If you want to improve your short game, think of the examples from the talented members of the Ladies Professional Golf Association.
Finishing a hole with par or better on the green or right next to it is what distinguishes most amateurs from professionals.
During the last ShopRite LPGA Classic, players used various routines to prepare for their next round or as post-round exercises. These methods can also help your game.
Georgia Hall, winner of the 2018 Women’s British Open, putted under a 12-foot line stretched between two small stakes that held the line about a foot from the green surface. There was a stake about a foot behind the hole, and Hall putted about a foot into the other stake. With three balls, Hall attempted to sink all three ten-footers and succeeded several times.
Katherine Perry-Hanski has set up eight tees in a spiral pattern on the Seaview putting green. The tees started one meter from the hole and gradually widened counterclockwise until the last tee was about three meters away.
With a single ball, she putted from the three-foot point, then from the four-foot point, and so on. However, if she missed a putt, she would return to the three-foot tee to start over.
That was a real challenge despite Perry-Hanski’s undeniable talent. Still, successful five or six short putts in a row can do wonders for your confidence.
Matilda Castren of Finland used a simpler technique in which three balls were placed one to four feet apart in a circle around a hole. Even if she missed a putt, she would start over.
Jackie Stoelting, 2021 Florida Women’s Open winner, used an eye-line putting trainer. Tees stuck the mirror device on the putting green. Two further tees formed a tiny goal through which Stölting made attempts from a meter away.
She also straightened each ball before taking her stance and doing her putts.
2017 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship winner Danielle Kang tossed five balls through a similar goal with two tees towards a hole about five feet away. While I was watching her, Kang initially only held her right hand on the handle. With her five-ball sets going on without failure, she eventually switched to a normal two-handed, right-hand low grip.
By my count, Kang has done at least 35 putts in a row.
LPGA veteran Pornanong Phatlum hit a hole about 35 feet from her course in the light rough on the edge of the Seaview putting green. She had previously made a tee shot into the green halfway to the hole.
Phatlum tried to get the first rebound of each chip as close to the tee as possible as the balls hit a few more times and then rolled towards the target. I’ve seen her try over 30 of these chip shots.
Kwang Pulsawatch (“Call me KP”) is Phatlum’s caddy and stood behind a hole across from Phatlum. She picked up the pink Volvik golf balls her boss had chipped and tossed them back. KP said for this exercise: “[Phatlum] does not have a set number of chips. She just beats until she feels comfortable. “
You can learn a lot from these examples.
Unless, like Kang, you are working on a specific element of your putting stroke, stick to a routine.
Maintain a steady rhythm. Rushing a putt rarely helps with accuracy, and freezing over the ball is no better.
Perhaps most importantly, you keep a sense of perspective on putts longer than five feet. Not even the pros do every putt in the 6 to 10 foot range. However, if you can keep these failures within a couple of inches, you’ll discover how relaxing tap-ins can be.
First Tee Autumn program slots still free
In the past 12 months, First Tee-Delaware has significantly expanded its program for children in the South of Delaware / Eastern Shore, providing golf lessons with valuable life skills and attitudes that go far beyond the game.
The October sessions still have free places for young people who could benefit.
A Family Fun Clinic will be held at Plantation Lakes Golf & Country Club in Millsboro on Sunday October 24th from 3pm to 5pm. The age range of the participants is 4-18 years.
Fall Target Sessions take place on Sunday afternoons from 3pm to 4pm at Bear Trap Dunes in Ocean View and are limited to children ages 5-6 until October 24th. The Fall PLAYer series will be held at the same time and location, but participants must be 7-18 years old.
There are COVID logs for First Tee programs.
For more information or to sign up, contact First Tee at 302-384-8759 or visit FirstTeeDelaware.org.
If you’d like to support First Tee, sign up for a virtual home tour of beautiful locations in and around Ocean City, Md. LPGA Amateurs Eastern Shore will donate $ 5 to First Tee for every ticket sold for the tour. Tour guides include builders, interior designers, and proud homeowners.
For more information or to sign up, go to SandCastleHomeTour.com. If you enter LPGAHT21 in the discount code field, you will get a discount of $ 5 and the first tea will receive its donation of $ 5.