Everyone knows the first place to start when you want to give yourself the best chance at sinking putts is with a SuperStroke putting grip, but even SuperStroke devotees can benefit from putting drills to help them tighten up their stroke and train themselves to be more consistent and confident.
Putting tips for golf can come in handy for anyone who struggles with putting. Someone who already feels confident in their abilities but wants to tighten up a few areas can utilize them as well. There’s always room for growth, and drills for putting are an important part of that development.
Here at SuperStroke, we want players who use our putter grips to have plenty of access to putting tips and drills that will put them on the right path to improving their game. That’s why we enlist the help of world-renowned putting expert and instructor Phil Kenyon and PGA Professional Tessa Teachman to offer some of the best putting drills and instruction to SuperStroke golfers.
But it’s also helpful to remind ourselves why putting drills are an important part of golf practice, no matter your skill level. Control, proper technique and muscle memory all play into consistent putting performance, and the right drills for putting will help put these things into practice.
The Benefits of Putting Drills
There’s no such thing as too much practice, and anyone who wants to improve their technique needs to take the time to focus on certain skills. There are more reasons to do putting drills other than just to improve your game – they can even be fun. Here are some of the main reasons every golfer should incorporate drills for putting into their practice routine.
Better Posture and Setup
The more you practice putting with the correct posture and proper setup, the more your body will find this correct positioning every time you putt. Eventually, thanks to your muscle memory, setting up to the ball will be second nature.
Using putting aids in your drills like a putting mirror can be especially helpful for you to make sure you have the right posture and know how to repeat it on the golf course.
Build Your Confidence
If you’re trying to build up your confidence when you putt, repetition will make you feel better about your abilities and remove doubts. Take the time to practice and be certain you’re starting on the ball line (perhaps thanks to your putting mirror!), recognize you have a solid stroke path and know you can read greens. This will build your confidence, which will translate to your performance on the golf course.
Simulate On-course Performance
When you’re practicing, what you’re doing is simulating your on-course performance with much lower stakes. If you put putting tips into practice in a low- or no-stakes situation, you take the pressure off yourself and can focus on improving.
Set some goals per putting drill, like making more putts each week. This will give you actionable and measurable goals that will make your practices feel more intentional and productive. These putting drills are especially helpful when you want to build confidence for those left-to-right breakers.
Have Some Fun
Taking some time to focus on individual aspects of your golf game is fun. Putting drills engage your body and your mental game, and they motivate you to continuously improve. When you meet your goals in putting drills, you feel incredibly accomplished and give you a boost that will carry over onto the course.
Plus, putting drills are essentially another name for putting games; make a competition out of it and practice with friends and family.
Putting Drills Areas of Improvement
There are four major areas of improvement that most putting drills focus on. You may need help in just a few of these areas or all four. No matter what, it’s helpful to incorporate putting drills for all of these skills into your at-home putting drills routine or your sessions practicing at the club.
Putting Drills for Setup, Posture and Stroke Mechanics
Putting tips that help in each of these areas are all about your form and physical body position when you set up to your putt and make your stroke. If you lack a consistent setup or you’re looking for more precision and control, you want to seek out drills for putting that not only offer instant feedback, but also a repetitive motion you can repeat for 10 minutes every day.
Spending that first part of your practice session focusing on the correct form will help you build an unshakeable foundation that sets you up for success not only in putting drills you use later in the day, but also on the golf course.
Best Putting Drills for Alignment
Your alignment, or your setup in relation to your target, is an essential part of proper technique. Everything from where your eye positioning lies as you set up and hit the golf ball to even the ball placement can affect how you putt. Putting drills for alignment can make a real difference in your putting performance because it’s not only about where and how you aim, but which line your ball starts on.
Green Reading and Reading Breaks
Seeing the path your ball needs to take to make it into the hole is an essential skill and not one that comes naturally to every player. With the right putting drills, however, you can develop your green reading skills – all you need is practice! Once you feel more comfortable with reading the slopes, you can stand more confidently over the putt.
Lag and Distance Putting
Another putting tip for golf is leveraging distance drills. Lag putting drills are especially helpful to use before you play a new golf course and want to adjust to the greens’ speeds.
As much as everyone would like to one-putt each hole, it doesn’t always work out that way. Practicing your lag putts is an important part of any golfer’s arsenal if you want to lower your score. By adopting lag putting drills, you’re ensuring you can putt your ball as close to the hole as possible for a tap-in and avoid those three-putts.
After taking a foundational approach and focusing on your posture first, check out our putting drills for alignment, speed and more to boost your confidence during your next round. SuperStroke is here to help with putting tips and putter grips that seek to improve every aspect of your performance.