Downhill Putt Drill with Blair O’Neal

Take Shorter, Less Powerful Strokes

Let’s work on a putt right that a lot of your playing partners out on a Sunday match, they're not going to give it to you. It’s that downhill 3 - 3 ½ footer that’s fast, a little bit dicey, and it means a lot to the game - you gotta make these putts.

Follow along with the video or read the transcript beneath to get started.

Overview

So there’s a couple of things I like to do on these fast putts, one of them is to of course, use my Pyramid Putter. I'm going to make more putts with the Pyramid Putter as it is.

Now of course with using this Pyramid Putter and the gear effect, you're going to keep the ball on line anyways so it's the perfect winning combo.

Technique

But the next on these fast putts is instead of setting up with the ball in the center of the putter face, I'm going to set up with the ball on the toe.

I'm going to set up with the ball on the toe and it's going to help me to not hit the ball as hard or as far so I can still make my normal 3 foot stroke, but it's going to help me hit the ball with a little bit less speed - you don't want to blast these ones by.

The Drill

Now another tip that you can do is something I learned from Martin Hall - he told me on these dicey downhill putts, instead of trying to focus on a short stroke and a shorter swing, focus on the thumbnail that's on your putter grip.

Now with this thumbnail, I'm going to focus on just taking it back an inch back and an inch through. This is automatically going to make you take a shorter stroke, which in turn is going to be a less powerful stroke and perfect for these downhill, fast putts.

Focus on that thumbnail and try setting up the thumbnail on the toe of your Pyramid Putter. Your friends, they don't need to give you these putts - you've got this.