Often described as the game within a game, putting is a facet of golf that requires multiple skills to be successful. Not only do you need to be able to implement a repeatable stroke that returns the face to square as often as possible, but you also need to judge speed and consider a whole host of factors like slope, green speed on the day and even the situation of your round to putt correctly. The best players in the world make it look easy and so to help improve your performance on the greens, here are eight things all good putters do that might well make a difference to your scores the next time you play.

WATCH: Discover the 8 things all good putters do

1. Hit Putts Out Of The Sweet Spot Every Time

Watch any pro on TV and you’ll notice how consistently they strike their putts out of the middle of the putter. It allows them to be more precise with distance control and also increases the chance of holing out from short range. A great drill to get more balls coming out of the sweet spot of your putter is to place two tee pegs just wider than the width of your putter head and position the ball in the middle of them. The aim is to hit putts without striking either tee peg. If you do that, you know you’ve hit your putts solidly.

At the same time it’s also worth looking at your angle of attack. Having your ball position too far forward is going to cause the club to come up and left, and that's really going to impact the quality of your strikes. If your ball position is too far backwards, you get very steep and the ball won’t launch and roll properly. There is no perfect ball position but you'll find some of the best players in the world go from center of the stance to just forward of this point. But if you keep an eye on your ball position and find one that works for you, you're going to putt a lot better.

2. Control Stroke Length And Tempo

Another thing that all good putters do is control their stroke lengths and their tempo. Using a ruler or tape measure and markers at 10, 20 and 30 feet we can work out what stroke length you need for each distance to control your speed better. So let’s say you hit a 10 foot putt and see that backswing length to do so was 12 inches long. Once we know what our stroke length is for 10 foot, we can add 50 percent for a 20-foot putt and then another 50 percent on top for a 30-foot putt.

Don't be surprised if this backswing feels much longer than what you're using currently on the 30 foot putt, it takes some getting used to. The important thing is to keep your forward time or tempo the same as the others. This is a great warm-up drill before you play and remember, if the green speeds change you’ll need to either adjust your tempo or stroke length accordingly.

3. Change Their Stroke For Uphill And Downhill Putts

Good putters adjust their stroke length and their tempo to suit the putt they're faced with. So on a downhill putt, to reduce the energy put into the ball, the stroke length has to be shorter. But you can also change your tempo by slowing down your forward time so it takes longer for the putter to reach the ball. You'll need some trial and error to figure out what works for you and how much to adjust each one for different severities of slope, but thinking about these two factors will really help. Conversely when you're putting uphill, you could swing the putter longer and quicker depending on the slope and also the speed of the green.

4. Square The Putter Face At Impact

One thing that all good putters do is they get their face square to their start line. The putter face is around 93 percent in charge of where the ball finishes and so have it one degree out at impact will get you hitting the edge of the hole from just five feet away. The best putters, like Cobra's comprehensive range, have a mix of alignment aids from long solid lines, dots, dots and lines, multiple lines or no markings at all and you've got to find the one that suits you best.

5. They Help Themselves Aim

Another thing good putters do is they help themselves aim. That might be by using a line on the ball or picking a spot which is just in front of the ball. Now it's important to remember that when we use a line on the ball, when you address it, it probably won't look right the first few times but you've got to trust it. So add the line to your ball and direct it to where you want the ball to start based on your read. Then take a step back and use the shaft of your putter to check if the alignment is good and match up the line on your putter to the line on the ball.

If you don’t like using a line on the ball, an alternative method is to pick a spot between the ball and the hole no more than 10 inches in front of the ball (shown above). This could be a blade of grass or a blemish on the green. Your goal is to simply roll the ball over that spot.

6. Play More Break On Longer Putts

Another thing good putters do is they miss their long putts closer by allowing for more break on their long putt reads because they know that a putt that's coming down from a higher position is going to finish closer. If you under read a putt, the ball will be moving away from the hole and your instinct will also often kick in and you’ll hit the putt harder, which will leave you a longer second putt. Golfers need to get more confident aiming away from the hole as it will help you miss closer, with the ball rolling towards the hole as it stops rather than away from it.

7. Read Putts Correctly

Another thing that good golfers do is they read putts correctly and if you struggle to get an idea of the slope using your eyes, one thing you could do to help you read putts better is to use AimPoint. This is a method whereby you feel the slope in your feet and it’s used by many of the world’s best players. So if you straddle the ball and feel like there's a lot of weight on your right foot, you know it’s going to be a quite aggressive breaking from left-to-right and you need to adjust your aim accordingly. The opposite is true on right-to-left putts and if you don’t feel any bias in either feet, the chances are the putt is pretty straight.

8. Adjust Break For Uphill And Downhill Putts

The last thing that good putters do is they understand that downhill putts break more than uphill putts. The reason for this is putts that are rolling downhill actually roll slower. And when they roll for longer, gravity can be more effective, and they break more. On the same length putt up the hill, it breaks less because it’s moving quicker. So you need to adjust your aim accordingly, allowing for more break on downhill putts and less break on uphill putts.

If you’re interested in trying a Cobra putter out for yourself, be sure to visit the Cobra website.

As the most used club in your bag, it is crucial to have a putter that you love and that suits your stroke. However, walk around any pro shop or golf retailer and the multitude of options available can be a bit overwhelming. Where do you start? Let's take a look into some of the areas that differentiate these putters and clarify which of the best putters available today might be suitable for you.

Head shape

One of the first things to consider when choosing a putter is head shape. The sizes and shapes of a putter can vary greatly but can basically be split up into two categories - blade or mallet. A blade putter is generally much shorter in depth from the face to the back and is considered a more traditional choice which provides less forgiveness but more feedback to the golfer. Players such as Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth favor the blade-style putter. 

Mallet putters, as you might deduce from the name, generally have a larger footprint than their blade counterparts and are much deeper from front to back. They come in numerous shapes and sizes, from semi-circle to square and just about everything in between. The design of a mallet putter provides a couple of performance benefits. Firstly, because of the extra depth, mass can be pulled away from the face and be distributed further back and often wider, which provides more stability on off-center strikes generally making mallets some of the most forgiving putters. Another benefit of the mallet is that the added surface area provides more opportunities and variety for adding alignment aids. Many of the best mallet putters feature long and multiple alignment lines which many find helpful.

For someone just starting out in the game, taking advantage of the added forgiveness of a mallet putter may be prudent. Why not take a look at our guide to the best putters for beginners for more information.

Toe hang or face balanced?

Another point to consider when selecting a putter is what style of head will suit your stroke. The terms toe-hang and face-balanced refer to the orientation of the clubface when held unaided, allowing gravity to find the clubhead's natural balance point. Putters with toe-hang will, predictably, settle in a position with the toe of the club hanging down towards the ground to varying degrees, whereas, with a face-balanced putter, the face will look directly at the sky. In recent years, there has actually been the introduction of another category here, where the toe of the putter points up to the sky in the same test. Odyssey called their version of this the Toe Up and L.A.B Golf refers to this as “lie-angle-balanced”.

In terms of performance, generally, the more toe hang a putter has, the more it promotes face rotation so is thought to favor those players with a more pronounced arc to their stroke due to the face being able to stay squarer relative to the path easier. Face balance on the other hand encourages less rotation of the face and as such suits players who prefer a more straight back and through style with minimal arc. 

The aforementioned third category encourages even less rotation of the blade. Lucas Glover incorporated this technology into a broom handle-style putter to overcome years of struggle with the yips to capture the 2023 Wyndham Championship and the 2023 Fed Ex St. Jude Classic in back-to-back weeks.

Alignment aids

Alignment aids are a completely personal and subjective area of putter selection. There are so many options in this category that trial and error is the only strategy here. What do we mean by alignment aids though? Well, some putters can come with lines positioned (generally on the crown or flange of the putter) perpendicular to the face to help players ensure their face is square to their intended target. Some players prefer to align their putter using the face only and as such select putters that have no alignment aids whatsoever, whereas others rely heavily on the alignment aids. Tiger Woods would be an example of a player who lines up using the face rather than alignment aids and as such the only marking on the top of his putter is a simple small red dot to help him position the ball in the center of the face. Experiment with this, grab a few putters with different types of alignment options, and see what gets you lined up squarely most often.

Face material

Many putters now feature multi-material heads and also face inserts. These inserts can serve a number of purposes. Primarily, the insert will be used to alter the feel of the face to accommodate players preferring a softer or firmer feeling strike. Often these inserts are also used to assist with providing a better roll on the golf ball. Some companies believe that adding grooves to the face of the putter will reduce skidding and provide better roll characteristics. Finally, manufacturers can use a face insert to help facilitate the redistribution of weight around the head. For example, if they remove a section of the face and replace it with a lighter material, they may be able to redistribute that weight around the head to increase performance.

A lot will depend on your feel preferences here, but also the type of greens you predominantly play on. A softer insert can help to take some speed off the ball at impact which some players feel assists them on very quick greens, with some tour pros even having their equipment companies changing their face insert multiple times a year to accommodate different green speeds.

Length

Choosing the correct length of putter is very important in promoting good eye position and comfortable posture. Whilst many putting experts differ in their opinion of optimal eye position, it is generally considered that somewhere between directly over the ball to slightly inside the line is a good spot. As such, a putter that is too long for a player can push the ball further away from them resulting in the eyes being too far inside the ball making it difficult to align properly. Similarly, if the putter is too short the eyes can be pushed outside the line of the ball, once again causing issues with the perspective a player has to align correctly. 

The correct length will also facilitate a comfortable posture, not too upright and not too stooped. A longer putter can be utilized to combat lower back issues in some cases. Tiger Woods lengthened his putter in 2021 to alleviate some of the stress on his recently fused spine.

Grip

There is now so much choice in this area that experimentation is a must. Traditional, thin rubber, pistol-style grips are still widely used but have also been joined in popularity by thicker putter grips using lighter materials. These grips are available in so many different thicknesses, weights, shapes, and tapers that the only way to address this point is through good old-fashioned trial and error. Read our guide on whether you should be using an oversized putter grip for more information.

Shaft

Shaft technology in putters is certainly a growth area, with many manufacturers now offering specialty shafts for putters. Whilst many putters you will see at retail will still be fitted with a traditional steel shaft, graphite, and even multi-material shafts have been growing in popularity in recent years, with some focussed more on specific flexes for certain stroke types while others more focused on distributing mass in specific areas to alter the balance and swing weight of a putter.

Alternative putting styles

Putting is truly the most individual and open-to-interpretation area of the game. Even when watching golf at the highest level nowadays, it is rare to see the same method being implemented by any or all of the same group. Outside of different grips, such as the claw, pencil, and prayer grips, there are also some more extreme variations in technique. Arm-lock has become more and more popular in recent times, where a player using an over-length putter rests (it's important not to say anchors here!) the excess length against their forearm preventing any excess wrist motion or flicking. Bryson Dechambeau, Webb Simpson, and Matt Kuchar are some of the pros using the arm-lock method. The broom handle method is one that is still very popular out on tour, with players such as Bernhard Langer, Adam Scott, and Lucas Glover using this to great success.

These are some of the main areas of consideration when selecting a putter for yourself. There are many expert custom fitters available which would always be a good idea, but also experiment yourself and find your own preferences to establish your perfect putting formula. 

Even with the best ever putting tips, holing out under pressure can be a difficult skill to master. Often that is down to a lack of practise, but with the right putting drills it's possible to turn your fortunes around on the greens.

In this video and article, Golf Monthly Top 50 Coach Alex Elliott shares his expert tips, and talks us through three transformative putting drills that all golfers should try...

Alignment

These drills are so easy to set-up, and they could have a huge impact on your putting performance. All you need is a golf ball box, something which many golfers seem to accumulate in their golf bags over time that can act as a great putting aid.

The first drill focuses on alignment, which is crucial for success when putting. If you are not aiming correctly, the chances of holing putts drops significantly.

As I demonstrate in the video above, stick your golf ball box on the green and just practise squaring your putter up to it. If you have a tendency to aim left, you'll notice the toe of your putter will be in contact with the box, and if you aim right, the heel of your putter will be hitting it.

Take your hands off the putter and practise getting it flush to the box so you know what this feels and looks like. Then put your hands back on and address the ball. Over time this will get you aiming at your intended target more often and therefore help you hole more putts.

Strike

Strike is the focus of the second drill, and is good for players that regularly miss the middle of the putter face. This can make it very difficult to judge distance accurately, and can also start the ball on an unintended line. Similarly to the first, place the box on the green. Line up to your ball with around a finger's width between the toe of your putter and the box.

Place a tee peg the same finger's width distance from the heel of your putter so you've got a gate and start hitting some putts. This drill gives great feedback because if you hit the box or the tee you know you've made a bad stroke and therefore poor contact. The better you get at this, the better your putting will become.

The Stroke

The final drill and my favourite is one where we're not even going to putt to a hole. This is what I do to calibrate my stroke. A common mistake I see in amateurs is they take the putter back far too far back and then decelerate into impact.

Place your golf ball box on the ground roughly two clubheads outside your right foot and imagine it's a brick wall. I want you to use that as a buffer for how far to take the putter back. 

Now, simply hit a few putts into open space trying not to swing back past the box. Match up the length of your follow-through and backswing and you'll be surprised how close together the balls finish.

