Top 5 Putting Drills You Can Practice on the Golf Course

I can’t tell you how many stories I have heard about golfers who spend more time practicing than playing and who don’tseem to get any better.

When we think of putting drills, we think of them as mostly done on the practice green with no stakes. What if we tried doing some of these putting drills during our rounds? It could lead to quicker improvement. 

If you can find some time to do a drill here or a drill there on the green during a round, the benefits could be massive.

I’ve come up with 5 simple yet effective practice drills you can do on the course, during a round, to master putting.

1. The Precision Putt Drill

Accuracy is a key ingredient to mastering putting. Next time you’re a short putt away, try the precision putt drill. Place your ball down and choose an object (leaf, stick, bug, dirt, etc.). Putt to this object a few times, taking care to work on consistency in your stroke.

Focus on putting through the object. This will help improve accuracy, precision, and consistency because when we force the brain to focus on fine motor control, it learns quickly.

You can do this real quick while others are putting or even while you’re waiting for the next tee. 

2. The Ladder Drill

Our second drill to try during a round is the ladder drill. This drill helps us control our distance. 

Start by setting up an imaginary ladder on the green. Select two points (near & far) about 5 & 10 feet from you. Challenge yourself to lag the ball between these points on the ladder. You can even adjust the distances of the “ladder” so you can work on any distance you need to feel more comfortable with. 

This drill is going to eliminate any three-putts while also dialing in your lag putting skills, which is a top-notch putting skill to master.

3. The Gate Drill

When you get a couple of minutes of slow play or downtime during a round, pull out the gate drill to dial in your alignment. This is a classic drill that Tiger Woods uses.

To set up the drill, place two tees next to each other, close enough to where a golf ball can barely squeeze through, like a gate. Then place two more tees on the outside of your putter face, to make another gate, but this one will be used to keep your putter face straight during the drill.

With the drill set up, begin putting through the gates, making sure not to hit the gates. This drill is great for maintaining a consistent stroke and alignment.

4. The Clock Drill

Most of this list contains drills that can be done pretty inconspicuously and without breaking etiquette on the course. This one might be tough to do unless you have some serious downtime. 

Set up 4-6 golf balls around the hole in a circular clock formation, with each ball dropped 3 to 6 feet from the hole. Simply putt the putts out, focusing on great fundamentals. 

The best time to squeeze this drill into a round would be when you finish a hole. Just quickly throw some balls down in a circle and putt them out before your partners are even back to the cart. You’ll find that this drill helps not only the consistency of short putts but also helps you handle putts from various angles. 

5. Reading the Green Drill

Reading greens correctly is the aspiration of every golfer, even the pros. Getting any extra practice during a round with reading greens is going to launch your mastery of putting.

This is probably the easiest drill to handle because you should already be doing this before every putt anyway. 

Before every putt, make sure to assess the slope, break, grain, etc. by walking around the hole. Predict how the ball will break, and then compare if you were correct. 

The great part about this drill is that you can do this with any putt you see during a round, even from your playing partners. Reading greens is a skill that requires just reading as many putts as possible on the green.

Conclusion

So you’ve got an arsenal of putting drills that you can use to improve every single time you step on the course. But how will you find time to do these drills during a round? The simple answer is that you have more downtime in a round of golf than you think. 

Some great times to use these drills are during delays, when your group is warming up, or any short time you are waiting on your group.

Even taking the time to do one of these drills during a round of golf will go a long way to improving your putting skills.