The putting drill Tiger Woods used to do ‘incessantly’ before every round which can easily be copied

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The game has arguably never seen a better putter under pressure than Tiger Woods, with the 15-time major champion having an incredible ability to find the bottom of the cup when the tournament seemed to be on the line.

It was telling how Rocco Mediate reacted when Tiger Woods made the 12 foot putt on the 72nd hole to force a playoff between the pair at the 2008 US Open.

Mediate could not have been less surprised.

The putting drill Tiger Woods would do for hours

Obviously, confidence is so important when it comes to putting. Any amateur golfer knows how rarely the ball drops when the inner monologue is already convinced that the putt simply will not go in.

But having a sound technique can clearly have a positive impact on the levels of belief a player has. So perhaps the drill Woods looks to do before every round could help a lot of golfers improve on the greens.

Speaking to Golf Digest in a video posted in 2022, Woods explained how two tees can transform a player’s ability to find the middle of the face with the flat stick.

His advice did come with something of a warning, however.

“I do it incessantly before every round, I do it at home, I do it everywhere. I always do the tee drill, and that’s just a simple little thing of having two tees, they basically lean up against the putter and it’s just to make sure I hit the putt solid. It’s a very simple drill, I go about four feet from the hole and I put it right off the toe and right off the heel of the putter. As you can see from the back camera here, if I rest the putter up against the heel tee, there’s really not a lot of room on the toe. So it ensures I have to hit the ball flush. And I have to be able to make sure that I present the club face square every single time,” he said.

“How I get there, it doesn’t ensure that. I can still take it back way inside, I can take it way outside. But in order to get through the tees, I have to swing it where I hit the ball right in the middle of the face. And I like starting with my right hand. And I’ll probably hit 20 to 30 of these just with my right hand, try and get a feel for it. I like feeling the face rotate, I like feeling my right hand hit. I like feeling load in my stroke going back, release coming through. When I then do enough of those when I feel comfortable, then I’ll put my left hand on and simulate the same feel with both hands. And I’ll bounce back between right handed and both hands. And I’ll do this for a while. As a kid, I used to spend hours doing this.

“What I realised is if you spend too much time doing this, you lose your lag putting feel. So this is just the beginning part of my practice session when I putt. Hit a lot of these, and then immediately I’ll hit a couple of six, seven footers and then I’ll hit nothing for lag putts for a little bit.”

How good Tiger Woods was at putting from inside 10 feet

It will surprise no one to know that Woods was one of the very best on the PGA Tour from inside 10 feet at the peak of his powers.

Between 2002 and 2009 – with the data unavailable beforehand – the 49-year-old’s make percentage from inside 10 feet did not drop below 87.5 per cent.

Meanwhile, he was number one on the PGA Tour in 2009, making more than 90 per cent of his putts in that category.

Knowing that his stroke was dialled in would have surely had a real impact when he got out on the course. It would have removed one of the variables from the equation, leaving Woods to focus on the read and the pace.

And while it is going to be difficult for most amateur golfers to justify spending hours hitting four foot putts like Woods could, it certainly seems to be a drill that every player would benefit from trying in the minutes before they tee off.