Putting drills for speed control

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.