3 Drills to Improve Your Putting Pace Control

Putting is all about speed control. Sure, it’s easy to get caught up in trying to pick the perfect line – which you want to do, as well – but this part of the game starts and ends with speed control.

If you are able to roll the ball the right distance time after time, you are likely to be happy with your putting performance. No one makes all of their putts, but players with great speed control have more good days than most.

Of course, improving your performance in this part of the game is easier said than done. To get you moving in the right direction, we have outlined three useful drills below.

Consider working these into your regular putting practice routine and look forward to enjoying the benefits during upcoming rounds.

Putting Drill #1 – “Short, Long, Perfect”

When you are on the course, your goal with every putt is to roll the ball up as close to the hole if you can. If it falls in, that’s even better. However, during practice, you can change things up a bit in order to develop a better feel for your speed control.

This simple drill is going to help you get a feel for how much pace is required to send the ball varied distances. You’ll only need three golf balls, your putter, and an open space on a practice green.

• Set three golf balls down on the green and pick out an available target hole that is around 20 – 30 feet away.
• Take a moment to read this putt just as you would read any putt that you encounter on the course.
• With your first putt, try to leave the ball approximately three feet short of the cup.
• On the next putt, do the opposite and aim for a spot that is three feet beyond the hole.
• Finally, with your last putt, do your best to roll it right up next to the hole with perfect speed.

Good speed control on the golf course is all about making little adjustments along the way. You are never going to be able to use the same speed all day long, because the putts you face will vary and the conditions will change as the day moves along. So, you need to understand how it feels to add a little extra pace or take a little pace off. This drill is great for doing just that.

Don’t be surprised if you have a little more trouble than expected with this drill at first. The difference in speed between leaving a putt three feet short and getting it to the hole is very subtle.

You’ll need plenty of practice to dial in your touch to this level of control. As you get better and better, you can add difficulty to this drill by giving yourself longer putts, putting across slopes, etc.

Putting Drill #2 – “Get There”

From a certain distance, you never want to leave a putt short. On longer putts, those you would put in the ‘lag’ category, there’s nothing wrong with leaving a putt short, since the goal is just to two putt and move on. But when you are close enough to think about making a putt, you don’t want to leave those opportunities short – putts that don’t reach the hole have no chance of falling in.

With this drill, you are going to work on controlling your speed on putts of a makeable distance. Follow the steps below to complete the drill – you’ll again need a putter and some golf balls, but this time you will also need a few tees.

• Find a relatively flat spot on the practice green for this drill and set up about 10 feet away from the hole.
• Take a few golf tees and push them into the turf approximately two feet behind the cup.
• Roll a few putts from your starting point toward the hole. The goal is to make the putt, of course, but the secondary goal is to at least get the ball to the hole without hitting it so hard that it runs into the tees.

This works really well as a ‘streak’ drill. In other words, you try to hit as many successful putts as you can in a row before you break the streak by leaving one short or hitting it too hard into the tees past the hole.

With some practice time logged in this useful drill, you will feel confident on the course to get your putts to the hole without racing them by into three-putt territory.

Putting Drill #3 – “Coast to Coast”

From time to time, you are going to face extra-long putts on the golf course. This is particularly true if you happen to play on a course with big greens.

It can be a great challenge to get down in two when you are faced with a putt in the range of 100 feet or more. To prepare for such a situation, try the Coast to Coast drill outlined below. You’ll only need your putter and three golf balls for this one.

• This is a good drill to do when you have the putting green all to yourself. Find a line across the middle of the green that stretches along the widest point – basically, you are trying to find the longest putt that the green has to offer. Don’t worry about finding a hole to use, as we’ll just use the fringe cut as our target.
• With your path picked out, hit three putts from one side of the green all the way to the other side. The goal is to roll these putts as close to the collar as possible without the ball actually leaving the putting surface. Give yourself a point for each putt that comes to rest within one putter length of the edge.
• Continue back and forth across the green as many times as you would like, keeping track of how many points you collect compared to how many putts you hit.

Challenging yourself with such long practice putts will make shorter lag putts seem manageable by comparison. And, when those really long putts do present themselves on the course, you will feel confident that you can two putt and move on with your round.

Happy practicing!