Short Game Hall of Fame

After working on chipping, I started on putting.  Now this I was actually decent at as I've played my fair share of mini golf :).  Since I felt more comfortable in this area of my golf game I was able to have more fun with my practice.  I went to another putting practice green and started with some basics.  There was still a lot I needed to learn though.

The first thing I learned was how to hold the club.  Your putting grip can be very different from how you normally hold the club.  It felt really uncomfortable at first to hold my putter with this grip but by the end of the day I was starting to get used to it.

Notice how the front of my grip in the picture on the right looks the same as usual but my fingers are set up different as you can see in the picture on the left.  I chose this grip because it kept my wrists locked but there are several different grips you can checkout to see what works best for you.  This link shows great pictures as you scroll down to get a better idea of how to hold your club.

After I learned to correctly hold the club I moved on to fun drills.

1.  I got this idea from the DVD I rented from the library!  It was the one redeeming quality after watching a "snoozeville" video and listening to atrocious music.  First, place five balls about a foot away from each other and try to put them in the hole one by one down the line.  If you miss one you have to start over.

 

2.  Alex gave me this drill.  Grab 8 balls and set them up in a circle

the same distance from the pin.  Then go around the circle to get them all in.  You practice from the same distance but different angles.  To make it more fun you can bet on how many you will get in.  I made 7 out of 8!



After practicing it was time to play.  I introduced Alex to a game called 11.  I learned about this game by studying up on golf and then he taught me a game he used to play with his teammates in high school called 21. 

11 - You need at least two players to play.  Player 1 picks a pin to aim at. Both players count how many strokes it takes them to get their ball in the hole.  Then player 2 picks another pin and each player continues to add on to their count.  The first player to 11 is out and the last player standing wins.  This game helps you learn to count your strokes.  When we played, Alex played to 8 and I played to 11 to make the game more fair since he is a more experienced golfer than I am.  He still beat me though.

 

21 - This game is a race to 21.  Each player gets two balls as they get two attempts to get as close to the pin as possible.  A player earns 1 point if their ball is a club's length away from the hole, 2 points if it is a club's head away, 3 points if the ball goes in the hole and no points if it is out of range.   

 

My putting experience was a lot of fun.  Who would of thought I could spend so much time at the putting practice green.  When I finished, I wanted to continue working on my chipping again.  It's really becoming addicting.  After breaking down the game of golf and working hard I now deserve to have a little fun.  I'm going to head to Top Golf in Wood Dale.  Anyone want to join me for a night out?