Life in the Rough

When I’m working on getting feel for distance in my putting stroke, sometimes I’ll turn to a drill commonly referred to as the “ladder drill”. It’s named that because you putt from (or to) a series of pre-determined distances, each successive try being longer or shorter than the last, similar to the rungs on a ladder. There are a couple of variations that I use, and probably many others that I’ve never even heard of. The first variation involves picking a hole on the practice green and measuring out half a dozen or so putting locations starting at three feet, and each successive one a few feet past that. Then you simply start with the three-footer and move to the six-footer, then the nine-footer, and so on until you putt all of the balls. It’s fine to be target oriented and try and drop the putts, but what you’re really trying to do is get a feel for distance and how your stroke length increases to reach the extra distance. The second variation involves putting

Since I began my comeback to the game this year, one thing I’ve noticed is that my putting stroke is very sloppy. I catch a lot of putts flush and a lot off center, but there’s not really a tendency one way or another. My belief is that a good putting stroke involves a simple pendulum motion that originates at the shoulders. There should be no breakdown of the hands or any kind of motion in the body’s core or legs. The grip should be extremely light, but stable. Though I practice a fair amount, I’ve not been able to groove a consistent stroke. It’s been improving some, but not to the degree that I’d like. As I thought about it some on the putting green last night, I wondered if my basic stability didn’t have something to do with it. I’m working out a lot, but I’ve struggled with stability in the full swing because of my long layoff, and frankly it was never that great to begin with. I started to experiment to