Hole out with confidence

The four-time European Tour winner gives his keys to holing the short ones and a chipping tip that could get your game back on track

1This is the first thing you see Tiger do on the practice green to make sure he’s hitting it out of the middle and the ball is rolling a consistent distance. Place two tee pegs down by the ball a little wider than the putter head and basically move the putter between them. This is all about pure stroke-building and the best way I know of aligning the stroke and ensuring a solid, square contact – the keys to consistent holing out from short range.

2

This round-the-hole three-footer drill is a Phil Mickelson favourite to build up the stroke. Your sand wedge is around 36in, so measure with that and give yourself one right-to-left, one left-to-right (see balls in bottom photo), one uphill and one downhill putt. This is better than repeatedly hitting the same putt as it adds an element of pressure. Phil would try to hole 100 in a row, but for club golfers, ten out of 12 from three loops would be good. 3

This final one is about what your head does through the stroke. Make sure you watch your putter go past your lead foot, because then you haven’t ‘looked for it’ too early. Count “one, two” and then hold the finish past the foot. If your eyes dart to the hole too soon out of anxiety, it inevitably leads to off-centre strikes and the putter face twisting off line. From this range, it means listening for your ball to drop, rather than watching.

1 Pitching distances

I’ve got a chart with four different positions. With my lob wedge, I’ve got a clubhead to shoulder position, which is 40 yards; where the tag sits on the shaft to my shoulder, which is 60; hands to shoulder, which is 80; and then my full swing, which is 90.

2 Wedge spin

I’ve worked really hard with Graham Walker on launch control. If the ball goes too high or too low, it doesn’t have the right spin characteristics. Whatever degree the club is, say 60˚, you want the launch to be coming out at half that loft.

3 Increasing power

Just work on hitting it out the middle – and that comes through practice – as that’s when you get the best ball speed. The ball hardly moves left to right any more if you hit it properly.

4 Bunker play

I have the following fundamentals: neutral stance, the ball on my left heel, my toe pointing at 45˚, the clubhead a ball’s width back, the shaft pointing vertical and no lean either way, my sternum on the ball-to-heel line and my feet shoulder-width apart. Then the grooves will point towards my left toe – not overly open – to help expose the bounce. My weight is also 70-30 on the left side and I don’t move away from that. 5

I work on trying to feel like I’m hitting slight draws – this helps to shallow out the club and ensure the clubhead is going more down the target line. If you hit your chips slightly out of the toe, this is a good drill and I generate decent spin with it.

Chipping 6 Practice

You have to be engaged and not just do it for a certain amount of time or hit balls just for the sake of it. When I work with my swing coach, Liam James, whether it’s an hour or three hours, we have to get it right and that’s really important for my confidence.

7 Holing out

I haven’t missed from inside four feet this year and that’s as important as any 300-yard drive. I’m always hitting it over a spot a foot and a half in front of me, rather than looking at the hole. We have a lot of big, breaking putts and it’s easier to look at a spot when you’re aiming outside the hole.

8 Green reading

I will look at a putt from when I get on to the green, assessing the high and low side. I’ll look from the low side to check break and speed. From behind, I will get my start line and the spot I want to hit it over. I’ll trace my eyes up and down that line, seeing it going into the hole at a certain speed.

9 Under-reading putts

I once asked a pro-am partner how much break he thought there would be on a 25-foot putt and he said left edge. From 20-25 feet you will very rarely have a left edge putt. People’s under-reading of putts is mindblowing.

10 Rhythm

Robert Rock was the first to really help me with my backswing. We did a lot of slow-motion swings to hit the new positions and that kind of moved into my full swing. I used to take it back a lot slower than I do now, but back then I didn’t quite have the grasp of the positions so I had to swing it slower. Now I’ve got a bit more flow.