bY gLENN WHITTLE
mANAGER, NATIONAL COACHING PROGRAMS,
PGA OF AUSTRALIA
When
learning to putt, it is common to get lessons on the correct technique
from your local PGA professional. The one aspect of putting that
can’t be taught is how hard to stroke the ball, which is
referred to as “feel”. When you see your favorite
golfer playing in a tournament on TV, do you often think how good
they are at getting the distance of their putts just right most
of the time? This comes through practice and experience. Feel
is a skill developed with practice and you need to keep practising
to maintain that feel. Rather than spending hours on the practice
green working on feel, you can play a game with your friends that
is guaranteed to improve your feel.
Place a coin on the green at the point where you plan to putt
from (coin A).
Put
another coin on the green about five big steps from the starting
point (coin B) and the third coin a further five steps away (coin
C) in the same direction but beyond the second coin. With approximately
ten balls ready to go, hit a putt that just rolls by coin B but
stops as close to it as possible. Now hit another ball and try
to stop it just past the first putt you hit. Try the same again
try with the third ball, making sure it stops past the second
putt.
The objective of the game is to see how many putts you can hit
and stop between coins B and C (pics 1 & 2). But the golden
rule is each putt must finish past the last putt. If you hit the
first putt too close to coin C, you have a slim chance of getting
the next one past this and short of coin C.
From the December
2005 issue of Golf Australia magazine.
Call 1800 227 236 to order this issue.
When
learning to putt, it is common to get lessons on the correct technique
from your local PGA professional. The one aspect of putting that
can’t be taught is how hard to stroke the ball, which is
referred to as “feel”. When you see your favorite
golfer playing in a tournament on TV, do you often think how good
they are at getting the distance of their putts just right most
of the time? This comes through practice and experience. Feel
is a skill developed with practice and you need to keep practising
to maintain that feel. Rather than spending hours on the practice
green working on feel, you can play a game with your friends that
is guaranteed to improve your feel.
Put
another coin on the green about five big steps from the starting
point (coin B) and the third coin a further five steps away (coin
C) in the same direction but beyond the second coin. With approximately
ten balls ready to go, hit a putt that just rolls by coin B but
stops as close to it as possible. Now hit another ball and try
to stop it just past the first putt you hit. Try the same again
try with the third ball, making sure it stops past the second
putt. 
