break 18, you’ve holed one of the putts. And again, if you came off the course we are looking to two putt every hole, if you came off the course and said you’d taken 17 putts over 9 holes, we’d be really happy with that start. The other thing that that’s going to do as well, you are going to be playing one ball as you do on the course. But also you are going to be hitting different length of putts and at different targets all the time, so you are walking between shots and its as close as possible as you can get to training yourself to play. So next time you are out on the putting green, rather than taking a whole basket, or throwing four or five balls down, just play with one golf ball and record how many shots it takes you to complete your nine hole course. 2014-04-14 Natalie Adams – PGA Teaching Pro
In this swing tip we are going to look at why you should practice with just one golf ball when you are putting, rather than use a lot of golf balls. And it’s something that’s really overlooked by the majority of golfers. When you play golf, you play golf with one golf ball. And when you practice, you need to practice under the conditions that as closely as possible resemble the conditions that you need to play in and you need to perform in. So if you are playing on the golf course and you’ve only got one chance, one golf ball to make that putt, you need to be replicating that when you are training yourself. If you’ve got all these golf balls here and you are trying to make this putt, there’s not as much pressure on you to do it as if you’ve only got one golf ball left. So instead of having a whole basket of balls, which is more traditional for golfers to practice with, do what the pros do, just have one ball to simulate the conditions that they have to play under. Start to simulate the pressure you’d be under on the course. You’ve got one go at it and you’ve got to make the putt. It’s no good being able to do it if you’ve got ten balls there because that’s not how it is when you play. So as closely as possible, replicate the conditions that you play under when you practice and you train yourself.
Now a great drill to do to replicate just using that one ball when you are on the green is to play par 18. What I do is go to the putting green where you’ve got nine holes available. Throw the ball down on the green and putt at the first hole, okay. And play your shots and so you’ve got the ball into the hole. And then from hole number one, play to hole number two. And again, putt until you’ve got the ball into the hole. And you are just counting the number of shots that it’s taken you. And ideally, you want to try and break 18 shots. Because if there’s 9 different holes, that would be you are playing each hole as a par two, but if you manage to break 18, you’ve holed one of the putts. And again, if you came off the course we are looking to two putt every hole, if you came off the course and said you’d taken 17 putts over 9 holes, we’d be really happy with that start. The other thing that that’s going to do as well, you are going to be playing one ball as you do on the course. But also you are going to be hitting different length of putts and at different targets all the time, so you are walking between shots and its as close as possible as you can get to training yourself to play.
So next time you are out on the putting green, rather than taking a whole basket, or throwing four or five balls down, just play with one golf ball and record how many shots it takes you to complete your nine hole course.