If you're struggling with three-putting, learning how to judge putting distance should be high on the list of priorities. Getting your first effort close to the hole from long range is vital if you want to score well. So, how do you get distance control down to a fine art? Advanced PGA pro Katie Dawkins has some advice in the video and article below…

For golfers prone to the dreaded three-putt (or worse), leaving a putt short or smacking it long is the most common mistake. All of a sudden what should have been a routine par is now in jeopardy and hangs on whether you can slot a six-footer.

RELATED: Best putters for beginners 

How many shots a round would you save if you could just two-putt every time you’re faced with a long-range effort? Some might get close to double figures, yet conventional wisdom is to have a swing lesson rather than address issues on the greens.

How to judge putting distance

Let’s start with the basics and first thing's first, a change in putting grip could provide some answers. And if that doesn't help, you want to try and take the hands out of it as much as possible by loosening your grip.

Softer hands will enable you to stroke the ball along the green rather than bashing it. If you were going to roll a ball as if playing lawn bowls then you certainly wouldn’t be gripping it hard, and the arm swing would be free flowing. 

There would be more through than back as you smoothly accelerate before releasing. Try and practise this along your putting green, or better still, out on the course one evening. 

Choose a green or a putt that bugs the heck out of you - maybe it cost you a bad score recently - and take a few balls onto the green when nobody else is on the course. Now, simply roll them from different places. 

RELATED: Claw grip for putting - How it works

Then add a putter into the equation and try to recreate that length of arm swing and tempo. It’s essential that you keep the tempo of your stroke the same regardless of the length of putt - think of a metronome 1-2 or a tick-tock. This will give you the rhythm to putt to.

What you will learn while out there is not only the pace of the greens, but also how much the slopes come into play. And over time, you’ll get a feel for the length of stroke required for longer putts and learn to rely more on the momentum of a larger stroke to roll the ball instead of thumping it.

There is absolutely NO reason you can’t be as good as the best putters in the world. There are probably one or two reasons why you can’t dedicate the same time to practising this part of your game but, technically, no reason. 

So at least make a dent in your score today by sharpening up on the greens. Most people’s struggles are a result of not practising enough, if at all, so get out there and find out how YOU control distance as everyone is different. 

You’ll start to really make gains on the greens if you do.

Reading greens is often a challenge for golfers, with many leaving it too late to see the true undulations that face them. For example, once on the green and crouching down behind a putt, subtle slopes and dips can easily go unnoticed.

So in this article, PGA pro Katie Dawkins shares her green-reading tips that will get you started on the way to holing more putts and shooting lower scores...

I highly recommend checking out the lie of the land from afar. Once you’ve hit your approach shot your reading radar should kick into action as you watch the ball scamper up there. If you watch carefully as your ball rolls up to or onto the green you’ll already have an idea of how your putt (or chip) is going to behave.

RELATED: Best mallet putters

As you get closer to the green take a moment to assess the area. Almost as if taking a panoramic photo with your mind, scan from one side of the green and its surrounding areas to the other.

Suddenly you’ll notice water hazards, natural and man-made, and be aware that the ground most likely slopes towards where the water collects. Warning: this won't be the case 100 per cent of the time so be on the lookout for exceptions.

You’ll also start to see where the natural topography of the land moves to and from, where the biggest slopes are, and where gravity would be inclined to take your ball.

RELATED: Short putting tips - how to hole out more efficiently 

Do the same if you have a chip or even a pitch shot shot upcoming as you still need to settle on a decent read if you want your ball to end up close to the hole.

So get your beady eyes assessing the surrounding ground and look at the bigger picture. You’ll be more prepared once you get onto the green and be more confident in your choice of line, which is only going to result in more holed putts.

Even when wielding one of the best putters on the market, holing out short putts can be tough, especially when they carry any degree of significance. They can leave golfers trembling as they approach the green, to the point that those who are prone to a missed tap-in or two will have themselves convinced that’s the likely outcome. 

In this article, PGA pro Katie Dawkins has put together some short putting tips that’ll help you hole out more efficiently and stop three-putting.

Short putting tips: Get lined up

Give yourself a fighting chance and use a line on the ball or the manufacturer’s marking to give you a route into the centre of the cup. As a starting point, you could use this method on anything from within 10 feet and see how you get on.

It's usually a good idea to trust your instincts so don't overthink it and faff about for ages on the green. Once you've settled on a read, have a few practice strokes behind the ball, visualising it rolling into the hole.

Now align the line on your putter (if you have one) with the line on your ball. All that's left is to extend the stroke back and through like someone’s stuck a sharpie on the bottom of your club.

RELATED: Putting drills for distance control

If you feel like you're hitting good putts that are rolling end-over-end yet are still missing more often than not, then it might be the case that you need to work on your green-reading ability.

In this case, another option would be to pick a spot in front of the ball as a reference point that you want to hit. It worked wonders for Rory McIlroy en route to his 2014 Open Championship win at Hoylake so, if using a line on your ball isn't working, give this a try.

Eyes down!

Now, here’s the important bit. Don’t look up. Listen for that ball dropping into the centre of the cup. If this is a part of the game you battle with, you’ll be watching your ball miss. 

By keeping your eyes down you won’t lift your body up, therefore the putter will stay true to your stroke. You’ll strike your putts sweetly and that line will roll end-over-end due to the lack of side spin being imparted on it. Try it, you’ll be impressed how often you hear that satisfying sound.

It’s also a good idea to develop a rhythm when trying to hole out. Something as simple as a one-two or tick-tock can work wonders as it will keep you focused on the job at hand and not the worst-case scenario. 

Repeat it each time and, if you find it helps over the short putts, don’t be afraid to employ it whenever the flatstick is called upon. 

When golfers attempt to control distance on mid-to-long putts, many simply try and hit the ball harder or softer. They usually adopt the same length of stroke and vary the amount of oomph given each time. This is quite a difficult way to be consistent with your distance control. 

In this video and article, PGA pro Katie Dawkins shares a simple drill that will help golfers gain consistency in their stroke by using momentum over force...

When we hit a long putt really hard the ball skids and jumps all over the place before rolling. So it’s far better to maintain a pendulum action, ensuring the tempo remains the same for each putt, short or long.

Four-ball drill

Soft hands are essential if you want a silky stroke. Squeezing the life out of your putter will result in a jerky action and more of a hit through impact. Instead, you want the ball to get in the way of a solid motion. To practise this, set four balls up on a flat stretch of green, ideally one with no severe slopes. Place them in a row so you’re putting them across the green one ball after another.

RELATED: Best putters

You need to almost put the blinkers on so you don't look and see where each ball finishes. If you peek you can easily influence how hard you hit the next ball.

It's also important to ensure you have a flatstick that suits your stroke type. If, for example, you tend to arc the putter, you'll find more success with a blade model that tends to have more toe hang. Alternatively, if you've got more of a straight-back-and-through stroke, at one of the best mallet putters is where you should be looking.

All about the rhythm

Use a rhythm like tick-tock or 1-2, keeping the same tempo almost like having a metronome in your head. If you can maintain this throughout all of your putts, it makes it easier to gauge distance simply by the length of stroke.

The first putt is a small tick-tock, then you want to keep that tempo and just lengthen it back and through each time until all four balls have gone.

What you want to see when you look up the green is a beautifully consistent ladder of balls, with a fairly even distribution and each one having gone slightly further than the one previous.

If there is an an anomaly - a ball that’s totally out of whack with the others - you know you've either hit it too hard or decelerated. Repeat the drill and keep going until you become adept at creating consistently even ladders.

RELATED: Best women's putters

Once you've done that, take out a glove or a tee and mark where you putted from then work back to that point with each of the four balls. Getting into the habit of visualising the stroke you put on each putt when creating the ladder will help. This is going to just reinforce the length of strokes required to send the ball a certain distance.

Do this a few times or until you feel you've got the pace of the green and are able to control the distance  through the stroke rather than giving it a whack. Make this your go-to distance control drill and you'll notice a difference - quickly.

When on the course, do a few rehearsal strokes when standing behind the ball looking down the line of the putt and really visualise where your ball will go with a certain length of stroke. You’ll soon learn how to stop three-putting, which will increase your confidence and save you buckets of shots.

Give these putting drills for distance control a try and it could make a big difference to your scoring!

Amateur golfers 3-putt between one and four times each round (on average) and the correlation is clear... the higher your handicap index; the more shots that are leaked on the putting green.

To tidy up this area of your game, start by investing time in practicing the best putting drills, either on the practice green or your own putting mat at home, and supercharge your progress by using one of the best putting aids to keep you on the straight and narrow.

In order to give you the best chance to stem the tide, we asked top Tour Coach Liam James to share his expert putting tips on how to stop 3-putting for good...

Pace control

An effective practice stroke is critical to long-range putting success, as it helps your brain to work out the equations it needs to judge distance control. For long-putts, try looking at the hole instead of the ground when going through your practice stroke. This will help you to get a feel for how far to take the putter back and through in order to get the ball close to the hole.

Grip pressure

Grip pressure is also important. As anxiety builds over a putt, it becomes tempting to squeeze the grip a little too tight which in turn impedes the natural movement you want in a putting stroke.

To keep your rhythm and tempo, you must grip the putter lightly. Concentrate on lightness as you take your grip so that when you’re ready to go there’s no hint of tightness. 

Aim small

People often talk about getting it within the dustbin lid from long range, but I don’t think that allows you to focus sufficiently small. I would much rather you keep your focus completely on the hole as you’re taking your practice swings because that is where you want the ball to go. If you start to think too much outside of the hole, then I worry that it offers you too much tolerance and leeway. So keep your focus small.

Purposeful practice

What you do before hitting a long putt has a huge bearing on success, so make sure your preparation and practice are focused and meaningful.

Moving on to holing out consistently from close range, a lot of golfers are guilty of indecision or uncertainty about where to aim and how the putt breaks, which leads to lack of commitment in the stroke and a greater likelihood of missing.

A good drill in practice is to choose your line and then place a tee peg or other small object just behind the hole where you think you need to start your putt – in this instance, fractionally right of centre.

As you walk into the putt and take your stance, keep your focus on that tee peg. Picking a really small target like this from short range can really help with your focus and engagement. The beauty is that you could miss your narrow target, yet still hole the putt because the hole is much bigger.

You can do the same thing out on the golf course by really focusing on a particular blade of grass, a blemish at the back of the hole or, these days, even just the narrow flagstick if it’s a straight putt – anything to help you engage better with a precise target.

In this video, Golf Monthly Top 50 Coach Andrew Jones explains the importance of speed on short putts.

In this short putt speed video, Andrew Jones offers some fascinating insight into how hard you should hit your short putts and he provides some simple drills to help you. We have also added the thoughts, below, of Golf Monthly Top 25 Coach Paul Foston.

When you face a short putt you an important choice to make. Do you ram the ball hard into the back of the hole removing the break or do you dribble it in allowing for the slope?

I don’t like my pupils to have a one-size fits all approach here because, for me, this decision depends on a couple of key factors.

Firstly, how fast are the greens? Remember the faster the ball is running at the hole, the more likely it is to lip out so if the greens are really slick you need to treat them with care.

Secondly, how much break is there? If the putt is straight, a firm strike should help take out the effect of any imperfections on the green.

Likewise, if the break is subtle, hitting the ball hard and straight will remove any indecision. If in doubt, firm and straight!

If however, the putt breaks a lot, hit it gently and allow for the slope as you need to maximise the size of the hole in this scenario.

The firmer you hit the putt, the smaller you essentially make the hole. A deadweight putt has more chance of lipping in than a ball hit with enough speed to finish 4 feet past.

If there greens aren't rolling particularly true, such as in the Winter, hitting putts firmly will reduce the chance of the putt bobbling offline and missing.

In matchplay, if the putt is for a half then be positive and hit it firm. If the putt is to win the hole and the one coming back might matter, perhaps be a little more conservative with your speed on the first putt.

Try this!

If you are going to ram a short putts in, use the alignment mark on your ball to aim at the back of the hole. Being precise over your aim is critical and this quick tip will definitely help.

Learning to read greens properly is one guaranteed route to lower scores. And who better to ask for advice than some of the best golfers in the world...

Henrik Stenson

Look to see where the lowest point of the green surface is. It’s most likely that the ball will want to move in that direction.

Sergio Garcia

I like to look at putts from behind the hole and from the low side. The main thing to remember is the middle part of the putt is the most important – it’s where most of the break is going to be.

Rafa Cabrera Bello

Start the process of reading the green when you are walking up to it. You can often get a better idea of the general direction of slopes from afar. Up close you can see smaller slopes and breaks, but further away you get a feel for what the entire green is doing.

Eddie Pepperell

I heard this from Rickie Fowler, I think. He reads the last part of the putt first. Look at the last three feet and see what’s it going to do at the hole, then work your way back. This really helps you to visualise a putt.

Thomas Pieters

I take a point roughly two feet in front of the hole where I think the ball needs to roll over to have a chance, and just focus on that point and where the ball is going to enter the hole. It's called the 'quiet-eye' so it's more intuition-based.

Branden Grace

Read your putts in sections. Start close, then work your way back through it and pick your spots. Try to then hit your spot in every section. So if you have a ten-footer, divide it into three sections

Graeme McDowell

A lot of players under-read putts, especially left-to-righters. Aim outside the hole if you have to and then concentrate on the speed.

Oli Fisher

Look at the green before you actually get to it. This will help you get a feel for the general lie of the land and your surroundings.

Ryan Fox

Look at it from more than one angle. I start behind the hole then walk around the low side to get an overall picture. From the low side you often get a good idea of speed and where the apex is.

