Lower Your Handicap this Spring: Five Minutes a Day of Putting Practice
By Bradley Turner Keiser University College of Golf Executive Director – MBA, PGA
In making 2025 your best golf year ever, it makes good sense to focus on the club that makes a big difference in lowering your handicap. This spring is the perfect time to fine-tune your putting stroke by dedicating five minutes a day to this important skill. There are three main fundamentals that you can improve this spring. First, great putters hit the ball solid and in the center of the putter’s face. Center face contact is important to start the ball on your intended line and to hit the ball the distance you anticipate. Secondly, the best putters can maintain a straight path to the intended target. Most importantly, great putters can square the face to their intended target line at impact. Developing and fine-tuning these three fundamentals will significantly improve your success on the greens. Carving out only five minutes from your daily schedule appears to be easy. But you need to do this on a regular basis. The following is a putting practice routine that can be completed this spring, transforming you into a great putter.
Use Simple Training Aids
The use of training aids is designed to provide feedback for you by associating a feel with a desired fundamental. Training aids are great if used properly and will get you on the right track toward improvement. My belief is to use training aids at the beginning of your practice session. Then, remove the training aids and challenge yourself to create the same feelings and sensations. This process will help you transition the changes from the practice tee to the first tee.
Center Face Contact
To provide feedback in your practice sessions, apply your favorite foot powder to the face of your putter. At the end of your five-minute practice session, you will have good evidence of the consistency of the impact position. Take a picture of the results and save it as your initial baseline test. Over the course of your practice sessions, you should see the impact pattern becoming tighter and on the sweet spot of the putter, which is evidence that your center face contact is improving.
Straight Path
A favorite training aid to assist in developing a good putter path is a 2″ x4″. Make sure to get a straight piece of wood to work with, and your putter path will improve tremendously. To use the 2″ x4″ board, simply hit putts with the heel of the putter, lightly touching the board. After about a minute, switch to using the toe of the putter against the board. Do not putt to a target when using the 2″ x4″ board unless you are absolutely certain the board is aligned properly to your intended target. Remember, you are trying to get a feel for a path that is relatively straight
toward the target. Research tells us that some of the best PGA tour putters have a very slight arc to the putting stroke. By practicing using the toe and then the heel, you will be able to balance out a feel for a putting stroke that will most likely have a slight arc, just like the tour players.
Face Angle
There are plenty of putting mats available for you to use this spring. A putting mat with lines is the best as it will help you square the putter face in your setup position and then provide feedback on the position of the face angle at impact. Another simple training aid is a carpenter’s chalk line. Most professional golfers and competitive amateurs use a chalk line to help them see a perfectly straight line. Once you have a straight line to practice from, ensure your putter face angle is square to the line in your setup and begin striking putts.
Only Five Minutes a Day
Somedays, you may want to spend a bit more time putting than five minutes, but I would caution against a long putting session. It is much better to spend five minutes, six days a week, than to spend 30 minutes putting on a Saturday. It is also much easier to commit and execute a practice plan that requires such a short amount of time! By focusing on the three important putting fundamentals and using the suggested training appropriately, you will have earned the confidence to be a great putter.
Learn more!
Want more tips? If you want to take your game to the next level, contact our team at Keiser University’s College of Golf & Sport Management today. With our dedication and experience, we can elevate your game to new heights together. Give us a call today at 888-355-4465.
