My name is Tessa Teachman, and I’ve been a professional golfer since 2012. I’m currently working as the 1st Assistant Golf Professional at the Quarry Golf Club in Naples, Florida, as a newly elected class A member of the PGA. Over the course of my professional playing career, I’ve competed in the U.S. Women’s Open, the Ladies European Tour and on Big Break Myrtle Beach.
I’ve partnered with SuperStroke to bring you my passion for putting through my favorite golf tips and some of the best putting drills you can do at home to improve your skills.
To start, I want to share some putting tips on alignment, about eye positioning, more specifically. This may not be something you frequently think about when you’re putting, but it can have a big impact on whether or not you sink your putt.
Ever feel like your putts are close but just burning the edge of the hole? Chances are, your head is moving too much during your putting stroke. This can be fixed through putting drills for alignment that also ensure you have a proper stance and posture.
Putting Drills for Alignment and Positioning
Putting drills for golf give you the opportunity to practice putting, identify common errors you make, and allow you to make small adjustments so you can perform better on the golf course. If you have identified that you typically have trouble with proper alignment and positioning, doing drills for putting that resolve these issues will help you get better before your next round of golf.
Putting Drill #1: Establish Eye Position with a Ball Drop
The first of these drills for putting is to test your eye positioning. Let’s check to see if your eyes are over the ball in your setup.
You can test this with one of my favorite golf putting drills. Use a putting mirror or place a golf ball on the bridge of your nose, assume your putting stance over a ball and drop the ball from the bridge of your nose. Where it lands on the ground is where your eyes are positioned.
In a perfect world, the ball should drop exactly on top of where your golf ball should be positioned in your stance. Make small adjustments like tipping more from the hips or standing closer to get your eyes directly over the golf ball to help see the line clearer and to also get your ball started on your intended line.
Putting Drill #2: Stay in Your Lane (and on the Wall)
If your eyes are over the golf ball and your ball is still rolling over the edge of the hole, it could be from improper alignment or a mis-read; typically, that means the player’s head is moving off the golf ball.
Think of it like this: when you are driving your car and you look off to the left, your car tends to veer where your eyes are looking. Same for your putting. When your head is moving even the slightest amount, your golf ball tends to follow that path. Keeping this in mind during any of your golf putting drills will help you avoid missed putts when the stakes are higher on the golf course.
One of the best putting tips you can use to check the movement of your head is to find a wall where you can get into your golf posture, place the crown of your head against the wall and make some practice strokes. Feel how solid and still your head stays against the wall. This is the feeling you want to replicate when you are stroking all your putts.
To take this feel to the putting green, you can use your shadow. Face a direction that you can see your shadow in front of you. Place an object like a tee in the ground at your head. Watch your shadow as you stroke your putt.
Try to keep your head as still as possible over that reference point until you hear your ball drop in the hole. The less your head moves, the better chance your ball will start on its intended line and travel to the target.
These putting tips for alignment will help the golf ball start on your line, and you’ll see your putts rolling straight into the hole – no more lip-outs. These drills, paired with the control enabled by the ridge on the SuperStroke putter grips I use, give you the perfect setup to sink more putts every round.
