Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.
When looking for drills to try, it can be a good idea to look at what the pros are doing — especially when it comes to the greens. While you may not be able to replicate the swing moves they make, you can (with a little practice) roll the ball end over end on the greens like they do.
GOLF Top 100 Teacher Jonathan Yarwood has taught quite a few Tour-level players. And when we went out to visit him at Alpine Country Club last fall, he shared with us one of the drills he used to help his pupils with their putting.
Tour-proven putting drill
A golf hole is only 4.25 inches in diameter, and when you’re not putting well it can look even smaller. However, with the golf ball measuring just 1.68 inches in diameter, there’s plenty of room to roll it into the hole. This drill helps remind us of that.
“It’s a psychological drill to get you to feel like the hole is bigger than it actually is,” Yarwood says.
To begin the drill, set up about 4 feet away from a hole with a few golf balls. Then all you’re going to do is start trying to make some putts — but with a catch. On every putt you want the ball to go into a different part of the hole.
When you roll a ball in the hole, it can go in the cup in five different ways: center with perfect speed, center with dying speed, center hitting the back of the cup, in the right edge, and in the left edge. Your goal on this drill will be to make a putt in all five different ways.
“Basically that’s simulating the five different putts you’re gonna hit,” Yarwood says. “It’s also psychologically allowing you to understand that ball goes in a lot of ways.”
Working on making the ball in those five different ways not only helps you dial in your speed and line on these putts, it also helps remind you that the ball has plenty of room to go in the hole.
“If you do that over a period of time, the hole will feel bigger and bigger and you’ll get more and more confident,” Yarwood says. “That is definitely a Tour-proven drill.”
