Lockdowns might be a thing of the past, but you can still practise parts of your golf game at home.
In 2020, during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, I didn’t go to a golf course for several weeks because I don’t see the point. Why do too much practice if I didn’t see myself playing a tournament any time soon? Plus, I live in an apartment in Perth, so there wasn’t too much I could do in terms of hitting golf balls!Â
I bought a TrackMan at the end of 2019 to take on the LPGA Tour with me, so then (and now) I putt at home with that technology. Putting, I would say, is the part of my game that fluctuates the most. It’s something you can always practise and improve.
Timing really is everything
I’ve always had an issue with timing in my putting stroke. TrackMan has a feature that measures your stroke length and the time you take to make a backstroke and a forward stroke. That’s something anyone can do at home and it doesn’t require grass or a green, although fast-running carpet can help. My home putting mat came with a string line and a gate to keep my stroke on the correct path. Try this at home simply by positioning items to form gate posts slightly wider than your putterface so it forces you to maintain a straight path on your stroke. If you can make the putting stroke without touching the barriers, you’re in good shape to hole more putts. Hopefully muscle memory will then allow you to take this feeling back out on the course.
