► In this video Golf Monthly Top 25 Coach Keith Wood talks you through some simple drills that will help improve your feel when putting.
1) The Blu Tack drill
As golfers, we perhaps don’t think too much about the contact between the ball and our putter face – is it more towards the toe or heel perhaps, potentially making the head twist a little bit at impact? This drill can really highlight where you’re making contact and help you to focus on finding a more central strike every time. Just pop a little bit of Blu Tack on the toe and heel of the putter face to make the effective area of the face much smaller. If you make contact on the Blu Tack it will be completely dead and the ball won’t go anywhere, providing instant feedback as to whether or not you’ve found the centre of the putter blade. This simple drill can really helps to concentrate the mind on the centre of the club.
2) Listen for the sound
Sound can be another instant giveaway as to where you’re making contact. How many of us really know what the ball and putter should actually sound like at impact? Make a nice smooth stroke, and listen out for the telltale little click of a well-struck putt. It will obviously depend on what type of ball you use, and you do need to be consistent – it’s no good going from a really hard ball to a soft ball. But providing you keep using the same type of ball, you should start to notice a consistent sound when you strike your putts well. You can really sharpen your focus and feel by concentrating on the sound.
3) Go one-handed to feel the release
In a conventional right-below-left putting grip the left hand controls while the right hand releases the putter head. If you roll a ball across a putting green, you’ll really feel some slack and a change of direction in the arm and wrist – that’s the release we’re expecting from the right hand through the golf ball as well. Try rolling a few balls to get the feel for the right hand releasing as some golfers just aren’t aware of that subtle feeling of lag and release as the putter changes direction between backswing and throughswing. But it is important, because a stroke that’s rigid and fused will give you no feel whatsoever and very different results in terms of a consistent roll. I would also recommend going one-handed in practice, so set up as normal, then take your left hand off the club leaving your right hand completely on its own back and through the stroke. See how it feels, then re-apply your left hand. You might just have a completely different sensation from that right hand and arm now, and you’ll certainly be much more aware of what they’re doing in the putting stroke.
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