Last Boxing Day I received from my mother-in-law one of those home putting mats.

Each year we go round to her house for a family get-together and buy each other small presents.

Well, apparently this was on sale for a fiver, so she got it me.

You know the one I mean, plastic hole, with a bunker and water around it, on a slight ramp.  Then a six foot piece of plastic mat.

I used it a few times but we never really had the room, or me the time to use it on a regular basis.

Well last Easter we spent three days putting down a laminate floor in our dining room, living room and hallway.

So here I was watching the Merrill Lynch Shootout on Setanta, wishing I was playing golf.

I got the practice mat out and out came the marker pen.

With my tape measure I went from the front of the hole and put a mark at the 2, 3, 4 & 5 foot distance.  Then I made sure the mark was in the middle of the mat, it's only about a foot wide.  I then put the distance on the mat.

So here I am with my practice putting mat all marked up from two feet to five feet.

I then started at the two foot mark and everytime I holed a ball I moved to the next mark.  To be honest I never missed from the two to four foot mark, but the first three times I pulled the five foot putt!

What I started to do then was only line up my putter with the mark in front of my ball.

So there I was stroking in some lovely putts from two to five feet.

This now means I know I'm putting well and my confidence is high.

I know that there is no slope on this mat but having confidence in my putting is certain to help my game.

Russ

Hi,

I have been putting really bad for month's now. And after 4 putting for the 2nd time last week I took it upon myself to practice at home.

Just picking up the putter and taking a few practice strokes every day to freshen our relationship. Well today I putted so much better - Only missed 1 putt inside 8' all day.

I plan to keep fondling now  if this is how she treats me when she gets some attention.

Working on your putting Mark will certainly pay dividends.

And seeing as the weather is not too good at the moment it might be worth doing.

I had a putting/chipping lesson about two months ago and it has certainly worked for me.

Most of my putts now stop close to the hole, within a foot. 

I've also started to drop the odd 15 to 20 footer, and I'm getting some good results from six feet in.

Russ

Funnily putting is the only thing I appear to be good at, at the moment.  I'm averaging 32-34 putts per round, which isn't bad for a high handicapper.  It's all the duff shots before the green that is ruining my scorecard.

I put this down to practicing on my lounge carpet for 15-20 minutes each day.  Now if only my lounge was big enough to swing a driver a full speed! 

Cheers 

The tip I was always given was to never practice your putting before a round, as the practice green of often so different to those on the course. Its a supprisingly good tip and helps me, if I really want to practice before hand I only practice short putts.

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I only ever have a few practice putts before a round for that same reason. I hate to leave myself a long putt on the first.

I see you are from Greater London, Wassadb, so how about bringing along your skills to the North v South match on April 20th at Wokefield Park, Reading. You can add your name by clicking on Groups/events and then looking on the left hand side for the competition, don't sign up for the North by mistake.

Recruiting the lower handicappers Mr Pettitt? Shame on you...

Its intresting to hear you both say that you dont practice on the green before a round as i take 3 balls onto the pratice green and pratice from 2,4,6 ft out just to get my eye in.

I only ever practice putting to get a feel for the speed of the greens. If like last week the course has a full 18 tempories, I'll stay in the clubhouse drinking a nice warm cuppa.

Just before a round I tend to just practice very short putts (the only ones I can make!) to get the confidence of hitting the ball positively and seeing it drop.