Train your brain for feel

Putting with your eyes closed increases your distance sensitivity

CLOSE 'EM: Line up three balls at 10 feet, and practice putting with your eyes closed.

By Hank Haney
Photo By Dom Furore February 2008

Improving your putting stroke by working on your fundamentals and practicing is certainly important, but you can have a great stroke and still struggle if you don't have a good feel for distance.

Don't stop working on your stroke at the practice green, but add this component to your routine. Set up three balls in a line 10 feet from the hole, and hit each of them with your eyes closed.

After hitting a few putts this way, you'll develop a lot more sensitivity to how far you hit the ball with a certain amount of force and to even the slightest mis-hit.

Making putts with your eyes closed is not as important as starting to develop a consistent roll. After 10 or 15 minutes, you should be able to roll each putt in the three-ball series within six inches of the others from 10 feet. As you get better, move back and practice the same drill from 20 feet to dial in your feel on longer putts.

Photo: Getty Images

HOW I SEE IT
No tour card is no death sentence

Frank Lickliter (right) is undoubtedly happy about getting back to the PGA Tour after winning Q school in December. And starting 62-62 like he did is strong no matter where you're playing. But Lickliter is a veteran who knows what to expect on the big tour.

When you're talking about the development of a younger player, I'm not so sure that missing at Q school, like U.S. Amateur champion Colt Knost did, is such a bad thing.

It used to be that if you missed at Q school, you played cut-rate events and lived from check to check until you could try for the tour again. Last year, the 25th player on the Nationwide Tour money list made almost $200,000. The competition is fierce, and you learn very quickly that to get to the big tour, you have to make lots of birdies. That's a good lesson for any tour player to learn.

When a player makes the PGA Tour before he's ready, missing 25 cuts can put a long-term dent in his confidence. Building on Nationwide success -- like Stewart Cink, Chad Campbell and Zach Johnson did -- can help him move up and stay up.

Ranked No. 3 by his peers among Golf Digest's 50 Greatest Teachers, Haney owns six golf schools/practice facilities in the Dallas and Fort Worth areas. Read more tips from Haney.