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One problem I see frequently with a lot of amateur golfers is their lack of effective putting practice before a round of golf. They often make the same putting mistakes over the opening 6 holes of a round. Mistakes such as the following:

Putts that barely make it 50% of the way to the hole Putts that take a trajectory away from the hole Putts that run past the hole leaving difficult second putts

For all amateur golfers, performing a 5 minute drill before going to the first tee can really pay off in your match. The following is a short drill that will give you confidence in the alignment of your putting and in your assessment of the speed of the greens.

Alignment

To zone in on correct alignment, you should try lining yourself up for a 10 foot putt on the practice green. Put one of your irons (say a 5 iron) down at your toes once you feel you are lined up correctly. Now look down the length of the iron on the ground. Is the alignment correct? Is the club pointing accurately towards the hole? If not, then try changing how you line up a putt. Pick a point to aim for that is closer to your ball, rather than closer to the hole.

Distances

You can practice putting at several distances but it’s generally easier to recall the feeling of putting a short, medium and long distance putt. Here is the putting drill you should do.

Begin with a long putt. Try to make 8 to 12 of these putts and focus on making the distance the ball travels as close as possible to the correct length to establish long green speed.

Next choose a medium length putt around the 10 foot distance and preferably a distance which you experience often. Again, take up to 10 practice putts and try to get to within a meter of the hole. Being accurate is important with this drill so you wish to have some putts going in.

And lastly, perform some short putts close to the hole so you get a high number of putts going. This is good for your confidence and will be good practice for the large amount of one metre putts that happen in any round of golf.

Using these simple drills helps to fine-tune your putting accuracy and distance control before you head to the first tee and allows you to leave your mistakes on the practice green, rather than the course.

Discover the perfect golf swing at Tom’s site http://www.perfectgolfswinghq.com which includes a review of the Simple Swing eBook by David Nevogt that has helped thousands of golfers.