Alexander Bjork

I always read putts from the low side as I think you see more of how the green is shaped. If you’re standing over the ball on a downhill putt, you’ll gauge it’s downhill, but from the low side the size of slope is more obvious.

Adrian Otaegui

Once you've assessed the slope, choose a point halfway between your ball and the hole and stay focused on that. Putting is easy - it's just line and speed. Once you have your spot, don't start second-guessing yourself. Commit to it and your putting will improve.

Lucas Bjerregaard

I do this little exercise where I pick a spot about halfway to the hole which I think the ball needs to roll over. I put two tees down like a gate and I try to hit it in between those two tees. From there you can see if the read is any good or not. If you do that for about half an hour it will definitely improve your green reading.

Chris Paisley

I’d say 99 per cent of the time amateurs under-read putts, so I’d spend some time on the putting green checking where your ball really starts. Allow perhaps another 50 per cent break on what you usually think

Soren Kjeldsen

Trust your instinct. Go with what your eyes initially see, rather than looking for something that isn’t there second time around.

Alvaro Quiros

It’s a very tricky thing. I think there are people who have the ability to read greens better, but clearly the only way to improve is to practise. We play all kinds of different greens on the European Tour, so sometimes the grain of the grass is difficult to judge. But with time and practice you will be able to read greens properly.

David Lipsky

I try to find a point a foot or so in front of the hole where I know if the ball crosses that point, it will go in. I then work my way back from the hole through that point.

Galvin Green European Tour player Ricardo Gouveia shows how to hole that must-make six footer to keep the momentum going in your round

Tee To Green Masterclass: Must-Make Six Foot Putt

In this exclusive video, Daniel Im explains his process for long range putting and provides some simple tips for better distance control

In this exclusive video, Daniel Im explains his process for long range putting and provides some simple tips for better distance control

Peter Finch suggests a great pressure putting practice drill in which you stop aiming at the hole itself and aim at something on your line closer to you

PRESSURE PUTTING PRACTICE Many golfers have trouble over short putts when the pressure is on. They feel comfortable from 20ft, but the pressure builds from close range as they feel they should be holing it from this distance – the psychology of golf!

Forget the hole To take your mind off this added pressure, I would suggest that you stop aiming at the hole itself, and rather aim at something on your line closer to you.

This will help take your mind away from the ultimate goal of holing the putt and give you an intermediate target to roll the ball over. It’s amazing how quickly this can change your mindset.

Watch all 7 videos in Peter's 'Keys to Consistency' series...

• Understanding impact basics
• Golf's set-up essentials
• How impact varies from club to club
• A new way to pitch
• A bullet-proof chipping action
• Fringe putting drill

The tee gate You can practise this either by picking out something on your line, or actually creating a small gate with tee pegs, as I’ve done here, through which your ball must pass if you’re to hole the putt. Set up to the hole, then have a quick glance at it simply to tell your brain how hard you need to hit it.

Now, forget the hole and focus only on getting the ball rolling through the middle of your tee gate. There’s nothing more of it then that. If you can do that, then as long as your pace is okay, your ball will find the bottom of the cup.

To improve your distance putting, quality of strike is vital, so focus on that first, then try Peter Finch's fringe putting drill to really hone things

FRINGE PUTTING DRILL To improve your distance putting, quality of strike is vitally important, so focus on that first, then try my fringe putting drill to really hone things.

Quality of strike You simply have to strike the ball near the centre of the blade to be able to control your distance on the greens. As soon as the strike is closer to the heel or toe, the head will twist taking energy away from the strike, even with a high MOI mallet.

There are many ways to improve the quality of strike, but since putting actions are very individual, it’s best to seek the advice of your PGA pro to see what he or she suggests for your stroke.

Watch all 7 videos in Peter's 'Keys to Consistency' series...

• Understanding impact basics
• Golf's set-up essentials
• How impact varies from club to club
• A new way to pitch
• A bullet-proof chipping action
• Pressure putting practice

Fringe putting drill If you’re confident that you usually strike your putts in the centre of the blade, this simple fringe putting drill will improve your distance control as it frees you up from any technical thoughts and gets you focusing on a general area rather than a specific target.

The idea is simply to putt your ball from distance so it just reaches the fringe. Don’t worry about line – just the general target of the fringe. Then move round to tackle the actual target of the hole, but be very casual about it – just glance up and try to judge the distance.

Remember, though, that you’ve got to get the strike right first if you really want to control your distances on the green.

To avoid unnecessary mistakes on the greens early in the round, try GM Top 25 Coach, Andrew Reynolds', pre-round putting drills before you tee it up

Pre-round putting drills checklist * Find the pace of the green without putting to a hole * Try to hole ten consecutive three-footers to build confidence * Practise the pre-shot routine you aim to use on every putt

1) Find the pace without the hole Putts make up 41 per cent of your shots in a typical round, so a pre-round warm-up on the putting green is key if you’re to get the right pace from the off out on the course. Start by checking out all the fundamentals – is your balance good; are you holding the club well; are you lining up properly; do you feel comfortable over the ball?

Then it’s about getting the all-important pace, and I would recommend starting your putting practice by forgetting the hole and playing to a more general target 10-15ft away. A good drill to hone your pace putting is to play three balls looking to leave all three more or less touching each other. So hit the first putt, then try to copy that stroke and strike with the other two balls. Do this four or five times until you’ve got the pace more or less automatically before moving on to the more specific target of a hole.

Watch: Check out Rory's top putting drills here...

2) A feel for distance Once you’re happy with your pace and how you’re striking your putts, stage two introduces that more specific target. With the same three balls, the goal now is to two-putt from mid-length just to get a real feel for the distance.

Watch: Hone your putting distance control with GM Top 25 Coach, Andrew Jones

You’re not necessarily trying to hole them, but rather just get them nice and near to the hole so you can groove your distance control. Then move on to another hole from similar distance and repeat the exercise two or three times.

3) Holing out After finding the pace and getting a feel for the distance, you should now spend some time on holing out well to get your confidence up before the round starts. Measure out a putter’s length on a pretty straight putt, pop a tee in the ground and work on holing ten consecutive putts from that range.

Watch: Stop pushing short putts with GM Top 25 Coach, Peter Dawson

4) Pre-shot routine Finally, it’s time to work on the pre-shot routine you’re going to use on all 18 holes you play that day. For me, it’s about really trying to ‘feel’ the putt, so after I’ve read it, checked the line and popped the ball down ready, I’ll take two practice strokes looking to replicate the stroke I’m going to use on the actual putt.

Your routine may vary from this, but the key is to make sure that whatever your routine is, you stick to it for all 18 holes out on the course.

If you're thinking about trying a different putting grip, there are a few important things to bear in mind as GM Top 25 Coach Keith Wood explains...

Different putting grip checklist * In a conventional grip the left hand controls and the right hand releases * Left below right helps neutralise the right hand * The ‘claw’ still allows some release in the right hand

1) Why new styles of grips? There are now many different putting grips, with recent alternatives coming to the rescue if the dominant hand has become too active and is affecting your ability to control the clubface – hence left below right, and more recently the ‘claw’ and ‘pencil’ grips. But although these resolve the issues for many, it does come at the cost of natural feel in the stroke, which stems from your dominant side.

In the conventional grip, the left side controls and the right side releases the putter. But when you switch things around, you gain in some areas and lose in others. So you need to weigh everything up, and perhaps even consider a hybrid grip such as the ‘claw’ or the ‘pencil’. Let’s look at various grips in more detail.

Watch: Hole more short putts with GM Top 25 Coach, Barney Puttick

2) The conventional grip In the classic putting grip, the arms hang down, the right hand sits below the left, and there’s a reverse overlap, with the forefinger of the left hand just riding on the fingers of the right hand and the thumbs extending down the flat part of the grip.

Everything’s very relaxed with the elbows just listing gently in, and as you make your stroke, the left side brings control, while the hands lag a bit as they change direction, with the right hand then releasing the putterhead. That’s good - you certainly don’t want to be rigid and fused, because that removes feel completely.

Watch: Check out Rory's top putting drills here...

3) Left below right Why do many people now putt with the left hand below the right? Well, it helps to neutralise the right hand. Because your left hand is further down the grip, it elongates the left arm, which almost becomes a continuation of the shaft and brings you added consistency as the shaft is working with the left arm throughout.

However, you will have to make some adjustments to your stroke from distance because you’ve taken the right hand – and therefore the release – out of it. This will probably mean lengthening the stroke a little in comparison to the more orthodox grip.

Watch: GM Top 25 coach Keith Wood's pace putting drills and pointers...

4) The claw and the pencil I don’t use the claw grip often, but when I do, I really like the feel of it because it’s almost a hybrid grip or halfway house. If your right hand is too active, it helps without completely taking it away from the action. You can still get some release with the claw – the right hand is still active - but it can't be dominant.

The pencil grip is a variation on the claw. I like the claw because the right hand is working on the same path as the putter, whereas in the pencil grip it tucks under the club more. But that works for some people as it keeps the right arm a little closer to the body.

In this links golf masterclass, Golf Monthly Top 25 Coach Clive Tuckers explains how to putt well when the wind is blowing on fast seaside greens!

In this links golf masterclass, Golf Monthly Top 25 Coach Clive Tuckers explains how to putt well when the wind is blowing on fast seaside greens!

GM Top 25 Coach Ged Walters suggests a simple putting arc drill to help you groove your stroke’s natural movement on the greens

Putting Arc Drill

Before we get into our putting arc drill, the first thing you need to do is to draw a nice line on your golf ball so you know the putter face is square to your chosen line at impact. The easiest way to do this is with one of the little devices you can see me using here and in the video.

Why you 'should' always mark your golf ball

Then set up an arc of six or seven golf balls just feet-side of your ball. This represents the gentle and natural arc that your putter should ideally travel along as you make your stroke . Don’t put your ‘live’ ball down at this stage, but rather slowly move your putter back and through just outside the arc, following its gentle curve.

Watch Rory McIlroy's favourite childhood putting drills

Then speed things up to normal putting pace before introducing your ‘live’ ball. Again, let your putter’s movement mirror the arc of balls just inside your ball. This drill will help engrain the gentle natural arc your putter must follow – it would be impossible and unnatural to take it straight back and through given the angle that you’re standing at and the angle of the shaft.

Practise this, and your stroke will be more natural and more instinctive out on the course.

1 Draw a line Drawing a line on your ball with one of these gadgets will help you set your putterhead square to your chosen line more easily and more consistently.

Two more great short putting drills with GM Top 25 Coach Peter Dawson

2 The hover option Another way to do the arc drill is to grip down on your putter, then hover it over the arc of balls and move the putter back and forth above the balls as I'm doing in the accompanying video.

3 Follow the arc Either option works just as well, but visually, you may find it easier to really hone your natural arc with the hover option. You can do this on the practice green or, equally, on the carpet at home!

Want to stop pushing short putts? GM Top 25 Coach, Peter Dawson, says good posture encourages the pendulum stroke needed for close-range consistency

Stop Pushing Short Putts

Many golfers would save themselves shots every round if they could stop pushing short putts. GM Top 25 Coach, Peter Dawson, offers some tips and advice...

1) The sternum dictates Bad putting often stems from bad posture. At address with the driver, your spine angle and sternum should dictate your movement, and it’s the same on the putting green as these photos with the alignment stick show. To drive well, you turn back and through; with a 5-iron, you’re bent over a little bit more at address because of the shorter shaft, but it’s still the same – the sternum dictates.

And when you’re bent over even more with the putter, it should still be the sternum that dictates. The movement should all come from the top half, so make sure there is no body movement other than a slight rocking of the shoulders.

Learn from best - let Rory talk you through his key putting drills

2) Create a pendulum Many problems can arise if your posture is bad and you're too hunched over at address. From that position, your turn is likely to be flatter and the hips will be turning too. In short, bad posture leads to too much unwanted movement.

It’s so important to have the right posture on the green, so bend forward from the waist and ‘sit down’ a little bit with the knees, From this position you’ll be able to create the pendulum you need for a consistent, repeatable stroke.

Watch two more great short putting drills from Peter Dawson

3) Stay loose There’s no doubt that anxiety can come into the equation too on short putts. Tense muscles will cause you to lose feel, resulting in a jerky putting stroke.

Try to remain relaxed and not let the situation get to you. It may not always seem like it, especially if golf is your passion, but it really is only one short putt and not a matter of life and death!

4) The coin drill A great tip to make sure you’re not moving too much is to put your ball on top of a coin to encourage you to concentrate 100% on the spot where the ball is. Keep your eyes fixed on the coin after the ball has gone – feel like they’re really burning into that coin still.

When you allow your eyes to go with the ball in your eagerness to see if you’ve made it, that’s when your shoulders turn too much and you end up pushing it wide.

Watch more of our putting tip videos

5) Railway tracks A great training drill on a short putt is to put two sticks or clubs down like a train track. This will help you to see more clearly what your putter is doing as you take it back and through. With good posture, everything works from the sternum, and you’ll more easily be able to groove the back-and-through pendulum stroke you’re looking for, with no lower-half movement.

With the proper pendulum motion, your putter will just follow the train track; from an untidy posture, you’ll be encouraging the shoulders and the legs to move, with your putterhead then crossing the tracks rather than following them.

After observing my playing partners over many years on the golf course, I am convinced that most golfers would drastically improve their scores if they could hole more of those crucial six- to eight-footers.

Whether you practice your putting drills at the golf club, or on a putting mat at home, incorporating time to work on short putts will help to alleviate stress and pressure when standing over the ball in your next club competition.

