The Lesson Tee

Everyone wants to be a better putter. Everyone also wants to be a better putter when it matters under pressure. Regardless of whether you’re trying win a $2 nassau or your club championship, it always comes down to putting.

Any golfer who’s HAD to make a putt knows that they’re harder when the pressure’s on. Heck, it’s even harder to make a six-footer for birdie than it is to make the same putt to save par or bogey. Here’s a quick drill that will help you learn to be more aggressive and confident when you’re on the green.

There is no doubt about it: putting can be stressful, especially when you have already missed one or two putts early in a round that you should have made. When we feel pressure on the putting green, we often tense up. When we tense up, we often squeeze the putter grip in our hands a little tighter, creating tension that runs up our arms. When that happens, we can quickly lose a nice free-flowing stroke.

Additionally, when the pressure gets ramped up on the green, we tend to get anxious about the results after we contact the ball. When this happens, we often tend to look up early. When you look up early, your putter swings up as well, and putts fall short of the hole.

To practice fighting tension and looking up, follow these steps

• Get a 2x2 piece of wood.

• Place the piece of wood 10 feet away from you on the putting green, just to the side and about 2 feet past a hole.

• Grab ten golf balls and putt them, going through your regular routine, toward that piece of wood.

• As you putt, you want to be tension-free and not look up. You will be listening for the ball to hit the 2x2. You want that sound of the ball hitting the wood to be softer and not a hard knock. Record how many out of ten hit the 2x2 with the correct sound.

When done, switch to putting to the hole right next to the 2x2 and repeat the same process, only now, you are listening for the ball to go into the cup. Repeat the steps from 15 foot, 20 foot and 25 foot.

Good luck and keep swinging.