Perfect your putting
If you want to shoot lower scores in 2023, there’s one very simple way to achieve it – improve your putting. By holing more ten-footers and missing fewer three-footers, you will score better. It sounds pretty obvious, doesn’t it, but how many of us actually bother to work hard on our putting? Okay, we might have a little tour of the putting green preround, but how often would you dedicate an hour to practising with the flat-stick, as you might dedicate an hour to hitting balls on the practice ground or driving range? I’m going to go out on a limb and say rarely, if ever. Am I wrong?
Winter is the perfect time to change that up and do some proper work on your putting. It doesn’t matter what the weather is doing, if you have a piece of available carpet, you can have a putt. Most of us spend plenty of time inside during the winter months, so why not work on your stroke while waiting for the kettle to boil or watching television?
I’m feeling inspired to put in some hours doing just that through the colder months after reading the excellent instructional feature from Top 50 Coach James Jankowski on page 63. In it, he lays out a clear plan for indoor, winter putting practice. From making sure you have the fundamentals right to starting the ball on line and working on tempo, he explains a comprehensive set of drills to help you improve your stroke and hole more putts. There are plenty of training aids and tricks you can use to hone your technique, consistency and accuracy, which will stand you in good stead when it comes to the first competitive events of the new year.
You don’t need to have a home putting lab – just a bit of floor that the ball will run smoothly over. For many of us, putting might not be the first thing we choose to dedicate time to when it comes to working on our games. But for a good percentage of us, it’s the first thing we should dedicate time to. I’m confident that if we put in just an hour or two a week over the next couple of months, we’ll hole more putts and score better in 2023. With the possibility of that result, I for one will be giving it a try.