The best thing I realized while making the 3 putts consistently was not getting lazy; I started to concentrate mostly on making sure my shoulder line was parallel to my line.

Sometimes I'd just put my ball down and concentrate on keeping my eyes over the ball, but that isn't enough.

Ball down with the line of the ball straight at the target(if your putts straight)
then I get in my stance over the ball with my eyes over the ball, and make sure I line up my shoulders parallel with the line of my putt. Works wonders because everytime on instinct when I'd line up, my shoulders would be slightly open

Been doing the 20-30 footers a lot. Before I used to just about be getting it into the circle. Now I find myself holing the putts at least 50% of the time and never finishing outside the circle.

I'm not sure if this means I'm getting better or else I'm just getting used to the breaks on the practice green, lol



( not able to do the 45 footers as the green has been temporarily reduced in size while they work on it)

Glad you got through the 30 footers - that's a great breakthrough!

The 45's are difficult, but the payoff is worth it! All that time on the green will take a lot of pressure off your swing!

Keep up the good work!

Conquered!! I love it!

You make a great point - shoulder alignment is crucial in putting. I don't worry much about the fort alignment, but I tell my students, wherever the shoulders go, the arms go, wherever the arms go, the club goes. You might want to pay attention to your forearm alignment, it's a good indicator if you're square. I want the forearms to be in line (if you were looking down the line), if the are, your shoulders are square, and the club will stay pretty much in line. I see a lot of good players think they're square, but their forearms are open or closed (more open is the bigger tendency). Check yourself in a mirror & make sure those forearms are level & you'll be in the right track!

Great job so far! Keep me posted!

Oh you're getting better, and it's still early spring! Wait until mid-season! You're going to be a putting machine! Think of the shots you are going to save! Keep the updates coming!!

just came back from DR and green

it was busy and couldn't find a place to do 45's so started from the beginning again.

Finished 3ft, 20 and 30ft in less than 90min
I'm so motivated

has anyone else discovered that they are really unfit when attempting this ?

I'd have no problem hitting golf balls all day, but when it comes to putts and being repetitive in my putting stroke position, its a killer on my back.

Find myself often making 5-10 putts then having to take a break for a couple of minutes and going back to it again

Yeah you definitely have to take some breaks every few minutes & stretch the back out so you dont get sore. Good posture is just as important in putting as it is in the full swing - try to maintain your straight back with your shoulders down & back when you address the ball. Don't over do it - keel taking breaks & stretch your back & hamstrings!

5 failed attempts at the 20 ft lag putting today. Went something like 8, 7, 3, 3, 2

missed 9 putts of less than 3 feet today, lol.

Really looking forward to doing this...wish I had a decent practice facility to do so at.

My carpet isn't even good for it. May consider building some sort of contraption to practice my putting at home.

should also inlcude that this was during a competitive round of golf, not during the practice challenge

Grunched after this because its so true and I need to talk about it. The best 9-holes I ever played in my life (to this day) was when I was in college (31 now) and we played a twilight where we got to the back 9 with about an hour until sunset and an empty course in front of us (twosome, me and my roommate). In the interest of time we agreed to play the rest of the round by just walking up to the ball and hitting on all shots, no practice swings, no checking our alignment, no standing over the ball milking the club while a million thoughts ran through our heads, no stalking putts from all angles, just walk up to the ball, take our stance, and pull the trigger.

I'd never shot even par prior to that day for 9 holes and in the hundreds of nines since I've managed to shoot even par a handful of times but never broken par. That afternoon I shot 34 (-2) and literally didn't miss a putt under 15 feet.

Rather than being overjoyed at shooting the best 9 holes of my life, by a lot, all I could do was laugh quietly to myself about the irony of it all, almost sulking over the fact that it came when I wasn't even really "trying". As a fairly deliberate and analytical player, the implications were maddening.

In my mind, its the uncanny things like this, and the insight into ourselves and the world around us that the game so generously affords us, that make golf
such an amazing game.

"This game is so strange." You said it scalp.

I am feeling much more confident about my short putting but didn't do too hot today. Only made 5/8 from 3~5 feet.

