Putting Drill – Tiger Wood’s Gate Drill
Tiger Woods is one of the best golfers to play the game of golf and it’s incredibly important to study what the greatest athletes do to make themselves successful when you are desiring to get better at a sport.
One thing we can copy from Tiger Woods is various drills he practices. In particular, I wanted to highlight the Gate Drill which is a famous putting drill Tiger does during warm ups before each golf round on the PGA Tour.
So what is the Gate Drill?
As the name suggests, there will be a gate created on the practice green using two tees or obstacles and this forces the golf ball to pass through the gate to achieve a successful straight putt.
The goal of Tiger Wood’s Gate Drill is to build a straight putt that starts on line and stays on line on its journey to the hole. If the ball swerves off line, it will collide with the gate.
This putting drill will be challenging at first but once you can master a straight putting stroke and keep the ball rolling straight on line, you’ll see much improved results on the course during your golf round.
Here are the steps to set up the Gate Drill (Tiger Wood’s Putting Drill)
- Lay down alignment sticks to check stance and line during set up
- Set two tees 3 feet away from you about a balls width apart but slightly more
- Try to hit the putt straight down the line
- The ball should go between the two tees without hitting them
- Repeat to refine your ability to start putts online perfectly
The alignment sticks are key for making sure you are aiming yourself straight to begin with. If you know you’re aimed straight, then you can focus on the putt next, and any error on the ball not going straight will tell you it relates to the putter face at impact. You can rule out alignment and aim as the cause for non-straight putts.
Make sure the tees are spread apart slightly wider than the golf ball width to allow slight error. If you make them exactly the golf ball width to start, you’ll not enjoy this drill for vary long as it will be pretty difficult to get the ball through the gate successfully. Tighten up the gap between the tees and make the gate smaller with time.
Overall, practice this drill for 30 minutes per day several times each month and you’ll see improvement in your putting skills. Tiger Wood’s practices this drill so there is value to doing it!
