Hole Short Putts With Confidence
If you’re missing too many easy short putts and your confidence is diminishing with each miss you need to to change your association to these putts. Because obviously now when you’re faced with a short putt you immediately link up the pain of missing. To boost your confidence you’ve got to form a positive association to these short putts and here’s the best way to do it...
First find a hole on your practice putting green that has a flat 6 foot diameter area around it. Now place 5 balls one foot away from the hole and set a goal of holing 50 putts in a row from this distance and go to it. Once you’ve done this then move back a foot and set a goal of holing 40 putts in a row. When you’ve achieved this then move back a foot and set a goal of holing 30 putts in a row and keep moving back and decreasing the amount of putts you hole at each distance.
Your short putting goals should go something like this….
- 1 feet = 50 putts in a row
- 2 feet = 40 putts in a row
- 3 feet = 30 putts in a row
- 4 feet = 20 putts in a row
- 5 feet = 10 putts in a row
If you try this and find that these short putting goals are too hard then simply decrease the amount of putts holed at each range. The most important thing when doing this is to not cave in. By that I mean don’t set a goal of holing 30 putts and then miss on the 27th putt and say “that’s close enough,” because it’s not. Start again and be firm in your resolve. Commit to your short putting goal and don’t move back until you achieve it.
Also, when doing this, always leave the practice green having completed a short putting goal. So if you end up on 5 footers but find it’s taken too long and you’ve got to leave then hit 40 putts from 2 feet and complete your short putting goal from that range. Always make sure you leave the practice green on a high note, this is important for your short putting confidence.
With constant repetition of doing the exercise above you’ll find your confidence over these short putts will rise dramatically. The only down side to doing this short putting exercise is that it takes quite a long time, but if you’re serious about improving your short putting confidence then you’ll do it.
Also, when doing this short putting exercise you should hit some short putts with your eyes closed. I know I always suggest this, but I’m going to keep doing so until you do it. The reason I always suggest doing this is because playing shots (especially short putts) with your eyes closed builds Faith, Confidence, Awareness and Feel. Now I’m sure you’d agree that these are all great qualities to have, and you can gain them with your eyes closed! Trust me, if you do this your lack of short putting confidence will be a thing of the past.
Tags: confidence, short putting, short putts
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