Make More Putts With the Gate Drill, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
Make More Putts With the Gate Drill, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

So here is a fantastic little drill for you when you are putting, it only takes a couple of seconds to setup, you can use it indoors or outdoors and it’s often one of the drills that you will see the PGA Tour players using just before they tee off their round the golf, just to make sure that putting stroke is really nicely grooved, it’s called the Gate Drill, and I have set it up on the floor for you down here.

Now there four golf ball sitting on the corners here now, because I am indoors and if you are practicing it in the house, use golf balls just as your markers but if you are out on the putting green, nice long tee pegs work brilliantly as well. So you can put your tee pegs or your golf balls in a spacing here so it’s the front of your stroke and the back of your stroke and just a little bit wider than the actual width of your putt ahead. And then you put your golf ball that you are going to hit right in the center. And it’s just a case now of practicing your stroke to go back through the back gate and forward through the front gate nice and evenly. And if you find that you are clipping one of the corner posts, it maybe means that your stroke isn’t quite as smooth, straight back and straight through as it should be, maybe you are taking it outside the line and hitting this golf ball, but pulling it inside or not following through straight as well.

So it’s a good little practice drill that you can just set yourself up, you don’t have to hit long putts, you don’t have to hit them towards the hole, but you just have to take the putter back and through without hitting one of those corner post. And as you get better doing this drill you just tighten up the gap up a little bit. It’s difficult for me to give you an exact measurement of how wide this should be, because different people putters are different sizes, but start up by maybe giving yourself an inch on either side of a putter and then try and bring it in and in and in, until you just give it maybe a quarter-inch on either side of the putter, the tighter you can get it without hitting it, clearly the better and more consistent your stroke is. So start with the wide gate, narrow that gate down a little bit and just keep rocking your putting stroke, trying to get it through the gap on both sides, doesn’t matter if it’s not going into a hole, this is all about grooving, a really nice consistent stroke.

 2012-07-17

So here is a fantastic little drill for you when you are putting, it only takes a couple of seconds to setup, you can use it indoors or outdoors and it’s often one of the drills that you will see the PGA Tour players using just before they tee off their round the golf, just to make sure that putting stroke is really nicely grooved, it’s called the Gate Drill, and I have set it up on the floor for you down here.

Now there four golf ball sitting on the corners here now, because I am indoors and if you are practicing it in the house, use golf balls just as your markers but if you are out on the putting green, nice long tee pegs work brilliantly as well. So you can put your tee pegs or your golf balls in a spacing here so it’s the front of your stroke and the back of your stroke and just a little bit wider than the actual width of your putt ahead. And then you put your golf ball that you are going to hit right in the center. And it’s just a case now of practicing your stroke to go back through the back gate and forward through the front gate nice and evenly. And if you find that you are clipping one of the corner posts, it maybe means that your stroke isn’t quite as smooth, straight back and straight through as it should be, maybe you are taking it outside the line and hitting this golf ball, but pulling it inside or not following through straight as well.

So it’s a good little practice drill that you can just set yourself up, you don’t have to hit long putts, you don’t have to hit them towards the hole, but you just have to take the putter back and through without hitting one of those corner post. And as you get better doing this drill you just tighten up the gap up a little bit. It’s difficult for me to give you an exact measurement of how wide this should be, because different people putters are different sizes, but start up by maybe giving yourself an inch on either side of a putter and then try and bring it in and in and in, until you just give it maybe a quarter-inch on either side of the putter, the tighter you can get it without hitting it, clearly the better and more consistent your stroke is. So start with the wide gate, narrow that gate down a little bit and just keep rocking your putting stroke, trying to get it through the gap on both sides, doesn’t matter if it’s not going into a hole, this is all about grooving, a really nice consistent stroke.