Putting games

[DisKoDucK]

Does anyone know any fun games to play while practicing putting? By that I mean instead of hitting putt after putt, is there a more creative way to do it? I tried looking online, maybe I typed in the wrong keywords, but I was unsuccessful in finding anything.

[Stanters]

Not so much a game but a drill - when I practice at home on the mat I try and hole 6 conseutive 2 footers, then 6 4 footers etc going to 8 feet. If I miss I go back to 2 feet again.

It creates a little pressure, gives you somethng to aim for and has really improved my holing out from 4 feet and under, I rarely miss those stupid short putts now that drive you crazy. You get to hit many 4 feet and under putts and repetition works, when you have holed dozens at home it's easier to replicate your stroke on the course and you have the confidence of knowing that you can do it too.

You can obviously do this on the putting green too.

[gpo]

I do a similar drill. I have to make 10 3 footers in a row. Then 10 6 footers in a row. Then 10 9 footers in a row. I have yet to suceed on the 9 footers. If you have a buddy you can play where closest gets 1 point and if you make it you get 2 points. Just play $0.50 per point to have some fun.

Just the other day I was at the putting green and 2 12 year olds were there. I told them let's play 4 holes and if either of them beat me I would buy them both a coke. One kid was new, but I only beat the other by 1 stroke. I did notice the one kid got much more serious compared to when he was just hitting the ball around.

[thom3153]

before a round i like to chip and putt with a buddy and put a few dollars on it or a six pack. makes it interesting when something is on the line.

[Eracer]

Originally Posted by thom3153

before a round i like to chip and putt with a buddy and put a few dollars on it or a six pack. makes it interesting when something is on the line.

You'd be drunk. I'd be broke...

[Eracer]

Originally Posted by DisKoDucK

Does anyone know any fun games to play while practicing putting? By that I mean instead of hitting putt after putt, is there a more creative way to do it? I tried looking online, maybe I typed in the wrong keywords, but I was unsuccessful in finding anything.

I sometimes play 18 holes. Most practice greens have a bunch of holes, and you can just go from hole to hole. Make your first putt on each hole at least a ten-footer. I try to get round in 30 putts or less.

Another good one is to put a few tees in the green at different distances and try to knock them down with your putts.

I also like to build a box, two feet on each side, using tees. Then set up a line of ten balls starting at two feet, and going out to about twelve feet. Use the leading edge of your 5-iron to get all the balls into the box. Reset if you miss any.

[SiberianDVM]

"Look & Shoot", as described in Rotellas' Putting Out Of Your Mind

2 players find a couple of holes about 15 ft apart. Each player takes 1 ball (can also be played with 3 or 4 balls so there is less waiting). You putt your ball towards the other guy's hole, trying to make it, and vice versa. There is no time to read the green or take a practice stroke, as first one to make the putt wins a point. Each time a putt is made, the players switch holes. Keep at it until someone makes 5 points.

I love this game.

[DisKoDucK]

Those are good ideas. thanks I'll try them out. I sometimes just try to play a chip and putt game. Where a chip and a putt is par, and chip and 2 putts is bogey, etc. And I normally set up to play as if I were playing a real game. I play about 11 or 12 holes usually around the practice green. It keeps me entertained, but I just want a few more games in my back pocket.

[Sandpiper3]

Not so much of a game as a drill, but i use the mickleson drill, you put 12 tees around a hole in 4 lines. like 4 north spaced 2ft apart, then 4 west, 4 south and 4 east of the hole.

I generally use 2-3 balls, but you have to make every putt and go to every spot without missing, if you do miss you start back at the very first tee you started at. So using 2 balls you have to make 32 straight putts.

I do this all the time, only finished it 4 times ever. Shortest I did it in was about an hour and a half.

[usa1950]

I've never liked the "make 10 4 footers... make 10 6 footers.... make 10 8 footers" drills. Especially if it is the same putt, with the same break, over and over.

I prefer to take 6-8 balls, and spread them around a hole in a complete circle, 4 to 8 feet out. And then putt the balls out one by one. You have a different break on each (probably) and some will be uphill, some downhill, some sidehill. Make all 6-8 balls and you have accomplished something more than making 10 in a row from the same spot, imo.

That said, the few LPGA events I went to (back in the mid 90's) me and every other single guy at the event followed Vicki Goetze, a red hot little 22 year old Georgian who had previously beat Annika Sorenstam to win the US Women's Amatuer, and was the NCAA Champion at the same time, becmoing the first woman to hold both titles.

I had a All-Access PGA Tour Money Clip Credential (which the LPGA honored) that got me anywhere I wanted to go (not the shower with Miss Goetze, however) and I was talking to her caddie one day on the putting green. He was waiting for Vicki to come back to the green after her round, he said she did so every day.... and she did NOT leave for the day until she had made 100 four footers in a row. I thought it was BS, so I hung around a bit, talked to some club reps, other hangers on inside the ropes around the green.

Out she comes, the autograph hounds walk with her toward the putting green, and her caddie springs into action. He finds a flat four footer, gets out a ton of balls, puts them in a little pile four feet out, and goes and squats like a baseball catcher behind the hole. She starts putting, and is draining them one after the other after the other. I lose track of her, and was talking to someone else and really not watching her.... all of the sudden I hear a loud "SH1t!!!!! How many was that?" "77 says the caddie." "Shi1t!!!" And she started over again at 1, 2, 3.......

I will never forget it.

[Sandpiper3]

Ya, every friday our coach made us do 50 before we left practise, one time our no.4 player was there until like 2 hours after dark, we were just chillin in the clubhouse laughing out asses off.

I think I was the first one done almost every time, only had to restart once a month basically, so 1 outta 4 times I did it id screw something up.