Something wonderful happened the other day during my putting practice and I’m still trying to figure it out. I was at the tail end of a short game session and had decided to leave putting for last. I putted nine holes on the practice green with unspectacular results and prepared to finish up with a series of 3-footers. For some reason I decided to build a small channel with two alignment sticks around my 3-foot putt. Immediately I starting rolling each putt through the channel with precision and confidence. The ball was coming off the putter perfectly and banging into the back of the cup. I hit about 15 straight in this fashion. Then I backed up to about seven feet and left my alignment channel framing the hole. Again, stroking the ball perfectly, I banged in about nine in a row. I backed up to about 12 feet and hammered another eight straight into the cup. It was if Phil Mickelson had taken over my body.
I have never putted with an alignment aid like a chalk line or between 2×4 boards, but something about those sticks framing the putt had me rolling it pure. I have always been conscious of squaring my putter face and alignment especially over the shorties and maybe the sticks freed my mind to produce a tension free stroke. I’ve also been leery of practicing with artificial aids and have attempted to simulate game conditions at every opportunity, but there has to be some value in this drill. At least there was a helluva lot of enjoyment 🙂 I’m going to continue with this drill with the hope that I can groove a better stroke and at the same time, not become too dependent on the sticks. Please send me your thoughts on this and if anyone has experienced something similar. Thanks!
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