In this article, expert golf coach Peter Dawson shares his best putting tips to help you feel more confident that you will find the hole from short range...

Short Putting Drills: Hole Out More Effectively

It goes without saying that embedding the correct putting set-up will inevitably help your success rate over any putt, so ensure you have worked out how to grip the putter in a way that suits you best.

The first drill involves setting up a number of balls in a line close to the hole about a foot apart. In the image below I've got five balls, but you can have six, eight or however many you want. You can do this on a putting green, or using one of the best putting aids to take your practice mobile.

You must then hole them all in sequence. As soon as you miss one, it's time to drop down the ladder and start again. It’s a great drill for concentration and confidence, especially if you promise yourself a little treat when you’ve holed them all.

The second drill (to the left of my feet in the image below) requires six tee pegs. Two of them are used to form a smaller gate for the ball to go through a couple of feet out from the hole; the other four are for a bigger gate for the putter head to pass through.

The idea is to putt the ball through the little gate and into the hole without clipping any of the tee pegs with your putter, and obviously missing the two tee pegs in the smaller gate as they will deflect your ball off-line.

The key is to listen for the ball to drop rather than looking up early, as looking up invariably causes you to clip the tee pegs with your putter and miss. This drill really improves your concentration, encourages you to keep your head still with your eyes over the ball, and promotes a real pendulum stroke.

Here are three key takeaways for short putting drills:

1. Hole them all - Incentivise things by promising yourself a coffee or a nice cold drink once you’ve managed to hole all five, six or however many you’ve laid out in one go.

2. Start again - As soon as you miss one, retrieve all the balls and start again! Seeing ball after ball dropping into the hole will do wonders for your confidence.

3. No peeking - The real key to the double gate drill is to keep your head still and your eyes over the ball rather than anxiously looking up early to see if you’ve holed it.

In this exclusive video, Andrew Jones explains why you should change your putting method this winter to cope with wet, slow greens

In the winter the greens bear little resemblance to the perfectly manicured summer surfaces you are used to so it makes sense to change your putting method this winter. Widen your stance, bend your upper body over the ball more than usual and grip down the club. This will feel a little strange so you will need to practice it.

These adjustments are all geared to give you a lower your centre of gravity and make you far more stable. From here you should anchor your elbows into your rib cage, again this will make the stroke far more robust. The stroke itself needs to be to be shorter, more ‘punchy’ than usual to give you the momentum you need.

Watch more putting tips videos

If you want to change your putting method this winter, why not think about having a ‘winter putter’ as well. It should be slightly heavier to help on slower greens, proving more distance without you having to think about it.

Rory McIlroy Putting Drills

Putting from close range is not very inviting even if you do change your putting method this winter. Imperfections on the green, scuff marks around the hole and cold hands can all conspire to make you feel like there is no chance of holing out. However, if you commit to your usual routine and concentrate on the stroke, you’ll be in the best place possible to make the putt.

Putting technique drills

I don’t like to feel I’m ramming short putts in, in the winter. I prefer to have a slightly larger margin for error (the faster the ball rolls the more likely it is to lip out) so I like my pupils to roll the ball at a normal pace but allow for a little more break than usual.

In this exclusive video, Golf Monthly Top 25 Coach Andrew Reynolds explains how to check your eyeline when putting for much stronger rolls

In my experience the best way to split any practice putting session is to devote half of it to fundamentals, like how to check your eyeline and the other half to feel and competitive practice. If you are struggling with your putting, think about investing in a mirror training aid like the one shown here. The first thing to check is whether your shoulders are parallel to your ball-to-target line. This is more important than where your feet are aiming because the position of your body will determine path of the stroke. Find a straight putt, take care to line up properly and hit a series of putts checking your alignment in the mirror before each one. Alternatively, you can lay a couple of alignment sticks or shafts down on the ground to help you check your shoulder alignment. This will get you in the habit of addressing the ball in the best way possible, increasing your chances of holing out.

How Tour Players Practice Putting

How to check your eyeline

One of the areas where people often go wrong without realising is with their eyeline. A good question to ask yourself is; do you read the putt one way when looking form behind the ball and another way when in the address position? If so, this is usually a sign that your eyes are not directly over the ball and therefore you need to know how to check your eyeline. This is an essential fundamental to good putting and the best way to check it is to take your address position and then drop a second ball from the bridge of your nose. If your eyes are in the right position it should hit the ball on the ground.

Watch more putting tips videos

5 x 5 Test

Now that you have devoted time specifically to the fundamentals, it’s time to use some drills designed to create pressure as you practice. The first is the 5x5 test. Find a flat part of the green and put your putter on the ground, with the butt end at the hole and place a tee peg at the point where the grip starts. Now measure four more putter grip lengths going away from the hole as I have done here. The tees should all be roughly a foot apart. The aim is simple, can you hole 25 consecutive putts. Hole five from the first spot and move back to the next point and so on, if you miss one, you should start again from the beginning. Take a note of how many times you had to start again and this will become the benchmark for future practice sessions.

Putter length test

When you are faced with a makeable birdie putt of mid to long range, there is an optimum pace at which the ball should run at the hole. The basic rule is that the ball should be running firmly enough to stay online over any imperfections on the green without rolling too fast and lipping out. If you miss, you’ll be faced with a putt of a couple of feet. Of course, it is worth practising that shorter, second putt so you can confidently roll your approach putts at the hole. So measure a putter’s length and try to hole 25 consecutive putts. The more you hole, the more the pressure mounts. I once had a pupil who holed a thousand consecutive putter length putts… He went on to play on Tour!

Watch more short putting drills videos

Round the clock & ladder tests

These are two of the oldest and best drills in the book. The round the clock drill is best done around a hole with a small amount of slope. Measure a putter’s length around the hole and place a ball at each point of a clockface. You should be able to hole all 12 consecutively. If you miss, you start again. With the ladder drill, place three balls at 3ft, 4ft and 5ft away. You should be able to hole all nine without missing. Both drills force you to run through your routine before hitting each ball. As soon as your focus slips and you become sloppy, you miss. They are a huge help in preparing you for the strain and pressure of competition.

In this exclusive video, Golf Monthly Top 25 Coach Andrew Jones offers his short putting drills to help you hole out more consistently

Short putting drills

The pace you hit your 3-footers is just as important as when you are lagging from 40ft. You need a roll that is strong enough to stay on line over any imperfections on the green but you don’t want to hit the ball too hard and lip out. Finding the right balance is tricky. A great drill designed to hone your short range pace putting is to place a tee peg in the back of the hole. Hit a series of putts from 3ft with just enough pace so the ball hits the tee peg on its way in. Training this part of your game will help make you far more solid over nervous short putts.

Short putting fault fixer

Path Checker

From close range your putting stroke will be fairly straight through the impact area (for longer putts there should be a natural in-to-square to-in arc to your stroke). A great drill designed to help you groove a better path through the impact zone (and as a result, better strikes) is to create a gateway using six tee pegs. The putter should be able to pass freely through this area unimpeded. At the start of your short putting practice routine, devote five minutes to checking and grooving this essential element.

Watch more putting tips videos

Pressure practice

The challenge of short putting is mostly mental. However, that’s not to say you can’t prepare for it. Use two tee pegs to create a gate either side of the entrance to the hole, just wider than the hole itself. How many consecutive putts can you hit cleanly through the gate? Despite the fact that you’re not trying to compile a score on the course, the more you make, the more the pressure will grow. This drill also forces you to be more focused and precise in practice that will also help you when you get to the course.

Connection drill

The best putters from close range rely on their bigger core muscles to create the momentum as opposed to their smaller, twitchier muscles. This means creating a stable connection between your body and arms through the stroke. To develop this, place a glove under each arm at address. Feel that your arms are holding the gloves securely in place and hit a series of putts. You should notice how it is the gentle rotation of your body that creates the momentum – not your hands. This will make you far more reliable from close range.

Watch more golf swing tips videos

Stability drill

When Tiger Woods was at his peak, there was one thing about his putting that stood out from the rest – how still he remained. Developing a stable body in the putting stroke is essential for the consistency of your stroke. To help, place your ball on a marker or coin at address. Hit a series of putts, focusing your eyes on the marker once the ball has gone. This forces you to keep your head ‘quiet’ during the stroke and will improve your stability.

In this video, Golf Monthly Top 25 Coach Keith Wood offers his exclusive Green Reading Guide For Golf with some handy tips for spotting subtle slopes!

Green Reading Guide For Golf

One trap that many golfers fall into is to get obsessed by the line of their putt without seeing the topography of the green as a whole. You miss the putt, step away and suddenly as you look at the green again, you spot a slope you had previously missed. We’ve all been there. The key is to think about your putt as you walk towards the green. Look at it as a whole – identify the swales, high points and general slopes of the green. Once you get reach your ball you’ll have a much better idea of where the green wants your ball to go.

Hidden slopes

Slopes, especially subtle ones, can be hard to spot on a large expanse of featureless green. That’s why it helps to look out for markers that better signify where the slopes are. If your playing partners golf balls are on the green, look at them in comparison to the hole – are they higher or lower? To help even more, place the flag down on the opposite side of the hole from the balls that are on the green. You can use these items almost like props to help you gain a better appreciation for what the undulations are going to do.

Water ways

A great way to think about the slopes on a green is to picture how water would drain away. Obviously, you wouldn’t be able to pour a bottle of water on the green during the competition but it doesn’t stop you trying to picture it. Also, look out for any drainage – green keepers are tasked with managing the water on their greens so the clues are all there, you just have to look out for them. If you can find the drainage spots, you’ll better see the breaks.

How to read breaking putts

How to spot grain

On a warm day, the direction the grass is growing will have a huge part to play in the speed of your putt. Likewise, the way the grass has been mown is important to look out for. Take a look at this image – you can see from the way the grass has been cut that there are lighter and darker patches. Stand behind your ball and identify whether the route to the hole is lighter or darker. If it’s lighter, you are putting down the same direction the grass is growing and it will be a little faster than usual. If the line is darker, you are putting towards the direction the grass is growing and it will be slower. On particularly quick greens, this can have a huge impact.

Watch more putting tips videos

Watch more golf swing tips videos

Obvious clues

My final green reading guide for golf is a basic one but it would be remiss not to emphasise it. The slower your ball is rolling, the more break it will take. If your playing partner is chipping onto the green or putting from outside you, take note of what the ball does as it rolls towards the hole. It doesn’t matter what direction that ball is coming from, the clues it will offer about the slope are essential as it slows down. You might spot a little more break than you thought and you’ll be able to allow for that with confidence when it’s your turn to putt.

In the video and article below, PGA pro Andrew Reynolds explains his five-step process that will help you become a master of those big-breaking putts that strike fear into most amateurs.

1. Line comes first

Putting constitutes about 41% of your shots out on the course, and while breaking putts can be quite difficult, you can learn how to read greens with big borrows better. Although pace and line are obviously closely linked, for me, the key rules of putting are:

• Read the line first
• Line the putter up
• Think about the pace

2. Find the break point

One of the keys to reading severely breaking putts well is to switch your focus away from the hole, and look much more at the break point of the putt. That will be above the hole to varying degrees, of course, but depending on the putt you face, it could be 5ft, 10ft, maybe even 20ft short of the hole too. It’s the point where the ball will start its final turn towards the hole, so you need to factor that in when choosing you start line.

3. Point of entry

Once you’ve done this, it will be obvious that the ball will not be entering the front of the hole as you look at it, but via one side or the other. So work out your entry point too, using something to help visualise that in practice. I have a little tool that does the job perfectly, but equally it could be a couple of tees forming an entry gate around the hole, which is one of my favourite putting drills.

The entry point might be at 4 o’clock relative to where you’re standing, or even 3 o’clock on big-breaking putts. But if you look only at the front of the hole, you’re always going to miss breaking putts low.

4. Quicker greens = more break

Downhill putts that you hit more gently will break a little bit more, and uphill putts a little less as you’ll be hitting the ball firmer. It’s the same with green speed. When you go to clubs with greens that are much slower than your club’s, you may need to halve the borrow because there’s more resistance in the grass. Fast greens, where the grass is short, will produce much bigger swings.

5. Make time to practise

Knowing how to practice putting effectively is crucial. For example, your home club may not have many slopey greens, so if you’re playing away somewhere and you know the greens are undulating, try to get there early and spend half an hour experimenting so you don’t get caught out on the course. If you work hard on getting a feel for slopey greens, you shouldn’t fall prey to too many three-putts when you’re out there for real putting on difficult greens.

In this exclusive video, we set out to find how tour players practise putting by spending a day on the practice green at the Abu Dhabi Golf Championships

During the Abu Dhabi Championship we spent the day on the practice putting green. The first big tournament of the year, this was our chance to see how tour players practise putting – what drills they use, how long they spend honing their stroke in preparation of the Abu Dhabi Championship.

Morten Orum Madsen

He used the ‘progression drill’. The aim is to go up and down the line of tees holing every putt. If you miss one putt, you start from the beginning. There is a curvature on the set up of the pegs to ensure every putt breaks slightly differently. This then becomes a test of concentration and routine too! Hi caddie captures some video footage of his stroke to be examined afterwards.

Matthew Fitzpatrick

The classic ‘4 peg’ drill that requires precise accuracy and a consistent pendulum in the swing so the putter and then the ball goes through a gateway of pegs. Note also the 3-iron is laid a head’s width away from his feet to help with alignment. Also worth noting that he uses a towel to stand on, so as not to ruin the grass as he’ll be standing there for a very long time!

