This page starts out at the 30,000 feet level and then quickly drills down in to more of the nitty gritty to help you make more putts. I tried to keep things short & simple as there are numerous books & videos about becoming a better putter. These are the things I've found over the years that were truly effective and made me a much better putter and I shared my own personal insights for added context.
Putting has 3 major factors with an elusive 4th one you can't teach but gain over time: stroke, read & speed and ultimately confidence.
Breaking those elements down:
Stroke - how effectively can you start the ball on your intended line? And is your putter working for you, or is fighting against you?
Read - seeing large slopes is easy, it's the subtle breaks that really make the difference between burning the edge and dropping those bombs in from 20 feet.
Speed - How well can you judge the pace of a putt. While leaving putts short can be frustrating, blowing the ball by by 6 or 10 feet makes scoring your best challenging to say the least.
Confidence - this can't be taught. But with some practice and knowing what to adjust / practice, you can increase your confidence on the greens and start scoring better.
Things you can do to improve those 3 skills
1 - Speed - this is likely the easiest to work on and often has the biggest impact on your putting abilities. And if your read is off by a little, good speed control still leaves you close to the cup for an easy tap in.
Practice drill - in the simplest terms, you take a handful of golf balls and take a pace or two from the hole and drop a ball, walking in a straight line from the hole, repeat. This is often referred to as a "ladder" drill. It's very beneficial to practice both uphill & downhill putts. If you have a large green and plenty of open space, feel free to practice with more balls.
Your goal is to get the ball to the cup each time. Making each putt is NOT the objective. If they fall in, great. But you're working on your ability to judge pace and leave the ball no further than 18" past the hole each and every time. I've been using this practice drill for years. So now when I show up to the golf course, I take 3 golf balls and take 7 steps from the hole, drop a ball and repeat. So by the time I get to the 3rd ball, I'm about 60' from the hole. Because I've practiced this so often, I'm really surprised and even a little disappointed if that last putt isn't inside of 5', and usually they are closer, like 3'.
Variations & validation of your practice. If speed is a major problem for you, start small with the "take a step, drop a ball". As you get better, take 2 or 3 steps and drop a ball. And if you want to see if your practice is making a difference, start with the same process of dropping balls, but instead of starting closest to the hole, go to the furthest from the hole and work your way closer.
Lastly, you need to be realistic about your expectations. If you play once a month, your ability to judge pace will reflect that. But you can address this by getting to the course a few minutes early and using this drill before heading out to the course. If time permits, practice uphill & downhill putts so you can develop the feel necessary to leave yourself those stress free tap ins. Also, if you play on slow greens and then play a new course with super fast greens, it will take more time to adjust.
2 - Read - learn & use Aimpoint putting - period! I feel so confident it will help you, that's why I developed the "Slope-ify". So you can train yourself how to feel the slope so you can putt more confidently. I won't sugar coat things, there will be good and bad days. But now my bad days are burning the edge of the cup instead of going wide by 3 or 4 feet.
More and more tour pros use Aimpoint and it's because it works!
It's also why I'm offering the golf ball alignment aid, but will cover that down below because I think that falls under putting a good stroke on the ball.
3 - Stroke - I saved this one for last because it has the most "variations" to it. Things to consider: alignment, your putter, your eye position in relationship to the ball while putting and that elusive confidence.
Practice drill #1 - eye position when putting - when in your normal putting position, are you seeing the correct line at address? I think everyone's been told "your eyes should be over the ball at address". When I found how to check where your eyes really should be, I was blown away when I first tried this drill. The improvement in my putting was immediate and significant.
How to check this: on a flat putting green, take 3 golf balls and space each ball 10' apart (so roughly 30' when done). Then make every effort to align the three balls as perfectly as you can. You can check the line by standing some distance away at the end of the line, and then move the balls to form a straight line. And while it sounds easy, getting that 3rd ball to line up can take some patience and very small adjustments, but you'll understand the significance of why this is critical in a second. Once you've got the 3 balls aligned to the best of your ability, take your usual putting stance at the first ball and then look at the furthest ball while still in your putting stance. What do you see? A small percentage of the population will see all 3 balls in line with their eyes directly over the first ball. But because of dexterity, eye dominance and parallax, most people see the last ball has now shifted out of line - even though you just took the time to make sure all 3 balls were in a perfectly straight line. To get the 3rd ball to "move" back in line, move your body closer or further from the first ball (not left to right). I have to move my eye position about 3" back from the ball. But now I don't make those last second adjustments, which now I know likely caused a lot of my missed putts before learning this. And every person is different. There really is no right or wrong, it's what works for you to get the proper eye position. It takes a little adjusting, but with practice and a little time, it becomes more comfortable.
