One of the best-ever putters swears by placing a tee in the cup. Here’s why. 

Brad Faxon

Brad Faxon demonstrates his tee-in-the-cup putting drill.

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Hit the tee. Or don’t. 

At the least, the advice is better than saying putt your ball harder. Or putt it softer. 

Brad Faxon is one of golf’s greatest putters, and the tee tip is one of his best putting drills. If you’re struggling with speed control on uphill or downhill putts, take that tee from your pocket or from behind your ear and wedge it into the back of the cup. 

On the uphill putts, try to hit the tee. On the downhill putts, don’t hit the tee. 

“With the Masters approaching, speed control is going to be really important to the winner of the tournament,” Faxon said on a video he shared on his Twitter feed. “I love this drill. On uphill putts, put a tee in the back of the hole. Practice hitting the ball hard enough so that you have enough speed so that your ball will hit that tee on the uphill putt. … 

“Now on the downhill putt, it’s the opposite. We’re going to put the tee on the other side of the hole, and when I go to putt the downhill putt, I want the ball to roll in and not touch the tee. This is a great exercise for you to practice hitting the putt with the right speed for putts that are uphill and putts that are downhill.” 

At the least, the advice is better than saying putt your ball harder. Or putt it softer. And … 

“If you can judge your speed during the Masters, you got a really good chance to win,” Faxon said. 

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Nick Piastowski

Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.