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The Overdose Theory - Part 2 - Short Putting

One of the things that you will notice about professional golf is that the vast majority of putts do not finish short of the hole. It's the old saying, "Never up, never in!". If you suffer from the problem of persistently leaving your putts short or if you want to develop a little more of that Tiger putting aggression try this little bit of "Overdose Theory." At the practice green, pace out five feet back from the hole. Place three balls on the ground. Play the first ball with your normal putting stroke.

Address the second ball as normal but before you putt close your eyes. Keeping your eyes closed, FEEL a backswing that is appreciably longer than you feel is necessary and then play your putt. Keep your eyes closed until you are absolutely certain the ball has come to rest. Open your eyes and see where the ball has gone. Well past the hole-distance, right? Now repeat this with the third ball. Are you certain that you can feel that extra backswing? No increase in speed of hands mind you - just the extra backswing!

Collect the three balls, return to the five foot spot and play all three with your eyes closed. Keep repeating this exercise until you consistently putt all the balls past hole-distance and, approximately, to the same spot. So, you are successfully over-hitting your five foot putts! Now, start the fine-tuning.

With each of the next set of three balls, keep your eyes closed and try to feel a SLIGHTLY reduced backswing. After each individual putt open your eyes to see what has happened to the ball. If it continues to come up short of the hole you've over-corrected and started to slip back into old habits. If this is the case make sure your play the remaining two balls with the same "overdose" you've just learned! If your ball has successfully gone past the hole (but not as far as the first drills) then you are on the right track. Well done, repeat with the two remaining balls.

Keep refining this three-ball drill until, with your eyes closed, you can putt balls well past, just pasts, right-on and just short of the five foot distance.

Now repeat this drill for seven feet, nine feet and eleven feet distances.

Remember in "over-dose theory", the first stage in correcting "leaving them short" is to learn the feelings associated with "hitting them past."

In the next article I'll explain the use of the Overdose Theory to correct slicing.