I have been doing this new putting drill for the past few days, something that I just fell into doing when I wasn’t paying attention.

In my back room there is an 8′ carpet on the floor. I started putting from two feet, then began moving the ball back a slight bit for each successive putt.

I thought I would formalize the drill, so the ball gets moved back one ball-width each time, out to about 7½ feet. If you measure it strictly, that’s 39 putts.

I doesn’t take too long to complete the drill, and you get a lot of good practice at making the same stroke every time.

Years ago I did a drill going in the other direction. It takes about 20-odd golf balls to do this.

Putt a ball to about six or seven feet a way. It doesn’t matter where it ends up. Putt the next ball so it j-u-u-st touches the ball you just hit. Continue.

What you should end up with is however many balls in a straight line, all touching each other.

This is a great drill for short putt distance control, something that is more important than you might think.