Tommy Fleetwood is very much the man of the moment right now, after he won his first PGA Tour event at the Tour Championship on Sunday.
The main key to Fleetwood‘s success at the Tour Championship was his superb putting, and he ranked first in strokes gained on the greens at East Lake.
Fleetwood has been praised for his exceptionally controlled ball-striking, but it was his flat-stick that did the business for him on Sunday at the PGA Tour season finale.
It’s not too often we have been able to say that in relation to Fleetwood after a tournament has finished over the past few years.
The 34-year-old Englishman has been working hard on his putting with renowned guru Phil Kenyon.
Fleetwood has historically been a very average putter, and that’s being kind, but he has completely turned that around
And now every amateur looking to improve their putting can take inspiration from the Tour Championship winner.
Tommy Fleetwood’s putting drill which amateur golfers can easily copy
Fleetwood switched from a blade model to a mallet putter back in April at the RBC Heritage.
Since then, his form on the greens has improved drastically. He finished the PGA Tour season in 15th position in the strokes gained putting stats – a massive jump from his ranking of 92nd last year.
However, before he made that switch he had one drill that he used every single time he practiced his putting.
Fleetwood sets up two tees around six inches apart, with one slightly more advanced than the other.
The ‘gate drill’ as it is known is used to help promote a stroke slightly on the inside while opening the face of the putter, and then closing it through impact.
One thing to note is this method of putting only works with toe-balanced putters, and it is not recommended when using face-balanced putters.
Improve your lag putting by reading greens better courtesy of a Scottie Scheffler tip
While Fleetwood’s drill will help with your stroke, Scottie Scheffler‘s tip on lag putting should enable you to get your ball closer to the hole from long distance.
Scheffler explained how he goes about reading his putts from around 40-50 feet away from the hole.
He said: “So looking at a putt of this length (50 feet), there is a decent amount of stuff you want to be looking for.
“The first thing I will do is I will look at it from behind the putt and I’ll kind of walk up and I’ll get a feel for it in the middle of the putt, and I’ll just notice little things like up to here, the break is going this way, the grain is going that way. You get to a point in the middle of the putt where it’s going to go up and over and down grain.
“A double breaking putt like this, especially with a lot of turn at the end, I’ll try and find that point where I think the ball is going to travel through, that will kind of be where I’m trying to aim.
“Then, I’ll get a feel for how fast it is at the end. I’ll read it from this side (behind the hole), you can really see the grain change. It gets really dark looking back up that way, and it gets really light on the other side.
“Now I have an idea where that ball is going to roll. I come in, have two practice strokes while looking at the line.
“Gave it a chance to go in and I’ve got an easy putt back up the hill to finish.“
If all amateur golfers who want to improve their putting copy Fleetwood’s ‘gate drill’ and heed Scheffler’s advice on how to read longer putts better, their performance on the greens will undoubtedly get better.
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