If short putts are among the least practiced parts of most amateur games, then what’s that to say for lag putts? Unfortunately, the outlook for lag putts is just as grim regarding amateur practice. Where most professionals spend 80% of their time on short game, you can imagine why they are so good regarding the feel around the greens. We see most amateurs spending 85%-90% of their time working on the full swing (trust me, I understand how good it feels to strike the ball right out of the button, but I’m all for shooting lower scores, too).
What Is The Progression Lag Putting Drill?
The Progression Lag Putting Drill is a drill designed to help you develop your feels on the practice green while also putting you into a pressure environment, so hopefully, when you NEED that two-putt to win the match or shoot your lowest score, you’ll be able to!
How to Setup The Drill
To set up the drill, you will need to put four tees around the hole, creating a 3-foot circle. This circle will be what we like to call the “circle of trust,” which is where you will be trying to put the balls into when doing this drill. You will also need to place tees at 20-30-40-50-60 feet. You will also be placing two balls at each tee, as these are the spots that you will be putting from.
How To Do The Drill
For this particular putting drill, there will be three iterations of it that are from easiest to hardest to help you being putting under pressure conditions.
- Level 1: Your goal in level one is putting the balls into the circle. If you were to miss getting a putt within the circle, then bring the ball back and putt from the spot you missed it until you manage to get it into the circle.
- Level 2: Now, your goal is to put all balls from each tee inside the circle in a row. If you miss a putt from any of the tees, you must restart back at 20 feet until you can make all balls from each spot, resulting in 10 putts inside the circle in a row. This adds pressure to the drill because as you approach your last putt, you will have to really focus on getting the putt inside the circle, at risk of starting all over again.
- Level 3: If you can surpass level 2, then congrats. But it only gets more complicated from here. Now, you need to remove both the tee in front of the hole and whichever tee may be on the low side of the hole. What this adds to the drill is forcing you to not only get the ball to the hole but to also miss the putt on the high side. Believe it or not, no putts go in if they’re short, and they also end up much closer when you miss on the high side.
Closing Remarks
I know practicing putting could be more exciting, but it is paramount if you want to start lowering your scores. So, start using this drill to develop your feel around the practice greens and maybe even take pressure off yourself when you get that ball on the green in regulation and want an easy two-putt.
