If you want to improve your putting, spending more time on the practice green is a good place to start. But Jamie Donaldson believes many club golfers aren’t using their time there properly.
The specialist putting coach, who is Europe’s No.1 AimPoint instructor, says we often fall into the same old habits – hitting several putts from the same distance to the same hole.
And it’s not doing us any favours.
“We call it the Goldilocks syndrome,” Donaldson told NCG’s Nicola Slater on the Your Golf Podcast.
“Too much, too little, just right. You hit three putts of the same hole, and if one of them’s good, you kind of move to the next and think, ‘oh, that’s all I’ve got to do’.”
The problem with this, says Woburn-based Donaldson, is it doesn’t reflect the challenges we’ll face when we get out on the course.
“We only get one go on the golf course,” he explained. “We need to make it count. Just dropping three putts from putting to a hole is pretty much, in my opinion, one of one of the worst preparations you can have for a round that day.
“As is, just hitting five foot putts, the same five foot putt again and again and again. That’s also one of my least favorites because you can be doing all sorts of funky things to get the ball into the hole, and just repeating that is just practicing the funky things.
“If you’re trying to find a stroke or trying to manage the face just before you play, it’s probably a bit too late. Those block practices should be done before we get to the golf course.”
What should our practice look like?
Donaldson believes putting should mimic how a golfer will be tested during a round.
For short putting, he recommends varying the practice rather than hitting the same length of putt time and again.
He explained: “When you’re five feet away from the hole, being one degree out to the left or right (when lining-up your putt), would have you hitting the edge of the cup. So if we could find a straight aimed putt or a level slope where there’s no real break, that’s a good drill to practice.
“Just hit a couple of straight putts. But then switch to move off those straight putts, so you’re adding a little bit of break each time.
“The straight putt requires a good face control. But then, as we’re moving away from straight ones, a bit more break will help players with green reading, aiming, and speed control. So I think varying up the short putt practice is important (when practising).”
Donaldson also believes golfers should remove the pressure of trying to hole putts during practice.
“If we wanted to work specifically on start line, I think it’s important to take the read and the hole out of the equation to start with,” he said.
“Make a gate with two tee pegs, just wide enough for the ball to go through, about 12 inches away from the hole – you don’t want it too far because then it’s going to break before it gets there. Then aim straight through the gate. Rehearsing hitting a putt through a gate is a really good drill. If you only hit the tee pegs a couple of times out of 10 attempts, that’s really good.
“We can make the gates quite wide for greater confidence, but for better players there is also the option to narrow the gates down.”
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