“Yes Marc, I understand that putting is extemely important as far as scoring well on the golf course. I know that I’m not as good a putter as I I need to be. I know that I need to practice it more. There’s just one problem – Practicing Putting is just so dang boring!!!!”
“And in addition to it being boring – I never improve after I practice my putting. It seems that I actually putt worse on the golf course after I practice!”
So this week, I’m giving you a Putting Drill to use!
But first, does putting practice need to be boring? Improvement is never boring! Especially if you know how to practice to improve.
The Monkey practices putting by taking their putter and 3 golf balls out of their bag and dropping the balls on the putting green. Then they find a hole they want to putt towards and putt the golf balls. Then if a ball ends up farther than 5 feet away from the hole they putt it again. If not, they consider all their putts good and then scan the green for the next hole to putt towards.
After 6 minutes of this – The Monkey has finished his/her putting session and goes to the range to hit their Driver.
On the other hand, the Player will use a drill/game like the “Tour Putting Square” to improve their putting (and thus their scores on the golf course). What’s the “Tour Puttting Square” you ask. The “Tour Putting Square” will challenge you to become a Player! It’ll also tell you what level of Putter you currently are equivalent to. Is your putting on the level of a Tour Player, a Nationwide Player, a College Player, a 10 handicap, a 20 handicap or a 30 handicap?
See The Monkey will shy away from this game because they don’t want to know the truth about their putting. They won’t even attempt this game because they’ll see based on their Results that their putting isn’t very good.
The Player will say – “I need to do this because I need to see what level my putting is on. And I need to see how much I need to improve to be able to get to the next level.”
So if better scores on the golf course is on your agenda – this is where you should start. What do you think?
The Tour Putting Square
Find a hole that has an uphill, downhill, left to right curving, and right to left curving putt
Place a tee 3 feet from the hole for each of those above putts
You must make 3 putts in a row into the hole from each tee to be able to move to the next tee – but at the same time you need to count your misses
So for example you make the first 2 putts from the first tee and you miss the third putt – that is one miss and you need to start over again.
Once you make three in a row, move to the 2nd tee. Three in a row from that tee, then move to the 3rd tee Then 3 in a row and it’s on to the 4th tee.
Once you get around the “Tour Putting Square” the first time, move each tee 1 foot back and continue the same process of making 3 in a row at each tee.
Remember to keep a running total of the number of misses.
After you complete the “Tour Putting Square” from 4 feet, move back 1 more foot to 5 feet and continue until you complete going around the 5 foot tees.
Your total number of misses will determine what level of Golfer you are. Below are the average number of misses it took for 6 levels of Golfers to get around the “Tour Putting Square”. Which one are you in. You won’t know until you do the “Tour Putting Square”.
PGA Tour Pro – 1 to 2 misses
Nationwide Pro – 3 to 5 misses
College Player – 6 to 9 misses
10 Handicap – 10 to 14 misses
20 Handicap – 15 to 20 misses
30 Handicap – 21 to 30 misses
What level do you want to be? This is an extremely tough and frustrating game, but the more you challenge yourself, the better you’ll get. If you want it to be easy, you’re destined to never improve as much as you’d like to!
Though the beauty of a Results based Drill like this is that you now know where you stand. So if for example you end up with 25 misses – you now have to challenge yourself to improve on that number the next time you’re able to come back to the golf course to challenge the “Tour Putting Square” again!
Monkeys think they’re good putters.
Players know that their putting is never good enough and that they always need to improve!
Go ahead – Be a Player!
Regards,
Marc Solomon – Your Instructor For Life
Golf Made Simple!