Best Smooth Putting Stroke Drill (Video) - by Pete Styles
Best Smooth Putting Stroke Drill (Video) - by Pete Styles

I think under pressure, people are very susceptible to changing their putting stroke, changing the rhythm, changing the length, changing the tempo of their putting stroke. So, here’s a really good drill that should help you just grove in a nice, consistent putting stroke. Good stroke for me is something that accelerates through the golf ball, a nice, even speed. One of the biggest problems we see for golfers under pressure with their putting is a stroke that decelerates, has a big back swing and then stops when they hit the golf ball, or somebody that swings back and then flicks the golf ball and gets anxious and nudges it a little bit too much. So, here are a set of a little practice aid. Just so I can grove my stroke, I practice at home so I can feel like I’m swinging the club nicely. It doesn’t really involve you’re hitting lots of balls, so you can do it nicely at home. We’re just going to move this ball forward, but that would represent my target ball, that’s what I’m going to try and swing from eventually. But here, I’m going to set up just behind that golf ball. And I’ve got a basket here that’s one-third back and a basket here that’s two-thirds forward. So this is going to be a little back stroke to here and then a nice acceleration and nudge through to here. Now, if you’re practicing this at home, this could be anything. It could be sofa cushions or DVD boxes or just something that you can get a reference point from and to, one-third back, two-thirds through. Then I set in to my point here, I just rock the putter back and touch, rock the putter through and touch, back and through, back and through. Then I can start making my stroke a bit smoother, so it don’t actually hit the baskets. And I just grove that feeling that is longer on this side, shorter on this side, particularly careful that I’m not decelerating as I come through, but also I’m not snatching at it and flicking at it. And I just got the feeling that my shoulders are just rocking evenly. My hands aren’t really involved in controlling this. It’s much more my shoulders that are controlling this action, one-third back, two-thirds through, accelerating through the ball nicely. Then if I was to take my normal ball position here and make a one-third, two-thirds stroke, you’ll feel you have the club ball accelerate through the golf ball.

So, if you got a bit of time at home just to grove your putting stroke, make it a little bit smoother then take it out onto the golf course. Now, if you wanted to check if this was happening and taking clips at the same time on the potting green, just replace these two points here with tee pegs. As long as your putter can hit the ball, past the tee peg you put in the front, you can watch the stroke come back to the tee and then through to the tee. Just make sure the ball misses back and through, take back even one-third, two-thirds approach out onto the golf course, your stroke would be a lot smoother, a lot more consistent, decelerating less and hopefully resulting less three putts and more one putts.

 2012-11-30

I think under pressure, people are very susceptible to changing their putting stroke, changing the rhythm, changing the length, changing the tempo of their putting stroke. So, here’s a really good drill that should help you just grove in a nice, consistent putting stroke. Good stroke for me is something that accelerates through the golf ball, a nice, even speed. One of the biggest problems we see for golfers under pressure with their putting is a stroke that decelerates, has a big back swing and then stops when they hit the golf ball, or somebody that swings back and then flicks the golf ball and gets anxious and nudges it a little bit too much. So, here are a set of a little practice aid. Just so I can grove my stroke, I practice at home so I can feel like I’m swinging the club nicely. It doesn’t really involve you’re hitting lots of balls, so you can do it nicely at home. We’re just going to move this ball forward, but that would represent my target ball, that’s what I’m going to try and swing from eventually. But here, I’m going to set up just behind that golf ball. And I’ve got a basket here that’s one-third back and a basket here that’s two-thirds forward. So this is going to be a little back stroke to here and then a nice acceleration and nudge through to here. Now, if you’re practicing this at home, this could be anything. It could be sofa cushions or DVD boxes or just something that you can get a reference point from and to, one-third back, two-thirds through. Then I set in to my point here, I just rock the putter back and touch, rock the putter through and touch, back and through, back and through. Then I can start making my stroke a bit smoother, so it don’t actually hit the baskets. And I just grove that feeling that is longer on this side, shorter on this side, particularly careful that I’m not decelerating as I come through, but also I’m not snatching at it and flicking at it. And I just got the feeling that my shoulders are just rocking evenly. My hands aren’t really involved in controlling this. It’s much more my shoulders that are controlling this action, one-third back, two-thirds through, accelerating through the ball nicely. Then if I was to take my normal ball position here and make a one-third, two-thirds stroke, you’ll feel you have the club ball accelerate through the golf ball.

So, if you got a bit of time at home just to grove your putting stroke, make it a little bit smoother then take it out onto the golf course. Now, if you wanted to check if this was happening and taking clips at the same time on the potting green, just replace these two points here with tee pegs. As long as your putter can hit the ball, past the tee peg you put in the front, you can watch the stroke come back to the tee and then through to the tee. Just make sure the ball misses back and through, take back even one-third, two-thirds approach out onto the golf course, your stroke would be a lot smoother, a lot more consistent, decelerating less and hopefully resulting less three putts and more one putts.