Video:3 Great Putting Drills

Transcript:3 Great Putting Drills

Hey golfers, I'm PGA Teaching Professional Todd Kolb for About.com. I'm going to give you three great drills to help your putting.

Basics for Putting in Golf

There are three key things that we need to do to be a good putter. The first is we need to keep the putter face square to the line, the second is the body needs to be steady, and third and finally, we need to roll the ball the right distance.

Putting Drill: Left Hand Only

The first drill I want to give you is called "Left Hand Only." You're going to grip the putter in your left hand if you're a right-handed golfer. If you're a left-handed golfer, of course, it's going to be the opposite hand, or the right hand. Grip it in your left hand. You're going to keep the putter face nice and square as you swing the putter face back and through. You're going to hit these putts nice and close to the hole, meaning you're only going to be two, maybe three feet if I'm a highly skilled golfer. The focus here is on the left side, the lead hand keeping the putter face nice and square to the hole. The first few times you do it, it's going to be a little challenging. But as you work through it, it's going to get a little bit easier.

Putting Drill: Look-Away Drill

The next one is probably my favorite putting drill of all time. It's called the "Look-Away Drill." Do these putts from about 15 to 20 feet. Get set up, put a tee, or a coin, or something behind the ball three or four feet. As you come in contact with the putt—as you come in contact with the ball—look back at the tee or object and keep looking at that object until you believe the ball has reached the cup. At that point, whether you believe the ball has reached the cup, go ahead and look up, and hopefully you will see the ball going in. What's going to happen here is your body is going to be nice and steady through the whole motion.

Putting Drill: Ladder Drill

The third—and final—one is what we call the "Ladder Drill." This is for distance control. You're going to just simply take steps from the cup, working away from the hole; and at every step, drop a ball. I typically will do this with three or five golf balls. So I drop them at maybe nine, twelve, and 15 feet. I'm just going to go ahead and putt them, focusing on the distance that each ball travels.

So once again, three key things that we need to do to be a good putter: keep the putter face square, roll the ball the right distance, and also keep the body nice and steady. These three drills will help you do that. For more information, visit About.com.