Read and Putt

 Practicing your putting can be very fun and effective, if it is done properly.  Most people when warming up for a round will take a few golf balls and putt to the same hole from the same spot. This is ok when you are about to go play a round of golf, you get the motion going, get a feel for the speed of the greens and you get to spend a little time on your routine. If you are actually setting up for some practice, one drill that my mentor the late great Carl Welty used and shared with all of his students including, Curtis Strange, Paul Azinger, Tom Kite, Jim Mclean, Jon and Matt Mclean, Ben Crane, Pat Perez and the list goes on, that drill is called Read and Putt.

     This drill is incredible for several reasons it makes you read the putt just as you would try to do on the golf course, it makes you work on your speed and path, it makes you start the ball on the line intended and makes you hit the ball in the center of the putter face. All of these are musts if you want to become a good or great putter. Carl always wanted his students to chart all nine holes to find out their tendencies and see if there was a common miss. On top of that he would want them to video the entire nine holes (from proper camera angles of course) that way when you were done with the nine holes you could go back and watch the footage and chart each hole.

I have never seen such improvement as I did from Ben Crane when he first started working with Carl, he became one of the best putters on the PGA Tour and it was not luck. Ben followed Carl’s instruction perfectly and worked very hard on becoming one of the best putters in the world. This process takes a lot of work and dedication but man does it work.