Alex Noren

Noren uses a mirror to check his eyeline. If your eyes are above the ball at address your read from behind will match up with what you see at set up. There are also two ball bearings at the end of the mirror, acting as a gateway through which to hit the ball.

Ian Poulter

The Englishman uses a simple drill – a piece of string between two sticks as a guide for alignment and swing path. Even though the putt breaks slightly off the right, he is able to set up perfectly square to his target line.

Andrew Dodt

He uses a training aid that helps the path of the stroke. It is designed to ensure his pendulum motion is fluid all the way to impact and into the follow through. The black line you can see in the video is a vital indicator to show how the putter should be moving.

Ben Evans

The T-bar used by the Englishman ensures his forearms are in line at address. It also prevents any breaking of the wrists through the stroke, allowing for a much more consistent strike and roll.

Wenchong Liang

Liang uses the same rope drill as Poulter - except there’s two this time! Bottom rope is there to make sure the swing is not deviating off line and helps him keep that pendulum motion.

John Parry

The ‘spiral drill’ is a test of mental strength and routine. The pegs are placed, spiraling round the hole at different distances – varies the break of each putt. There is roughly 3ft between each peg. Starting at one end, you are required to go all the way round and then back again – miss one putt, start again!

George Coetzee

Four pegs are placed either side of the putter head with the ball in the middle. This focuses the player on finding the perfect strike and keeps the downswing consistent – if its not, you will keep hitting the sides of the pegs.

Alejandro Cañizares

Another simple, putting through the gate drill. The difference here is the gate for the ball can be placed further from the putter to increase the difficulty!

GM Top 25 coach Keith Wood suggests some pace putting drills and tips to try out when seeking to hone your distance control on the greens

1) Keep it loose

The pace at which you hit your putts is the most critical element of putting. Let’s start with loose arms. Let them just hang freely from your shoulders as you don't want any tension creeping through your hands in to your forearms and up in to your shoulders as that will completely fuse your putting stroke. You want to feel nice and loose with a gentle grip so that you’re comfortably in control yet still able to move the putter back and forth freely from the shoulders.

2) One-handed putting

For a right-hander, your feel hand is your right hand, but many golfers think that if they stay connected and quite wooden in the arms, they’ll be better putters. But the right hand plays a huge role in the judgement of feel and length, so try putting with your left hand off the club. Just stroke the club backwards and forwards and feel the movement. It will feel vulnerable at first, but will give you a better appreciation of the lag of the putter and the release going through.

3) Different grips; different benefits

The conventional right-below-left grip allows you to feel a little bit of lag and certainly some release. The increasingly popular left-below-right grip eliminates that, but for a reason – to help those whose wrists and hands get too active. But the ‘fusing’ of the right hand in this grip means you have to control pace and feel through length of stroke as there is no right-hand release. The claw grip is a happy medium as it removes the dominance of the right hand but still gives you some ability to release. Experiment with different grips by all means, but understand the pros and cons of each.

4) The eyes have it

I strongly recommend practising with your eyes shut and relying on other senses. Take a few practice putts, look at the hole, shut your eyes and putt. We’re guided by our eyes a lot, and by taking them away you have to transfer that feel into your hands, arms and shoulders. I believe that can really improve your pace putting. Then there’s the Jordan Spieth method where you look at the hole, not the ball, building up the necessary calculations through your eyes before feeding them directly through into your putting stroke. This gives you a sensation of total feel – not technique, but just judgment and instinct.

5) Pre-round pace drill

This is one of the best pre-round pace putting drills I know. Take three clubs and lay them on the practice green at various distances before you head out to play. Try to putt just one ball as close as possible to each of the three shafts to give you a real sense of the pace of the green.

Sweden's Alex Noren, winner of the 2015 Nordea Masters, exclusively shares with you his best tips to improve your putting

Alex Noren Tour putting tips

It has been another successful year on the European Tour for Sweden's Alex Noren. Despite being plagued by injuries, he managed to secure his fourth European Tour title at the 2015 Nordea Masters.

A pick part of his success is down to his rock solid putting technique. He average under 30 putts per round, which is no mean feat. In this video, he demonstrates the keys that have helped him roll the ball so well on the greens over the years.

Golf Monthly Top 25 Coach Clive Tucker provides these putting speed control tips to help you get down in two from long range more often

1 Posture check

As we all know, putting is where you turn the quality of your ball striking into a quantifiable score. That’s why it’s human nature, as soon as you hit each putt, to see where it’s gone. However, this can be dangerous. Many players come out of their address posture far too early to track the ball. This can actually lead to a poor strike and the putter cutting across the ball through impact. So this weekend, as you are competing for real, have one single thought in your mind when you putt – to retain your posture until the ball comes to a finish. This one little tip could make all the difference to your success on the greens.

2 Connection drill

Where does the momentum for your putting stroke come from? For many people, the answer to this question would be the hands but actually, what you are looking for is to use your bigger, core muscles to dictate the stroke. As long as your arms are nicely connected to the movement of your body, you’ll find a much more consistent, reliable action. A great drill is to place your putter headcover under your collar. Make a series of strokes and simply aim to rock that headcover back and forth. This shifts your focus from the ball or your hands to your shoulders and the true engine of the stroke. This will train the connection between your arms and body while also ensuring that your body initiates the momentum.

Watch more putting tips

3 Round The Clock Redeemer

The best short putters in world golf have a consistency of set up that is the foundation for a reliable putting stroke. This drill is designed to help you develop that consistency. Place three golf balls in four evenly spaced positions around the hole, 3ft from the target. Effectively, you are aiming to go round the clock three times. You can miss once and carry on but as soon as you miss twice, you need to start again. The key to doing this well is paying close attention to your set up for each putt you hit. Resetting yourself between each putt, giving them all the same level of importance is vital. If you manage to hole all 12 in a row, move back to 4ft and try to do it again.

4 Putting speed control tips

As we all know, one of the keys to great putting is your feel for pace. But how do you train this? The Call It Drill is designed to do just that, improving your instinct for how hard to hit each putt you face. Find a flat 20ft putt and lay down a handful of golf balls. Make a series of practice swings looking at the hole and then hit the putt. After each ball you hit, close your eyes and say to yourself whether you think the ball has come up short, long or just right. Once you’ve ‘called it’ look up to see if you’re right. This drill works brilliantly to refine your feel, leaving you with a real sense for the importance of strike and distance judgement.

Clive’s checklist

• Retain your address posture through impact
• Use your core muscles to initiate the stroke
• Keep a good connection between your arms and body
• Find a consistent address position for every putt you hit

In this Graeme McDowell lesson, the Northern Irishman gives his best green reading tips to help you hole more birdie putts.

Greame McDowell Best green reading tips

I see a lot of amateurs falling in love with starting lines when it comes to breaking putts. To me that is really trying to apply something that is logical and very precise to something that is actually more creative than that. Remember that the line depends on the pace you hit the ball, so my best green reading tips would be to visualise the path of the ball.

When faced with a putt with plenty of break, I really like to try and get an image in my head of what the putt is going to look like in the form of an arc. Seeing this line tracking towards the hole and building a picture sets a really positive mental image. What this arc gives me is a point at which the ball is going to enter the hole.

If you have a dead straight putt, the ball will enter the hole at 6 o'clock, while a putt with lots of break might enter the hole at around 9 o'clock. This is a really helpful and valuable point to visualise and base your feel on.

Read Graeme's 100 yard pitch shot lesson

Read Graeme's bunker play lesson

Once you've done this, you can then turn a breaking putt into a creative play because it is so hard to pick a precise starting point when there is so much swing.

Read more tips from the Tour

What you need to be doing the next time you're putting is to look to align and position your body focusing on that entry point. If you do this you should really start to get more of a feel for the direction and the pace. My advice couldn't be simpler: get creative with your putting rather than getting thinking too much about, and getting caught up on, your starting line.

If you're struggling with your putting, it might be that you aren't practising the right things in the right manner. In the video and article below, PGA pro Kevin Craggs shares his tips that will help you hole out more confidently and lower your scores.

If you take the time to set out a putting course like this one you should also make an effort to keep a record of your progress. Note down how many putts it takes for you to hole all from of the short range stations, how many of the four mid-range putts you hole and how many off the long range attempts you get in the box.

The improvements you should see will provide an injection of confidence into your putting when you get out on the course.

Practise Intelligently

Putting practice is never an easy thing to do. One of the keys to keeping your interest is to make it more interesting. I am going to show you three simple drills that cover three key aspects of putting. These are the putts you are supposed to hole from short range, the ones you could hole from mid range and the long pace putts where you are looking to two putt.

It is important that when you go through the three stations is that you stick to the process rather than aimlessly hitting putt after putt. Treat each putt as if it was for a championship or to shoot your lowest score. Your putting process is the thing that keeps your skill together.

Short Range

Set out putts with tee pegs around the hole from three feet, four feet, five feet and six feet. Take a putt from each position going through your process and looking to produce a smooth stroke. From this range you should be looking to hole the majority of them. Don’t leave a station until you hole the putt and then move onto the next one.

Keep working at it until you can confidently hole all four putts consecutively, and then move onto the mid range. If you continue to struggle read our short putting fault fixer.

Mid Range

Again put down four tee pegs at different distances, this time ranging from seven feet to 20 feet around the hole. From this range you won’t hole every putt but you should be pretty close. Again, it is vital to stick to your process, studying the break making a practice stroke to get a feel for distance before every putt and treating it as you would out on the course.

Putting from this range of distances will give you a greater understanding of distance control.

Long Range

Create an open box at one end of the putting green that is three feet wide. Pace out a putt that is 25 feet from the box and try to putt four balls into it. The key when it comes to lag putting is getting the pace correct so that it allows you to make a stress-free two-putt. I will reinforce once again that you should stick to your process and pay attention to how the length of stroke affects the distance the ball travels.

Don’t let your technique suffer just because you need to make a longer stroke, making sure that your arms don’t become disconnected from your body.

Improve your lag putting and eliminate those three puts with these tips on how to master the 4 Principles of Putting from Andrew Reynolds

4 Principles of Putting

Try these lag putting tips if you vary rarely hole anything from long range and you leave most long putts short of the hole.

We don’t always hit the ball as close as we would like, and while you would never expect to hole every long-range putt you face, I can say with some certainty that you won’t hole any if you never get the ball up to the hole!

Many golfers struggle to get the ball to the hole on longer putts, and this simple practice drill will help improve your distance control from further away.

Lay a flag or club down 30 inches behind the hole, then set yourself a target of getting as many 30- to 40-footers to finish between the hole and the flag or club, without touching it.

If you can regularly get the ball a couple of feet past the hole from longer distance, you’ll at least then hole the ones you do get on line and rarely leave yourself much to do on the second putt.

Most golfers could easily save a couple of shots or more a round simply by improving their lag putting.

Judging distance

A great way of improving your distance control is to first of all take the line of the putt out of the equation. Do this by taking the hole out of play and putting to the fringe. Try and get the ball to stop right where the green ends and the fringe begins. You will be completely focused on the length of the putt so pay particular attention to how the length of your swing affects the distance the putt travels. This drill will also give you an opportunity to hit the longest possible putts on the practice green. As a result it should make long putts out on the golf course less intimidating and easier to cope with.

Solid stroke

When facing very long putts the tendency for many is to involve the wrists in the stroke and steer the ball towards the hole - this however, is a fault in your putting technique. This causes a scooping action, which will cause the ball to skid and produce inconsistent results that can be disastrous. By controlling the stroke with a rock of the shoulders you will find the middle of the putter and produce consistent results. A great way to improve this motion is by using a length of garden cane as a link between the putter head and your sternum. This will remove the tendency to break the wrists when faced with long putts.

Read more top putting tips

Stay on line

While the judgement of distance is obviously the key to improving your long-range putting, it goes without saying that you will need to consider the line of the putt as well. A good drill to see how far off line you are is to build a series of gates towards the hole. Hit a few putts before you build the gates so that you are able to get a rough idea of the line required. By doing this putting drill it means that as well as perfecting your distance control this will also give you a good indication of how far a putt is off line immediately after hitting it. A useful tool to take out to the course.

Mastering the correct putting technique will not only help you to sink more putts, it will also give you confidence on the greens and help you to shoot lower scores.

All the best putting tips will tell you that in order to improve your performances on the greens you need to master three key areas - how to read greens, how to control distance and the often neglected member of the trio - how to practice putting effectively.

In this article, two of our top Golf Monthly Top 50 Coaches, Alex Elliott and Neil Plimmer, share their expert advice on how to perfect your putting technique...

The Quick Tips: Step-By-Step Guide

1. Tuck your elbows in to your side, with tricep and bicep touching rib cage throughout swing
2. Let you arms hang down naturally before gripping the putter
3. Ensure palms are facing when gripping the putter
4. Ball position should be one putter grip width ahead of sternum to hit up on the ball
5. Use practice putting drills, like the ones below, to improve your distance control

Alex Elliott: Putting Technique Tips

Palms Facing

The putter grip is so individual to any golfer, but the rule that I like to have is grip in the palms and palms facing each other. This allows the club to be in a more neutral position. If you place the club in the fingers, and the palms are not facing, you might find that one hand becomes more dominant than the other. When putting, we want to feel as though our hands are working as a unit.

