Holing putts is often the difference between a good and a great round and can bail you out of trouble when you're really struggling. Yet it remains an area of the game amateurs neglect. It's time to change that with these three simple drills from Golf Monthly Top 50 Coach Alex Elliott that will help you become a master of the greens...
Alignment
All you need for these drills is a golf ball box and I'm pretty sure we've all got one of them so there's no excuse not to give these a go. The first one is all about alignment, which is obviously crucial. If you're not aiming correctly, your chances of holing putts drops significantly.
As I demonstrate in the video above, stick your golf ball box on the green and just practise squaring your putter up to it. If you have a tendency to aim left, you'll notice the toe of your putter will be in contact with the box, and if you aim right, the heel of your putter will be hitting it.
Take your hands off the putter and practise getting it flush to the box so you know what this feels and looks like. Then put your hands back on and address the ball. Over time this will get you aiming at your intended target more often and therefore help you hole more putts.
Strike
The second drill is all about the strike. If you regularly miss the middle of your putter, it becomes really hard to judge distance and get the ball online. So, again, place your golf ball box on the green as shown, and line up to your ball so there is roughly a finger's width between the toe of your putter and the box.
Place a tee peg the same finger's width distance from the heel of your putter so you've got a gate and start hitting some putts. This drill gives great feedback because if you hit the box or the tee you know you've made a bad stroke and therefore poor contact. The better you get at this, the better your putting will become.
The Stroke
The final drill and my favourite is one where we're not even going to putt to a hole. This is what I do to calibrate my stroke. A common mistake I see in amateurs is they take the putter back far too far back and then decelerate into impact.
Place your golf ball box on the ground roughly two clubheads outside your right foot and imagine it's a brick wall. I want you to use that as a buffer for how far to take the putter back.
Now, simply hit a few putts into open space trying not to swing back past the box. Match up the length of your follow-through and backswing and you'll be surprised how close together the balls finish.