Here's something that Rotella taught me and it applies directly to Scalp's situation.

In discussing lag putting, how hard to hit it let's say, people have all sorts of thoughts such as how far to take it back, how far to follow through, do I turn my shoulders, etc. Now, take a golf ball and throw it to somebody 20 feet away. Then ask how exactly you did that.

How far did you cock your arm back to achieve the desired distance? When did you release the ball? How far did you follow through after you released the ball? Did you put any spin on the ball when you released it? What horrible things could have happened had you not thrown the ball properly? And so on and so on.

The short of it is, you simply took the ball, briefly looked at your target, and threw it. No thought process whatsoever except where you wanted the ball to go. Same goes for infielders, outfielders, basketball players, quarterbacks, whatever.

Scalp was mindlessly knocking his balls back towards a specific target and look what happened. You were mindless playing nine holes of golf and look what happened. Back in college I had just made a date with a super hot easy slut before going out for nine holes, was 5-under after 7 and only thinking about getting laid before somebody reminded me how I stood.

If you've played enough golf and have decent technique, all you really need to do is simply react to the target and accept the result.

BO

So for the lag putt workouts, is it the same lag putt within 3 ft 20 times in a row or different ones? I'm assuming the same one, but just wanna sure. Thanks

You can do it from the same spot. I put a target tee down & then circle it with tees 3ft from it on each side. I then do the same 20 (or 30, 40, etc) feet away & go back & forth so I'll putt 5 balls uphill to a target tee, then putt the same 5 balls downhill to the other target tee. This gives some variance in slope & you're going to be walking up to get the balls anyway, so putting them back is more efficient than just picking them up & walking back. As long as you're working on improving your distance control, that is the key.

Practice paying off.... shot 78 today,after going double, par, triple to finish

Putted really horrible on the front, which hadnt been the problem as of late.

Got my new irons on tuesday, and this was the 2nd round with them. Goal was for the first round to be in the 70s with them, but i'll take it on the 2nd!

It's going to be beautiful this weekend, could possible play 100+ holes in the next few days... haha

Not necessarily a practice routine but some advice probably mostly common sense:

Play within yourself. Don't feel bad laying up on a par 5.

When putting/chipping leave yourself the easiest follow up shot....ie below the whole with least break on follow up possible.

Assuming you have a grooves swing ie you have some idea where the ball is going,Make 75% of your practice within 100 yards. Of this 40% chipping,40% putting, 20% other.

ty dagolfdoc, I'll have to give your practice routine a shot once all the ****ing snow finally melts.

I wonder if I could throw/roll the golfball for every stroke and get a lower score than I get by hitting it with clubs lol. Accuracy would be much better but distance off the tee would suffer immensely. And I'd only have an edge in distance over my lob wedge and maybe sand wedge. No idea how far I could throw a golfball but I can throw a baseball 65-70 yards so I assume a little further.

I heard this on golf channel the other day too. How vital/easy is this to do? If I'm chipping or hitting a flop shot from the side of the green (slope runs left to right) I almost always leave it on the high side of the hole, for fear of it running down the green, as I feel I have better control with the putter. Same thing if I'm hitting from beyond the green. But if I'm in front of it I will tend to leave the ball short of the pin for the uphill putt. But then, I'm not giving myself a chance to chip in from off the green if I leave it short.

I had a little time to kill before a reround on Tuesday, so I measured off three feet, stuck a tee in the ground and made ... three in a row before missing. Tried it again and made ... three in a row before missing.

Putting: Not so good.

Yesterday after playing I made 45 in a row from 3 feet before i pushed one and missed.. Was sort of tilting, bc at that point I wanted 50!

Today after I played like crap, "punished" myself with a hour practice of downhill putts, which were my nemisis today. Felt like I got it under control at this point... but we shall see in my round tomorrow!

TC

Well finally finished the first step in my 2nd go around, nailed the 25 straight from 3 feet. Just kept going after 25 until I missed, didn't last long and ended up at 32.

The 20 foot one I tried for a few minutes, went pretty well like 11/12, but that was at the tail end of the day so wasn't taking it too seriously. Next time I'll get it .