CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Justin Thomas had his revelation during a friendly putting lesson from a fellow PGA Championship winner, Xander Schauffele.
The revelation was that his putting practice had grown disorganized over the years—and his putting went downhill as a result.
As he explained:
“The more I was talking, I’m like, I don’t do any of the things that I used to do in my best putting years. 2017-18, I was very, very regimented of the things that I did, and how he said it is because I had a home base and I had no home base. I had things that I did, but it was a very vague bag of things and there was no consistency to it.”
And so, JT got organized. He brought back Golf Digest Best in State teacher Matt Killen, who was JT’s practice coach during his two major victories. He committed to a new putter, and started dialing-in his practice with drills like this, which he was grinding on Tuesday ahead of the PGA Championship.
How the drill works
So Justin Thomas and his coach Matt Killen had set tees down in three different spots, plus a stick behind the hole. I eyeballed the distances, but from what I could see here’s how everything was situated…
- Tee #1: ~5 feet
- Tee #2: ~10 feet
- Tee #3: ~15 feet
- Stick: ~18 inches past the hole
The goal: Either make the putt from each tee, or to roll your ball past the hole but short of the stick.
Those approximate distances weren’t picked by mistake. They’re each important in their own way.
- The average make rate on tour from five feet is over 90 percent. These are must makes; if you miss these, you’re bleeding strokes to the field.
- The average make rate on tour from 10 feet is about 40 percent. It in some ways makes these putts two-shot swings. You can gain a decent amount of shots if you’re good from this range—and lose a decent amount if you’re bad.
- The average make rate on tour from 15 feet is about 20 percent. You’re not expected to make too many of these, but this is a common birdie range, so the more the better.
- The stick being 18 inches or so past the hole mirrors the average approach putt proximity on tour (currently 24 inches). It’s a good tap-in range to aim for in the event of a miss.
This is what good, regimented practice looks like. And it’s something the rest of us can do, too. The more of this we do, the more dialed in our putting strokes will be when we need them to be.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com