Practice drill #2 - This is something you can do in your own home, especially in the off season. Take 2 golf balls & spread them 3, 4, 5 or more feet apart - hopefully you have some carpeted surfaces that match the speed of your local greens. And please don't practice on tile, hardwood or anything else you don't want scratched up. All you're trying to do is - hit the other ball with the first one - very simple, but also highly effective. And as you get better at it, it has the added benefit of, when you get to the course, the hole looks a lot bigger because you've been practicing with a smaller target. I will add, if you live in an older home, most likely your floors may not be level. This is where the Slope-ify comes in handy because now you check for any "slope" and can adjust your aim accordingly.
Practice drill #3 - This will help you start the ball on your intended line better. This one works really when when you practice with the golf ball liner / alignment tool aid. Most instructors refer to this as the "gate drill". Using the line on the golf ball really helps provide feedback. And if unfamiliar with the gate drill, you just need 4 tees and a bit of flat green to work on this. Depending on your skill level, you put 2 tees in the green a little wider than a putter head apart. The next 2 tees go 1, 2 or 3 feet from the first 2 tees, and you make these a little wider than a golf ball and try to make these line up as best you can with the first 2 tees. You then put the ball just in front of the first 2 tees and try to roll the ball between the 2nd set of tees without hitting any of the tees. As you gain experience with this, you can make the "gates" a little smaller and also move them further away from each other. And PLEASE, when practicing this drill, be sure to leave the green in the same condition as you found it.
Putter - I won't condone or condemn putters here. There are so many options out there. And something that suits your eye really does make a difference. I will say, if you are playing a "stock" putter that was never fitted to you, then you are likely adapting to your putter rather than your putter having been adapted to work best for you. You can change: loft, length, lie (see Drill #1 just above as this becomes critical as your body moves closer or further from the ball), shaft material, grip size & grip style. Then you get into different putters: amount of toe hang, hosel shape, blade, mallet, adjustable weights, face style, face insert and the list goes on. My putter is a mallet with an offset hosel, it's been shortened to about 31" inches, has a graphite shaft that's stiffer than my driver's, and an oversized grip and is adjusted "flat" by about 3 degrees because of my stance being back from the golf ball. But don't take my specifications, my best advice is, find a good club fitter and have them check your putter and see what kind of recommendations they have for you and how to adjust your putter to work better for you. You don't necessarily need a new putter, you just need it adjusted so it fits you, your swing and recognizing what are your usual misses.
Alignment - This is one of those areas where it's easy to get lazy. And it's easy to fall in to bad habits. This is where the putting alignment tool for the golf ball is so helpful. Because once you've decided on your target, you aim the line at your target. And when you step in to take your stance, you line up to that line and now your body should be square to your line. And if your putter has an alignment line, it's also a quick way to make sure that's aligned as well. Now, you can trust your line and focus on how hard are you going to hit the putt.
Stance - this is like putters, there's lots of things you can do. My general guidance is... feet spread apart for a solid base. Using the alignment aid; line feet, knees, hip and shoulders up with the line. I try to use a light grip, but firm enough my wrists don't do much during my putting stroke. I let my arms hang and turn my shoulders and try to use a pendulum / arcing motion as my shoulders turn. I put the ball just a bit forward from the middle of my stance so I don't catch the ball on the downswing imparting some kind of wonky spin on the ball. By having the ball slightly forward, it helps get the ball rolling as fast as possible so it will hold it's line better. If using the alignment tool on your ball, you'll see the line rolling line over line when you strike it square. I also mentioned above, my putter is on the shorter side of things even though I'm average height. I went short because I often dragged the ground before hitting my putt, and going to a shorter putter helped a lot with this.
Confidence - I wish I could bottle this and sell it, but it doesn't work that way. What I can tell you is, using all the things above is a "system". And when you start improving all these things, your confidence will grow. And there's a huge difference between standing over the ball and having no clue about what's going to happen versus standing over the ball and knowing that there's a really good chance this putt is either going to go in, or end up really close to the hole. And at the end of the day, it makes your time on the course a lot more fun which is what it's really all about.