In our last blog post, we presented three exercises that can help you control the pace of your putts and get a better feeling for different green speeds and different putting distances. You can read the exercises Alignment Rod Putting Drill, Lag Putting Drill and Ladder Drill in Part 1 of the Pace Control Drills.
In this post we would like to introduce you to two more drills that can also help you control your pace when putting. The exercises are called Manilla Folder Putting Drill and Goldilocks Putting Drill. First, we'll take a closer look at the Manilla Folder Putting Drill.
Manilla Folder Putting Drill
The Manilla Folder Putting Drill gets its name because it uses a Manilla folder, a kind of paper folder. The goal of the exercise is to get the ball to stop on the folder. The Manilla folder is about 30 cm in width, which means that the direction control also plays a role in the exercise. So the ball should always stay on the line and stray from it only minimally. The exercise can also help to putt the ball straighter if you otherwise often putt over a distance of more than one meter to the sides of the hole, even if you can control the speed well.
The folder is also only about 45 cm long, which leaves little scope for errors and incorrect assessments when it comes to the pace or length of the putts. The relatively small target puts pressure on the player to choose the right speed and pace so that the ball will stop exactly on the folder.
The surface of the folder is very smooth, which means that you have to play even more precisely. Overall, both pace control and direction control come together in the exercise.
After a few weeks to months of training with this exercise, you should notice great progress. You will see that after long putts you will be closer to the hole, both in direction and in length. As a second putt, you will often only have tap-ins, which means very short putts, and as a result you will have fewer or no 3 putts.
How the Manilla Folder Putting Drill works:
- Place a paper folder on the floor, approximately three meters away.
- The smooth surface of the folder will make it difficult to get the ball to stop.
- Try to find the right pace until the ball stops on top of the folder.
- Practice this drill from distances of 3, 4.5, 6, 7.5 and 9 meters.
- Three balls putted one after the other should remain on the folder from each distance. If a putt does not stop on the paper folder, start again from zero.
You can draw a circle in the middle of the paper folder and try to bring the ball to rest exactly within this circle. But if it doesn't go exactly in the circle, you still have the rest of the folder that is in the immediate vicinity of the circle.
Goldilocks putting drill
This exercise focuses primarily on pure speed control. The exercise can also be adapted to chipping or pitching, so the principle of the exercise can be used almost universally. The direction control is rather in the background here.
How the Goldilocks Putting Drill works:
- Find a target on the putting green, about six meters away.
- Now putt three balls. The first putt should be puttet too hard so that it goes about a meter behind the target. The second too soft, this should stay about one meter before the goal. You putt the third ball just right. The last ball should come to rest at the target level.
Repeat this exercise often to get a feeling for the differences in your pace. You can also have your eyes closed while putting or not watching the ball rolling and then try to judge for yourself whether the ball has gone too long, too short or at target height before looking.
Conclusion
There are many putting exercises that can help you better control the speed of your putts. Try them all and then decide on two or three exercises that suit you best, or simply switch to a new one every three months to make the training more interesting.