Ball Position

The correct ball position with a putter is one grip width ahead of your sternum. You can measure this when practicing or on the course, just as I am in the image below. It can be easy to get this wrong, as we often just go with what we feel is ‘middle’, which isn’t always accurate - so using a reference checkpoint like this is really useful.

The ball should be aligned with the middle of the pectoral muscle on your lead side. Having the ball forward of centre helps you to hit up on the ball, promoting a more consistent roll on the green.

Elbows Tucked In

When putting, I want you to feel as though your elbows are tucked into the side of your body. This can also feel like your bicep and tricep are constantly in contact with your rib cage. This helps to keep everything connected, with all parts of your body working together for a consistent stroke.

Putting Stroke Drill

This is a great drill to improve that feeling of the elbows pinching into the side of the body when putting. Place a golf club under each armpit, and allow them to cross over like in an ‘X’ shape in front of you. Grip your putter as you normally would and hit a few putts towards a target. As you can see in the image below, you want to try to keep the middle of that cross (created by the two golf clubs) in the middle of your sternum throughout the swing.

This drill provides instant feedback, as if the elbows move away from the side of your body during the stroke, the two clubs will fall to the ground. If the wrist get too active and you start flicking at the ball, the middle of the cross won’t match up with the line of the grip on your putter. Using this drill will help you to find a consistent putting stroke and dial in your distance control.

Neil Plimmer: Putting Principles And Posture

Proper posture

One of the worst things you can see is when the putter head wavers and wobbles off line as you take it back. This will kill your confidence in the basic mechanics of the stroke, but the good news is that it’s often easily rectified.

Once you have set your spine angle and got yourself into your putting posture, make sure your elbows are connected to your midriff. From there let your arms hang naturally down. It amazes me how often I see amateurs pushing their hands away from them, or pulling them towards them at address.

Fighting gravity in this way is a battle you’ll always lose and it is the biggest cause of a wavering clubhead. So why not set up in front of a mirror at home and check that your arms are hanging naturally at address. A simple adjustment here could make all the difference.

Rotate, don’t rock

It is one of the phrases you often hear coaches use, 'create momentum by rocking your shoulders back and forth’. For me, however, this thought provokes entirely the wrong move, as your elbows become disconnected from your body.

Instead, the way to think about it is to rotate your rib cage around your spine. Crucially, your arms need to be connected to your body, working together with this rotation.

Get it right and you’ll find the big muscles will take more control over the stroke, giving you the reliability and consistency you need.

Engage your chest and back muscles at address, and as long as your elbows are connected to your midriff, it will be the big muscles that dictate the length and speed of the stroke.

Stroke principles

You might think it strange for me to say, but many of the same factors apply between your full swing and your putting stroke. The ball is on the ground and you are side on to your target, so you need to swing around yourself. The two differences are the length and the speed.

It is important therefore that you understand the five impact factors – the angle of the clubface, the swing path, the angle of attack, strike point and speed.

All you need to understand is that the direction the ball goes in when you putt is reliant on the same factors as your main swing. If you are consistently missing putts right it is possible the clubface is open to the target line at impact (just as it could be if you were pushing your drives).

My advice is to learn the five impact laws and then watch out for any trends in your putting - are you missing right or left regularly? - and use this information to get your stroke back on track.

Strike check

To groove a consistent strike, build two gates using tees. Make the first gate just wider than the putter head, the second just wider than the ball and practise swinging the putter through the first gate to hit the ball through the second. Only with a pure strike will you achieve this.

Pace control

I have already talked about the importance of engaging the bigger muscles to control the swing. If you can do this then all you need to do to hit the ball further is make a slightly bigger swing, master it and you'll be far better at lag putting.

I often see players attempting to control the distance they hit the ball on the green through the speed of the stroke, but this will not deliver the best consistency. So engage the big muscles, turn around your spine and let the length of the stroke dictate distance.

FAQs

Q: What is the best way to practice putting?

A: Improving your understanding of green reading and distance control is the best way to reduce the number of putts you take in the each round.

A great drill to practice both elements would be to set up nine golf balls at random points on the practice putting green. Make your own scoring system, like every hole being a par-2, and set a target to beat. You can then track your progress over a number of sessions. Be sure to hit the putts in a random order, giving yourself time to read the break on each and time to understand the pace, as this will translate well to your experience on the course.

Q: How can I stop missing short putts?

A: The best way to avoid missing short putts is to work on three key fundamentals - rhythm, follow-through and the line of the putt. Ensure the tempo of your putt is consistent throughout, with no obvious accelerations. Your follow-through should be the same length as your backswing with putter, creating a pendulum effect, and be sure to read the line of the putt past the hole - trying to imagine that the hole is merely in the way on your decided line.

Golf Monthly top 25 coach Clive Tucker explains how pace and line in putting are linked and offers some simple tips for helping with both

How pace and line in putting are linked

Line and pace are inextricably linked when it comes to putting. Focusing purely on the pace without enough consideration for the line will often cause you to hit your putts either too hard or too soft. This is relatively straight-forward when the break is obvious but when slopes are subtle, it’s worth using the following approach. As you read the green, try to identify the straight, uphill putt. I have laid an alignment stick down in this instance, to illustrate where this is. Wherever your ball is, it will want to break towards the straight uphill putt. I have put balls down either side of the straight putt – one will break towards the left, the other will break towards the right. Once you have a picture in mind for how the ball will roll, you’ll be in a far better position to get the pace right with a more positive stroke.

Wrist management

When it comes to consistency on the green you need to rely on your bigger muscles and keep your smaller, ‘twitch’ muscles quiet. If you have a ‘wristy’ putting stroke you will also probably struggle for distance control. To help, place a ball between the butt end of the club and your left wrist at address. Now make some strokes. You should be able to swing the putter back and through without the ball coming loose. Practice this by making stroke after stroke and you’ll start to groove a much more reliable action, especially from long range.

Stability drill

Keeping your body still is essential on the green. If the sun’s out, practice your stroke with your shadow stretching out directly in front of you. This will highlight any unnecessary body movements that could be killing your consistency.

Short putting pace

It’s one of the most frustrating sights in the game. You have a tricky 3-footer and dribble it towards the hole – it rolls weakly offline and your score takes a hit. A great drill to help you make a more positive stroke is to place the shaft of your wedge in front of the hole. Now hit a series of 3-footers. Only the putts you hit with conviction will pop up and over the shaft, into the hole. Anything else will get stopped. Groove a more positive short range stroke and you can aim a little straighter on breaking putts as well.

Umbrella drill

The best way to groove your distance control is through practice. But you need a constructive way to improve and this drill works by adding an element of pressure to your practice time. Use three tee pegs to create an umbrella shape behind the hole – each tee should be around 2ft away from the edge of the cup. Hit one putt from the following distances out – 5ft, 7, ft, 9ft, 11ft, 13ft and 15ft, starting at 5ft and working away. You get five points for holing out and 2 points for getting the ball inside the umbrella but if the ball doesn’t reach the hole, you get minus two points. Every time you try this drill, aim to beat your personal best. You’ll develop your ability to control pace under pressure – a crucial skill for any golfer.

Clive’s Checklist

• Prevent your wrists from breaking during the stroke
• Try to keep your body still
• Make a positive stroke from short range
• Take care over reading the green as this will affect pace
• Inject pressure into your practice routine

Golf Monthly Top 25 coach Keith Willims has some putting strike drills to help you develop a stroke you can trust to strike your putts solid more often.

Putting strike drills

One thing that every great putter has in common is an ability to strike each putt from the very centre of the blade.

The quality of the strike is just as important on the greens as it is with a full swing – get it wrong and a weak roll that drifts easily off line is the most likely outcome.

The problem is that with a putter in hand it’s often difficult to feel where the ball is being struck, so mistakes can be grooved over time without you realising.

Here’s a tried and tested drill that is used by world No.1 Tiger Woods that will help you stroke your putts solid more often. Use two tee pegs to create a gate just wider than your putter and hit a series of balls.

If you can get your putter flowing freely through the gate, you’re guaranteed a good strike. This will then translate into a strong roll. The gateway drill is great for highlighting and correcting any faults that may have crept in.

Read Rory McIlroy's own putting tips

Strike and feel

Here’s another version of the gateway drill, but there’s a crucial difference that makes this well worth using too.

Attach two coins to the face of your putter using Blu-Tack or some folded sticky tape. They should be just wide enough apart to leave a space for the ball.

Now hit a series of putts. The key difference here is that you can’t see the gate as clearly. This will test how effective the natural mechanics of your stroke are at delivering consistently sweet contacts.

As you’ll not be able to steer the putter into the right position, you’ll see how effective your stroke has become. This will help every area of your putting but particularly your lag putting.

Coin drill

This is another great way to test your strikes. Use a piece of Blu-Tack or sticky tape to attach a small coin to the very centre of your putter (a five-pence piece is ideal).

Get the stroke right and the ball will come out beautifully; get it wrong and the ball will shoot off in the wrong direction. This drill will immediately highlight any flaws in the precision of your striking.

Read more top putting tips

One-handed putts

One of the main reasons amateurs struggle with their putting is that tension gets in the way of the stroke, destroying its natural rhythm.

Many tour pros will hit one-handed putts in practice to help with this recurring problem. By taking one hand off the putter you should start to develop a more fluid stroke.

Why not try some of the other drills on this page one-handed? This is a real test of your mechanics, and as you start to get used to it you should groove the quality of stroke and strike that you’re after

Line and aim drill

For this drill, find a flat six-foot putt. Then, draw a line around the circumference of your ball and take care to aim this and the face of your putter at the middle of the hole.

Now take your normal address position and check whether the line on the ball looks as if it is still aiming at the middle of the hole.

One of the big faults that players make is not getting their eyes directly over the ball. If you fall into this trap, this drill highlights the problem and helps you find a more solid address position.

If you are confident that you are aligned correctly at set up you will be far more likely to make a smooth, technically sound stroke.

Golf Monthly Top 25 coach Clive Tucker provides some short putting fault fixer tips, as he addresses the most common mistakes from close range on the greens.

Short putting fault fixer

Being solid from short range is essential if you want to shoot good scores. Here are four keys to work on so you can turn good ball striking into great scoring.

Stay connected

Developing a good, instinctive feel on the green is key but to putt well you need a stroke that delivers consistency. One of the most important elements to get right is the connection between your arms and body.

As your upper body rocks back and though, your arms need to be linked to that movement. Get it right and the path of your stroke will have the consistency it needs to convert short putts time and again. A great drill is to put two gloves or empty ball sleeves (as I am using here) under your arms.

Do not squeeze your arms, your normal set up should hold them in place. Swing the putter back and through, keeping the sleeves in place. If you can avoid the chicken wing shown here, you’ll keep the putter working on a great path.

Pace drill

When it comes to putting, there is an important balance you need to strike. You need to hit the ball hard enough so that it rolls strongly towards the hole without being knocked off line by any imperfections on the green but not too hard as to make the effective size of the hole smaller.

A great drill designed to help you develop the right pace is to place your wedge in front of the hole as shown here.

Get the pace right and the ball pops up, dropping into the centre of the hole. Too soft and it won’t get there, too hard and it will jump the hole.

Hand action

Perhaps the biggest fault I see among amateurs is too much wrist action. To putt well from short range, especially under pressure, you need to rely in the bigger muscles to control the stroke.

If your hands are too active, you’ll lose the pace and path of your stroke. Place a ball between your wrists at address and make a series of practice strokes.

If your wrists are too flicky either in the backswing or the through swing the ball will drop down.

Aim check

Aiming correctly is harder than it might seem. Players can sometimes set up open or closed for years without knowing.

If you want to develop a consistent stroke, you need proper alignment – both with the club head and your body. Start by drawing a line on your ball.

Find a straight putt and line this up with the centre of the hole. Now get a couple of club shafts or sticks to check your body alignment. Take your normal address position to check whether you are perfectly square.

This is one of those keys that every player, professional or amateur, needs to check from time-to-time as minor mistakes here can lead to consistently missed putts.

Shot on location at Oceanico Amendoeira, Portugal by Mark Newcombe

Andrew Jones describes some basic techniques that will help you improve your putting distance control and eliminate those frustrating three-putts.

Putting distance control video

If you can consistently hit putts at the right pace, you’ll eliminate 3-putts and hole your share of outside chances. Here’s what to do…

Posture

To get the pace of your putts right you need to strike them sweetly. One of the keys to this is posture. I see a lot of players getting into what I call a ‘relaxed’ address position.

Shoulders curved and hands too low, this makes delivering the putter correctly to the ball for a solid contact almost impossible.

So stand to the ball with an athletic posture - sticking your bum out, keep your back straight, bend at the hips, flex your knees and let your arms hang down naturally.This is the ideal position from which to get the ideal pendulum rhythm and sweet contact.

Ball position

Again, another key to consistently good contacts is to have the ball in the right position at address.

If it is too far forward in your stance you’ll get a topping-type strike, too far back and you’ll hit down on the ball causing it to pop up in the air.

So set the ball just ahead of your sternum at address. This will ensure you catch it slightly on the upswing which will impart a little top spin on the ball for a stronger roll.

Stroke length

For good distance control you need a stroke with an even pace. You should avoid making either a short, jerky jab at the ball or a long deceleration at the ball.

A good guide is to try and get the length of the stroke the same either side of the ball. For mid or long range putts, try to get the putter head past your right foot on the way back and past your left foot on the way through.

This should mean that you have a smooth acceleration of the putter head through the ball at impact for the best in pace control.

