By Rich Iorio, SDGA Campus Director, San Diego
You hear it in every sport ever played- from school children's kick ball to professional coaching in the NBA- "practice makes perfect". This philosophy is what made great players like Michael Jordan, Hank Aaron, and Arnold Palmer legendary. "It's a funny thing," Palmer once said. "the more I practice, the luckier I get." But if you aren't practicing the right techniques at the driving range, you are only perfecting a failing strategy in your golf game.
As campus director of the San Diego Golf Academy, I notice the usual mistakes most players make, and one of the most common is the lack of emphasis on putting practice. Putting is about 40 percent of the golf game for players at every level, and that is why practicing correct putting drills is so important.
I work with hundreds of students every year, and the 3-5-7-9 putting drill is one of the most useful techniques in helping players dramatically improve their golf game. It's an excellent drill for developing consistency, which we all know is vital to becoming a better golfer, as well as the ability to read every type of putt.
Start by placing three balls three feet away from the hole, and move in succession in a circle keeping your three-foot distance as you take your shots. Take a total of 25 putts, and then move back to five feet from the hole. Repeat the 25 putts and move to seven feet, and then again to nine, for a total of 100 practice putts. I like to have my students do this drill as a warm up prior to a casual round or in competition so they get a feel for the speed of the greens, and can determine how to adjust putting styles for any breaks.
The key to this drill is the variety of putts you see while making a circle around the hole. Most players, at all levels of golf, get into the habit of practicing from only a few putting positions, and while they may be getting better at those particular positions, it's not realistic to think that those are the only types of putts you will see on the course. By moving in succession around the hole, you see and get a feel for putting from several positions - right to left, left to right, uphill and downhill. You are basically expanding your putting skill to match the variety of putts one sees during a round of golf.
I also encourage keeping track of your success at this drill for a few months. Record how many you make out of the 25 shots at each distance, and study your data as you progress. Is your sinking percentage increasing? How many five-foot shots did you take in two weeks? How many putts were nine feet or under during one round of golf? It's pretty dramatic and eye-opening when you actually put the information into raw numbers and quantify it. Not only does this show you a physical example of your improvement, it also gives you a benchmark and target goal for your putting game.
The whole idea is to perfect your game from nine feet in; do that and you will constantly be ahead of the curve. Too many golfers get to the driving range, and want to hit full swings the whole time because of their inch and pound drivers. But if you went to the green a little more often, you would probably drop your index by 5 or 6 points, just by practicing your putting.
