After teaching the game for almost 30 years I have noticed that there are several golf shots that people NEVER seem to practice, yet these are the exact shots that cost them strokes round after round.
Practice doesn’t make perfect in this case—it makes you prepared. If you don’t practice each of the shots below, you will have very little idea as to how the ball will come “out” or what your limitations are in general. If you want to play your best you must experiment and practice these shots!
Big-Breaking Putts
Now I won’t lie to you—most players tend to hit longer putts with break on the putting green each time they go out, but few hit the putts like I am talking about—thus they fail every time.
I want you to think of a situation where you have a ridge or an elephant buried in the green that you have to navigate. Do you have the feel and line in your mind? Can you putt the ball right to the precipice with the dying speed necessary for it to trickle down the slope gently to the hole? Of course not.
What about the big-breaking putt that’s super-fast or super-slow are these the ones you tend to three putt?
These are the situations that cause the poor lag putts, in my opinion—not the long, flat putts that 99 percent of the players practice when they go out.
This is called fine-tuning your feel—putting these putts on the highest line possible and the lowest line possible so you can find the perfect speed on the course.
