Try the tennis ball drill

Make the hole smaller by practicing with a completely different kind of ball

Holing out from inside six feet is critical to lowering your scores. If you can hole out consistently from within this distance, not only will it lower your scores, it will also put less pressure on your short game – you won’t feel like you have to chip or pitch it within ‘gimme’ length every time.

Try holing out with a tennis ball on the putting green whilst practicing or even just before you go out to play.

You will find it quite difficult to start with as a tennis ball only just fits into the cup but if you can hole out successfully with a tennis ball, when you are faced with holing out from the same distance on the golf course with a golf ball, it will seem like the hole is the size of a large bucket – you will feel like you can’t miss!

 

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The Drill

Try holing out from between three feet and six feet. Start with straight putts to begin with and once you feel more competent move on to breaking putts. After doing this drill it will feel like the hole is like a large bucket.

 

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Gavin Abson is the Head PGA professional at The Carrick. For lessons, call Gavin on 07967 206266. Follow him on Twitter @GavinAbson

Originally published on bunkered on May 27, 2013.

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