How many practice putts do you take..?

[timd77]

In answer to the putting practice swing, at the moment I don’t, it’s just a case of feel. The only time I do, and it’s very rare, is if I’m well off the green and something is stopping me from chipping (tight or scabby lie, water behind etc), for those I need to get an idea of how the pace might be different to a putt on the green.

However, I think I may need to start taking a practice swing. When I’m putting well my pace is good. But there are other days when I’m all over the shop with pace… I’ll race one past, react to that on the next and leave it well short, and it just compounds from there. Maybe a little practice swing might help with that.

For all other shots I do take a practice swing. It’s a fairly gentle swing to try and replicate what a good, smooth and on plane swing feels like. I do it to try and avoid those times where you hit an awful shot and the swing felt like nothing you’ve ever done before!

 

[Billysboots]

I’ll generally make a couple of practice strokes on longer putts, simply to take any tension out of my forearms, whilst taking a couple of glances down my chosen line. I don’t bother on shorter putts. No practice swings with any other club in the bag.

There is a lady member at ours whose pre-shot routine is an exact mirror of the real thing. She’ll stand behind an imaginary ball, decide on her alignment, walk to the imaginary ball, glance several times down the target line, a few waggles of the club, then make a full swing. Then she’ll walk back behind her ball and do it all over again. On every shot. So, ignoring putts, if she takes 50-60 full shots per round, it’s effectively 100-120.

She’s slow. Very, very slow.

 

[PhilTheFragger]

None
High handicapper and putting is the best part of my game.

Rarely 3 putt
It’s the rest of it that messes me up

 

[Imurg]

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Pros spend hours a day practicing so don’t need to on the greens.
Their swing is honed .

Most practice swings is for me just to get a feel for length.

Full practice swings is just loosens you up I do this while pps are playing.
The older I get the more a practice swing helps.

Indeed. Watch pros on the practice green before they go out. Many will have putter swing calibration bits and bobs…tuning their swing according to speed of green on the day. They have spent many, many hours for many years practicing their putting.

I do the same pre-shot routine for all putts and it just so happens that that includes three ‘feel’ swings of the putter. Not really practice swings.

 

[JonnyGutteridge]

Heard a convo recently around putting & practice swings.

If you’re struggling with pace, do 3 practice swings ; one to lag it up, one dead weight, and one to hit it 5ft past.

If you’re hitting everything short, then hit the actual putt with the “longer” stroke, and vice-versa if you’re over hitting it.

 

[D-S]

Heard a convo recently around putting & practice swings.

If you’re struggling with pace, do 3 practice swings ; one to lag it up, one dead weight, and one to hit it 5ft past.

If you’re hitting everything short, then hit the actual putt with the “longer” stroke, and vice-versa if you’re over hitting it.

As a beginner I used to do something like this, one that is obviously too hard and one that isn’t hard enough so the right one is somewhere in the middle.
A useful tip I saw a while ago was that, when standing over the ball pros spend 80% of the time looking at the hole letting the brain gauge the distance and 20% looking at the ball. Amateurs tend to do the opposite resulting in not enough time to let the brain do its work. Just like throwing a ball, you don’t look at the ball you look at the target.

 

[WorldHandicapSystem]

None.

 

[clubchamp98]

What’s the reason Provisional balls always go straight?

It’s because you have had a practice swing to loosen the muscles!
Might be something in that even if your first is a bad one!
Harrington says “you should have three practice swings “

 

[JonnyGutteridge]

As a beginner I used to do something like this, one that is obviously too hard and one that isn’t hard enough so the right one is somewhere in the middle.
A useful tip I saw a while ago was that, when standing over the ball pros spend 80% of the time looking at the hole letting the brain gauge the distance and 20% looking at the ball. Amateurs tend to do the opposite resulting in not enough time to let the brain do its work. Just like throwing a ball, you don’t look at the ball you look at the target.

Yeh pretty much this. I suspect as you improve, changing from “obviously too hard” and “obviously not hard enough” to “5ft past/5ft short” keeps the exercise relevant. Perhaps if you’re really good you can do “2ft past” and “2ft short”!! I wouldn’t know

That’s actually something my pro did in a putting lesson…. He asked me to throw him a golf ball from various distances. I was able to adjust my throw accordingly.