Gap game

Here’s a drill that works really well to develop your pace control while also creating a little pressure.

Find a flat putt and place a collection of balls on the ground. Place a tee 10ft from you and another at 50ft from you.

Hitting your first putt just past the first tee peg, the idea is to hit each putt past the previous one. How many balls can you hit before you go beyond the far peg?

It’s a simple drill but one that requires supreme pace control to do well. The more balls you can get in the gap, the better!

Read more putting tips

Clockface game

Developing a good feel for the pace of the greens means that every putt you hit, whether uphill or downhill has a chance of going in. Here’s a drill that tests you from a range of positions.

Place a number of balls around the fringe of the green as I have done here. The aim is to 2-putt at worst, from each position.

Here's an alternative version of this round the clock drill that's worth a try...

You’ll face uphill, downhill, cross slope, short and long putts so reaching the end with a good score in tact is a great way to test your pace putting.

Shot on location at Oceanico Amendoeira, Portugal by Mark Newcombe

Graeme McDowell explains how to read and visualise breaking putts so that you can get the ball in the hole in fewer strokes

Breaking putts

I see a lot of amateurs falling in love with starting lines when it comes to breaking putts. To me that is really trying to apply something that is logical and very precise to something that is more creative than that.

When faced with a putt with plenty of break, I really like to try and get an image in my head of what the putt is going to look like in the form of an arc.

What this arc gives me is a point at which the ball is going to enter the hole. For a dead straight putt, the ball will enter the hole at 6 o’clock, while a putt with lots of break might enter the hole at around 9 o’clock.

This is a really good point to visualise and base your feel on. You can then turn a breaking putt into a creative play because it is so hard to pick a precise starting point when there is so much swing.

Look to align and position your body  focusing on that entry point and you should really get a feel for the direction and the pace. My advice is simple, get creative rather than getting so caught up on your starting line.

Remember!

• Picture what the putt is going to look like in the form of an arc
• Pick a point at which the ball will enter the hole
• Dead straight putts enter the hole at 6 o'clock
• Big breaking putts might enter the hole at 3 or 9 o'clock
• Be creative rather than logical and precise

Something else to try on breaking putts is finding your aim line and placeing your ball so that you can see the logo along this line. You could also draw a straight line on your ball with a sharpie and use that instead.

Then just rely on the hill to divert your ball towards the hole. Essentially you're turning every putt into a straight putt, no matter what the actual break of the putt.

Keith Williams has a great drill that will help you stop missing putts on the low side from six feet and in.

These tips will help improve your short putting, especially if you are prone to missing putts on the low side of the hole. This is often described as the amateur side to miss on as not allowing for enough break means that you never really gave the putt a chance in the first place.

This drill is designed to help you groove a better stroke, while also gaining a feel for how subtle breaks can affect short putts. I'm going to focus on subtle breaks here - you'll be able to find advice on more extreme breaks by clicking here. Also, if you feel you are consistently missing on one side or the other, it would be worth working on your technique with these putting tips.

Here, I’ve found a dead-straight six-footer, and have created a tunnel using two clubs through which the ball will travel to the hole.

Start by hitting a series of putts through the corridor – this is a great way to see if you are setting the ball rolling on the intended line.

Once you feel happy with that, find a putt with a subtle break and aim the shafts at the high side of the hole.

Hit the ball through the shafts and let it take the break at the end and go into the hole. This shows how the break has a much bigger effect, the slower the ball is moving - ie, the closer you are to the hole, the more more the break will play a part. You should be able to hit the ball straight through the shafts, with the ball only breaking at the end.

Read more putting tips from our top coaches

Top tips

• This drill will help you groove a better stroke, whilst also getting more of a feel for how subtle breaks can have an influence on short putts.
• Find a dead straight six footer and create a tunnel using the shafts of two irons.
• Hit a series of putts between the two clubs and up the corridor.
• This is a good way to see if you are rolling the ball on the intended line.
• Once you've mastered the straight putt, find one with a subtle break and realign the shafts to the high side of the hole.
• Hit the ball through the shafts and let it take the break and enter the hole.

Golf Monthly Top 25 coach Andrew Reylonds has some pre round putting drills to help you refine your stroke and hole more putts this weekend.

Pre round putting drills

Never start your putting practice by hitting 12 footers towards a hole; nothing will threaten your confidence more than missing a succession of these.

Instead, aim at a spot 10ft away, hit five balls and try to get them to finish as close as possible to each other.

Keep repeating this until you feel your stroke and distance control are spot on. Only once you’re ready should you move on to the following drills.

Dustbin-lid drill

There are two distinct elements to being a good putter. Firstly, you need to be able to hole out nervelessly under pressure from close range.

Secondly, you need your lag putting to be spot on for distance. If you can roll 30-plus footers up dead more often than not, you’ll take pressure off the rest of your game.

That’s why I like this dustbin-lid drill. Using my putter I mark a circle around the hole, as shown, and then walk 30ft away.

From here, the aim is to hit 10 consecutive putts within the dustbin lid. Sounds easy, but if you miss, you should start again from zero. This will add an important shred of pressure to your practice.

Read more top putting tips

Three-foot test

Here is a drill that I always set my players. Simply mark out a putter’s length from the hole, put a tee peg in the ground and try to hole 25 consecutive putts.

Again, it sounds easy, but the nearer you get to the magic number, the harder it will become. You’ll be able to call on this experience as you try to make knee-knocking three-footers in competition.

If you get to 25, why not carry on? One of my pupils once holed 1,000 consecutive three-footers. Impressive effort!

Birdie putt practice

Another area of the game on the greens that is worthy of your attention is those ‘makeable’ mid-range putts.

Make one or two of these a round, and it will really help your scoring average. I’ve put tee pegs in the ground at eight, nine, 10, 11 and 12ft from the hole.

The aim is to hit five putts from the first tee. Starting at 8ft, once you hole two, you can move on to the next tee.

As with the other drills, there is a little element of pressure created by the test. Trust me, this will really pay off when you are out there performing under pressure.

It might seem obvious, but the way in which you set-up your putting stroke will drastically influence your chances of success on the greens... so, what's the best way to work on your putting address position?

The simple answer is to practice, either on the putting green at your local club or using a putting mat in the comfort of your own home. Investing in the best putting aids will also help, as you can then use these to try various putting drills to master the putting stance.

In this video and article, Golf Monthly Top 50 Coach Gary Alliss shares his expert putting tips for perfecting the putting address position...

Putting Address Position: Expert Tips

The correct putting address position is a balanced one. It keeps the parts of your body parallel to your intended aimline, and a fundamentally sound setup will allow you to make consistently solid contact with the ball.

When you are hitting some putts, keep an eye on the roll as this will tell you plenty about the effectiveness of your putting address position at set-up. If the ball is moving off line quickly, or barely reaching the hole consistently, you will need to check the angle at which your putter is approaching the golf ball.

Ideally, at the moment of impact, the putter should be travelling either level to or rising away from the ground. If you are hitting down on the ball, it will pop up into the air before it starts to roll. This is where a poor strike comes from, and something you need to rectify quickly if you want to make more putts.

One way to remedy this is to set the ball a little forward of centre in your putting stance - its a similar theory for ball position throughout the game.

Lots of amateurs are not only poorly aligned, but they also lack consistency in aiming, which can sometimes be the result of using a putter of incorrect length. As a result, their short putts often miss the hole both to the left and the right.

In order to test your consistency on short length putts, hit ten putts towards a hole and leave all the balls on the green in the position they finished. Then, take a look at the shot finish pattern. Which side did you tend to miss the hole on and was there a trend? You can then use this data to plan for improvement.

Golf Monthly Top 25 Coach Keith Williams explains how to make a synchronised putting stroke

Synchronised Putting Stroke

Faults:

Your distance control is erratic

You don't hole enough 12-footers

Fix:

The quality of the strike is just as crucial when you are putting as it is with any other club in your bag. If you are striking putts from the toe or heel, the weak roll that follows will prevent you from getting the distance and accuracy right. So to help, I want you to check that your arms are working with your body. If you get yourself into the correct set-up position, your elbows will be tucked next to your rib cage. This is exactly what you need to get your ams working with your body for a far more solid stroke.

Read more top putting tips

Some coaches like to promote a rocking of the shoulders to create the momentum but I don't like this as it disconnects the arms from the body. Instead, your rib cage rotates around your spine and that's why it is important to tuck your elbows into your midriff. This is where putting consistency will come from. It should certainly help you strike your putts more consistently - crucial for good longer range distance control.

Striking drill Here a superb quick drill to help with the quality of your strikes on teh green. Place two tee pegs in the ground just wider than your putter and two tee pegs a foot closer to the hole, just wider than the ball. Being able to hit a series of putts without your putter or the ball striking a tee is a great way to hone your stroke. It's harder than you think but the good news is that when you get to the course, the hole will look alot bigger and your condience should rise. This is a great drill to use just before you go out to play in competition.

Golf Monthly Top 25 Coach Paul Foston offers a great drill to shrink the hole to build confidence

Fault

- You miss too many short putts - The ball seems to role weakly off-line when you miss

Fix: Shrink the hole to Build Confidence

Short putting is one area of the game every player needs to devote structured practice time to. The problem is that it's very difficult to recreate the pressure of facing a four-footer for par, while you are on the practice putting green.

So a good way to improve the mechanics of your stroke, as well as your focus and confidence, is to make the hole smaller. There are two good ways to do this.

Firstly, make sure the putt you are facing is straight and then place two shafts either side of the hole essentially shrinking the size of the hole, or place tee pegs in the same position, again, reducing the size of the entry to the hole. What this drill does brilliantly is to stop you thinking about the entire hole and help you concentrate on a more specific target.

By looking down at a smaller target this creates its own degree of pressure and the more you hole, the more your confidence grows. It also teaches you a very important lesson that works well is every area of the game about picking a small, specific target. Even if you miss your target, if it is small enough, the chances are that you will still have a positive result.

Read more putting tips

When you get to the course, the hole will look far bigger, but remember you still need to pick a specific spot to aim at. Pick a mark in the back of the hole or a blemish on the green to role the ball over - this will help you hole out more successfully from close range.

Golf Monthly Top 25 Coach Barney puttick offers som top advice for lag putting that will help you avoid 3-putts!

Lag Putting Faults:

You very rarely hole anything from long range

You leave most long putts short of the hole

Fix:

We don't always hit the ball as close as we would like, and while you would never expect to hole every long-range putt you face, I can say with some certainty that you won't hole any if you never get the ball up to the hole!

Many golfers struggle to get the ball to the hole on longer putts, and this simple practice drill will help improve your distance control from further away. Lay a flag or club down 30 inches behind the hole, then set yourself a target of getting as many 30- to 40-footers to finish between the hole and the flag or club, without touching it.

Read more putting tips

If you can regularly get the ball a couple of feet past the hole from longer distance, you'll at least then hole the ones you do get on line and rarely leave yourself much to do on the second putt. Most golfers could easily save a couple of shots or more a round simply by improving their long-range putting.

Stroke rhythm

Rhythm in putting is just as important as in every other area of the game. But whilst your rhythm from tee to green will help you hit straighter shots, on the green it will improve your distance control. Make sure that your stroke has an even length back and through. You should aim to have a gentle acceleration through impact - try to a quick, jerky jab at the ball and certainly do not decelarate through impact.

This will give your stroke a consistency that will deliver reliable results, especially from distance. Use these tips when you practice to avoid three putting and get your scores moving in the right direction.

If your stroke is mis-firing, use this rhythm putting drill to get yourself back on track

Fault

- You lack distance control, especially under pressure - Your stroke feels too mechanical

Fix: Rhythm Putting Drill

Putting is a game of feel and that's why it is so important that your stroke has a good, fluid rhythm. Under pressure, as we naturally search for control, the stroke can easily become rather stilted and jerky. A great drill that Tiger Woods often uses to help him in this regard is to make some swings (he hits putts in practice) with just one hand on the club. You can use one hand as you make a practice swing before you putt on the course for real. What this does is let the momentum of the head control the flow of the stroke. You'll also find that you get an effortless release of the putter head through the impact area. One small word of caution: as you make your one-handed swings, make sure your shoulders don't open by placing your left hand on your thigh.

Golf Monthly Top 25 Coach Keith Williams offers some great advice on how to hole 6 foot putts

Instructional: Hole 6 foot Putts

Faults:

You're missing too many crucial par putts

You often miss on the low side of the hole

Fix:

Six-foot putts are crucial, because if you can regularly hole these you'll maintain your momentum. This drill is designed to help you groove a better stroke, while also gaining a feel for how subtle breaks can affect short putts. Here, I've found a dead-straight six-footer, and have created a tunnel using two clubs through which the ball will travel to the hole.

Start by hitting a series of putts through the corridor - this is a great way to see if you are setting the ball rolling on the intended line. Once you feel happy with that, find a putt with a subtle break and aim the shafts at the high side of the hole. Hit the ball through the shafts and let it take the break at the end and go into the hole.

Read more putting tips

This shows how the break has a much bigger effect, the slower the ball is moving. You should be able to hit the ball straight through the shafts, with the ball only breaking at the end.

Many shots are wasted through ill-advised chips close to the green. Jeremy Ellwood explains why he's looking to putt from the fringe whenever possible

The telling question here is why would any golfer seeking to compile the best possible score choose to make any shot more complicated than it need be?

