Mastering Short Putts: The Ultimate Drill for Perfecting 3-5 Foot Putting Skills

Ah yes, the range of putts that causes even the putters with the greatest temerity to quail under pressure. No more will that be you.

Let’s dive in.

Firstly, (if you know me, you know what’s coming…) great putting is just three things:

1. Being able to aim where you want to aim.

2. Being able to start the golf ball where you aim it.

3. Being able to roll it as far as you’d like to.

That’s it.

Ok, I lied, there might be one more. This drill will focus on the hidden 4th aspect from our list above: green reading. And even more precisely, matching up green reading and your ability to execute the first three items on the list.

The Drill:

What I want you do to when working on three to five foot putts is to read two different lines: A highest-softest line, and a lowest-firmest line.

The highest-softest line is the aim point and speed at which you believe the ball has the best opportunity to barely sneak in the top side of the hole and fall in. The lowest-firmest line is the aim point and speed at which you believe you can get the ball to hit the back of the cup with authority and/or catch the bottom lip and still curl in on the underside.

The high read vs the low read

With these two reads you will have ideally captured most of the spectrum of line and speeds at which the ball has its best chance to go in the hole.

Go back and forth between the two, hitting no more than four total putts from each spot. Work your way around the hole, hitting different lengths (but staying under the five foot cap), and definitely hitting some from above the hole and below the hole.

You have a couple main objectives from this practice session:

1. You want to improve your ability to see maximal break and know what it feels like to match the speed to it. (This is the harder of the two, as the firmer putt takes less green reading typically.)

2. You want to understand which version of putting feels more comfortable to you. “Know thyself” is my overarching teaching philosophy, and this drill, when done correctly, should help you do so.

Notes:

I mentioned earlier not to do this drill outside of five feet, and that’s because I generally believe putting speed shouldn’t vary hardly at all; you should be trying to leave the ball a set distance past the hole on virtually every putt.

I’m a pretty firm believer in mostly softer speed, as it makes the hole bigger, leaves shorter second putts, and generally takes some stress off the overall day, which is a big part of managing tournament play.

The caveat is that inside of five feet, you can generally control the start line so well, that depending on the putt and what’s going on (foot prints, divots, grain…etc) there are sometimes good and valid reasons to add some pace to the putt.

With that, go have great practice, master 3-5 foot putting, turn it into great play, and win some tournaments.

-Michael