Yet when it comes to choosing between a chip or a putt from the fringe, many golfers perhaps feel that because they’re half-decent chippers, to putt would be a sign of weakness that says to your opponent or partner, “I haven’t quite mastered this chipping thing yet; I’ll stick to the putter even though it’s a bit of a cop-out.”

Absolute nonsense! Says who? Well, triple Major winner Padraig Harrington for starters. He’s widely regarded by his peers as one of the very best short-game exponents in the business.

Yet when it comes to greenside shots with no obstacles to overcome, he’s gone on record to say that the first question he asks himself when he gets to the ball is, “Can I putt it?”

And if the answer is yes, he invariably will, even from beyond the fringe sometimes. Now if a short game maestro such as Padraig is intuitively leaning towards the flat stick from just off the green, what message should that be sending out to you?

If that ringing endorsement isn’t enough to have you whipping off the Scotty headcover whenever you find your ball on the fringe, here, in black and white terms, is why it makes so much sense.

There is no clubhead/turf interaction to factor into the strike - the single reason so many chips go wrong whether played with a sand wedge or sometimes even the safer option of a utility club.

It’s pretty hard to fat a putt, while any slightly thin contact will be far less catastrophic than with any more lofted implement.

It may take a little practice if you’re not used to it, but with a putter, all you have to judge is pace, line and how the putt will roll through the first couple of feet of fractionally longer grass.

Even then, with putters typically boasting around four degrees of loft, the ball will either be slightly airborne or merely skimming the surface just after impact from long range anyway. If you don’t believe that, watch the super slo-mo putting action on telly.

There’s no landing spot to calculate – something often overlooked by the ‘chip from the fringe’ brigade who forget they don’t possess the ability to land the ball on a sixpence.

Add a tier or two into the equation, land it in the wrong place and there’ll be further 'tears' to deal with when things turn out decidedly badly. Better than your worst putt? Definitely not.

So next time you come up against an habitual fringe chipper in the club knockout, smile an inner smile and prematurely award yourself a couple of bonus holes.

For almost however good a chipper he is, at some stage he will inevitably waste a shot or two that he wouldn’t have done armed with a putter from the fringe, edging you that little bit closer to victory.

And if you're still not convinced, at least let renowned European Tour short-game maestro, Brett Rumford, talk you through the ideal chip and run technique!

Golf Monthly Top 25 coach John Jacobs offers his putting drills for speed control to help you improve your pace on the greens and make more putts.

Putting drills for speed control

On the greens, pace is everything. Some days you reach the 1st green and your speed control is spot on - every putt you hit looks like going in. On other days it can feel as if the perfect pace is never attainable. We all suffer with this from time to time but you can improve your chances with these putting drills for speed control.

Read more top putting tips

This little drill is designed to help you develop a better feel for pace rather than grooving a better technique, so when you start to feel pressure on the greens you don’t throw away shots with avoidable three-putts, or miss out on birdie chances by getting the speed wrong.

Place two tee pegs in the green then walk to about 15ft and put down a ball. Then, moving to side and getting ever closer to the tees put 5 more balls down. Each ball should be a different distance from the tee pegs.

Go through your normal routine, trying to get the first ball to rest between the pegs, then move smoothly and reasonably quickly on to the next slightly shorter putt in the sequence with the same aim in mind. Importantly each putt will have a slightly different break and in turn this will affect the speed.

Try to keep the rhythm of your stroke consistent and alter the distance of each putt through the length of the swing.

This is an important point that will really help your distance control out on the course. It’s a great drill that will improve the simple mechanics of your stroke, leaving you with better, natural pace control.

Top Tips

• This drill will help you develop a better feel for speed.
• Set up half a dozen balls on the green spaced out at slightly different distances, then place two tee pegs, creating a gateway 10 and 15ft away.
• Ensure you go through your routine with every putt you hit.
• Try to get the first ball to rest between the pegs.
• Then move on to the next putt in the sequence with the same aim in mind.
• Try to keep the tempo of your stroke the same, altering the distance of each putt by the length of swing.

These Dave Pelz short game tips will make you more efficient on and around the greens, ensuirng you save your par more often.

Dave Pelz short game tips

At the age of seven, I got my picture in the newspaper playing golf against a 77-year-old man. I can’t even remember who won, but from that moment on I’ve been captured by the game.

I wanted to be the best player on the planet, and for the next 13 years I tried to do just that. I enrolled at Indiana University and Jack Nicklaus was in the same class as me, so we played a lot of golf against each other.

I had a perfect record; we played 22 matches and I lost every one. I could never understand why I could beat Nicklaus at ping-pong, tennis and basketball, but I couldn’t get close to him on the golf course.

He beat me like a drum, and golf was the only thing I cared about. After university I got a job with NASA.

I loved it, but in the evenings and weekends I decided to use the research techniques I’d learnt to study what I was doing wrong with my putting and I found out that I wasn’t hitting the ball in the sweet spot.

Simple as that. Once I made the measurements, I figured out what the problems were and it was very easy to fix them.

This made me realise that great putters are not born, they are made. If you don’t understand why you can’t putt, it seems a fair reaction to say putting is about natural feel.

But it’s not. I learned that 60 to 65 per cent of all golf shots happen within 100 yards of the hole, and 80 per cent of the shots lost to par happen in this area.

I discovered that if you’re not great from inside 100 yards, you’ll never be a top-class player. There are superb ball strikers who never win a Major because their short games aren’t good enough.

What follows are some of the most important discoveries I’ve made during the years I’ve spent trying to understand the short game.

Understand your putting

The fundamental problem that we all face on the greens is to do with feedback. On a tee, if you make a great swing, you see a great drive.

If you make a terrible swing, you see a terrible drive. But it’s a different story on the green. Sometimes, if you make a perfect stroke, it doesn’t go in.

Likewise, if you misread it and mishit it, the ball can go in. Putting is the easiest stroke in the game to execute, but the hardest to learn because the feedback is terrible.

Most golfers under borrow. They look at a putt that breaks six inches and think it breaks two. They set up to the putt, make a perfect stroke and they miss low.

Of course, they then think they pulled it and so they start making unnecessary adjustments. That is why so many players struggle with their putting. Under the right guidance of good feedback, any player can learn how to putt well.

Lob wedge

As with many discoveries, when you’re looking for one thing, you find something else. The data discovery that led to the lob wedge was this: I found that pros were seven per cent inaccurate with their power game.

Then, when you put a wedge in their hands, this jumped to between 13 and 20 per cent. I thought, “That’s crazy, it’s easier to make a little wedge swing than to hit a 2-iron.”

That made me understand the inaccuracies in the long game are left and right, but with a wedge, it is long and short.

In the pro game, many of the misses were long, so I thought it would be nice to have a club with more loft that wouldn’t hit the ball so far.

One you could make a three-quarter swing with, that would travel 50 or 60 yards, and get the right distance.

I made myself a 60-degree wedge and, without having to open up the clubface, I was able to hit delicate shots more easily and accurately than the pros.

When they came to see me, I’d beat them and, of course, the first thing they did was ask what I was using.

The first lob wedge I ever made was for Tom Kite. I then made one for Andy North. The next year, Kite put a 60-degree wedge in his bag – he was the leading money winner and he had the lowest stroke average. He proved that it helped, and so other players started using the lob wedge.

Using bounce

The bounce is a measure of how far the bottom of the club protrudes below the leading edge (see diagram, right), and it’s this bit of metal that helps the club ‘bounce’ through sand and grass.

Now, you can’t hit high, lofted shots off tight lies with a wedge with lots of bounce – as the sole hits the ground, it bounces and you skull the ball.

On the other hand, if you’re in the rough and there’s grass beneath the ball, and you’re using a wedge with very little bounce, you’ll strike the ball at the top of the club and it will travel no distance at all.

My advice would be to have a combination of bounce angles in your wedges. I believe that every golfer, no matter what their standard, should carry four wedges.

Inside 100 yards is more important than outside. You need a 60-degree and a 55-degree with a different bounce, also a 49-degree.

I believe you should also carry a 64-degree wedge. Phil Mickelson has five wedges, and for every tournament we will pick one of those wedges to leave out. He practises with all five and each wedge has a different bounce angle.

Competitive practice

In the past, people worked on their long games and their putting, but not on their short games. For some reason, it got missed out.

We have ranges and putting greens, but no chipping areas at many old clubs. I spent days with Tom Kite, his lob wedge and a series of laundry baskets.

My son would catch his wedge shots in a glove and he’d tell us the yardage. Every distance within 100 yards was covered. Tom didn’t have a God-given short game; he learned it and that’s how we did it.

I want you to understand that this game is learnable. You can improve until you’re into your 70s, and then you start losing your strength.

But you need to practise. Competitive practice is important because it tunes you in. On the golf course, every shot you hit will either help or harm your score, so you have everything to play for.

I want you to practise against a partner or a target, and I want you to measure your results. It does absolutely nothing for you to practise one way and play another, but that’s what most people do.

You get one swing in golf, the rules don’t let you have a second go. The hardest way to practise is to hit a drive and then a 7-iron, and then a 3-wood and then a wedge, changing your targets and your process for each shot. But it does work.

Phil Mickelson

Without doubt, Phil Mickelson is the best player I’ve ever worked with. He has become a very dear friend, and when we started, he wanted me to help him improve his game by a quarter of a shot per round in the Majors.

He’d never won a Major in 43 attempts when we started, and he’d missed a play-off by one shot six times.

Of course, I found that he was incredibly talented and that he had a wonderful short game, but I could also see he had a weakness.

I discovered that if I put his ball behind a tree, he’d hit it round or over it. If I buried it in the sand, he’d get it close.

But if I put the ball in the centre of the fairway, 20 yards from the pin, he was very ordinary. He wasn’t bad, but he wouldn’t hit it close enough.

The first change I made with Phil was to say: “The easier the shot, the harder you must engage with it.”

Now, Phil visualises every single chip shot going into the hole. He’s not trying to get it close, he’s trying to make it.

And he makes a lot of them. It was all about focus. On the difficult shots he just engaged that little bit better. We had to bring that mentality into the easy shots, too.

Clock-face pitching

The clock-face analogy was another accidental discovery. I was watching Tom Kite and Tom Jenkins hitting wedge shots, and my son was out there giving his feedback as to how far they were going.

I then made an amazing discovery; I was watching Kite swing and I could tell how far the ball was going without watching it fly.

How? It turns out that the great wedge players don’t swing faster to hit the ball further, they make longer swings – back and through about the same.

I figured that if you think of your left arm as the hour arm on a clock, you’d have a system for reference as to how far the ball will go, as long as your rhythm remains constant.

If my backswing goes to nine o’clock it goes so far, then 10 o’clock it goes a bit further. If the rhythm is the same, this reference point provides predictable results.

Holing 6ft putts

Putting is 43 per cent of the game. It’s not the most difficult or the most important, but it’s the most frequent shot in golf.

Half of all putts are inside 6ft, so the quickest way to improve your scores is to improve here. There’s a drill I learnt from Phil that really helps.

You put ten balls around the hole at 3ft, and you putt until you make all ten in a row. This is good because you have a little bit of different break on each.

Then, place ten balls around the hole at 6ft. Go round the circle a number of times, maybe ten times, and work out your average number of putts holed.

Then, every time you do this drill, you have to try to beat your average. You’re never going to make all your 6ft putts, but if you can become really good from inside 6ft, you’ll be a better golfer. Perfect Speed

This came from a test. Every putt has an optimum speed and this is the speed at which it reaches the hole.

If the ball is dying into the front of the hole, it is susceptible to any vagaries in the green, such as spike marks and other imperfections.

So, not as many putts hit the hole if they are rolling at dead weight. Stroke them a little faster and they start to go in.

However, as soon as they start to roll a little too fast, they will lip out more regularly. The optimum speed for any putt, so that it hits the hole and stays in, is one that rolls 17 inches past – that’s roughly half your putter length.

You’ll never miss the one back, but if you roll 17 inches past the hole from 40ft, 10ft or 3ft – that is the optimum speed for holing out.

I have games with the pros where if they roll the ball more than 17 inches by they get penalised, and if they roll the ball and it doesn’t get past the back edge of the hole, they get penalised. This helps them focus in on the idea of 17 inches.

Golf Monthly Top 25 coach Paul Foston has some tips on putting through shadows and how to pick the correct line when the sun is low in the sky.

Try these simple tips if you struggle when putting through shadows and low sun makes it difficult to pick the correct line.

When you’re playing early in the morning or in the evening, long shadows can be an irritating distraction, particularly when putting.

When your own shadow runs through your line, the light and shade can make it extremely difficult to line a putt up and then commit to that line.

One of the most effective ways to select a line is to survey the putt from a variety of different angles, but particularly from behind the hole.

This will take the shadow out of play and make it far easier to see the break. The difficulty comes, though, when you return to the ball and need to commit to the line you’ve picked.

Once you’re confident that you’ve found the line, ensure you stay committed to it, even if you’re tempted to change your mind over the ball.

The shadows can easily play tricks on your eyes when over the ball, but try to ignore these thoughts, trust the line you picked when you had a clear view and make a committed, solid stroke.

What can be difficult is if the shadows on the green are caused by a fixed object such as surrounding trees.

Top tips

• Assess the putt from a variety of different angles, in particular from behind the hole.
• This will eliminate the effect of the shadow that your body was causing, and allow you to make an uninhibited read.
• This should make it easier to see what break there is, and hopefully help you commit to a line more easily.
• Once you've picked a line you're happy with, stay committed to it even if you're tempted to change your mind over the ball.