5 Putting Drills You Can Do at Home in 10 Minutes a Day

I three-putted six times in my last round of 2025. Six. I shot a 94 and honestly, 14 of those strokes were on the green. I’m not bad at golf. I’m terrible at putting.

Here’s the embarrassing part. I own a PuttOut Pressure Putt Trainer ($40). I own an EyeLine Putting Mirror ($35). I have a Perfect Practice mat rolled up under my couch. I bought all of it thinking the gear would fix me. It didn’t, because I never practiced with a plan. I’d roll five putts, check my phone, roll three more, and call it a night.

This past winter I committed to 10 minutes a day, every day, for two weeks. Five specific drills, two minutes each. My putts per round went from 36 to 31. Not because I got talented. Because I finally practiced the right things.

You do not need a $200 mat for this. You need a putter, a golf ball, a carpet or hard floor, and a handful of tees or coins. Here are the five drills, in the order I do them every morning.

Drill 1: The Gate Drill

What you need: Two tees (or two coins, or two water bottle caps). A target. A ball. Time: 2 minutes. What it fixes: Start line. If your ball doesn’t start on the line you think it’s starting on, nothing else matters.

Set up a flat putt about 4 to 6 feet from your target. The target can be a PuttOut trainer, a cup, a water bottle, whatever. Place two tees in the ground (or on carpet, lay two coins flat) about one ball-width wider than your putter head, roughly 18 inches in front of the ball, directly on your intended start line.

Now putt. The ball has to pass through the gate. If it hits a tee, your face was open or closed at impact. You’ll know immediately which way.

Do this 20 times. Count how many make it through clean. When I started, I was hitting 8 out of 20. After a week, I was at 16. The feedback is instant and brutal. You can’t lie to yourself when the ball bounces off a tee.

If you want to spend money on this drill, the EyeLine Putting Gates ($15 to $30) are magnetic and adjustable. But honestly, two tees work fine. I used coins on my carpet for three months before I bought anything.

Drill 2: The Coin Drill

What you need: A coin. A ball. Your putter. Time: 2 minutes. What it fixes: Strike quality. Specifically, hitting the ball on the sweet spot of your putter face instead of off the toe or heel.

Place a coin on the ground. Put your ball directly in front of the coin, about half an inch away. Now putt the ball without hitting the coin. If your putter touches the coin on the through-stroke, you’re dragging the putter too low or decelerating into the ball.

Here’s the variation I prefer: place the coin on the center of your putter face, right on the sweet spot. Balance it there. Now make slow practice strokes. If the coin falls off, your hands are too active or your stroke is too jerky. Do this 10 times slow, then 10 times at normal speed.

I discovered I was striking putts off the toe about 60% of the time. No wonder my speed was inconsistent. Off-center strikes lose energy. A putt hit on the sweet spot rolls true and the same distance every time. After two weeks of the coin drill, my distance control on 15-footers got noticeably tighter.

A penny works. A dime is harder because it’s smaller. Start with a quarter if you’re struggling.

Drill 3: One-Handed Putting

What you need: Your putter. A ball. A target. Time: 2 minutes (1 minute each hand). What it fixes: Overactive hands and poor stroke coordination. Also reveals which hand is actually controlling your putter.

Putt 10 balls using only your lead hand (left hand for right-handed golfers). Then putt 10 using only your trail hand (right hand).

The lead hand controls the face and the path. If your putts pull left with just the lead hand, your lead wrist is breaking down through impact. The trail hand provides feel and release. If your putts push right or you jab at the ball with your trail hand, that hand is too dominant.

When I did this drill the first time, my lead-hand putts were fine. My trail-hand putts were a disaster. I was flipping my right wrist through impact like I was flipping a pancake. That explained why I’d pull short putts left and push long putts right. Two different miss patterns, one root cause.

After a week of one-handed putting, both hands started working together instead of fighting each other. The two-handed stroke felt smoother because each hand finally understood its job.

Drill 4: Eyes-Closed Putting

What you need: Your putter. 3 balls. A target. Time: 2 minutes. What it fixes: Feel, tempo, and the tendency to over-control the putter with your eyes instead of your body.

Set up to a target about 8 feet away. Make your normal stroke with your eyes open. Watch the ball roll. Now set up another ball, close your eyes before you stroke, and try to replicate that exact same distance.

Before you open your eyes, guess where the ball finished. Short? Long? Left? Right? Then open your eyes and check.

This drill is humbling. My first day, I thought I was hitting 8-foot putts and they were stopping at 5 feet. My body had no idea what 8 feet felt like. I was entirely dependent on visual feedback, which means on the course, when I second-guessed my read, I had nothing to fall back on.

After a week of eyes-closed putting, I could land 8 out of 10 balls within two feet of my target with my eyes shut. That feel transferred directly to the course. My lag putting from 20 to 30 feet tightened up because my body finally had a calibrated sense of effort.

Do 10 reps. Alternate eyes-open and eyes-closed. The eyes-open reps calibrate. The eyes-closed reps test.

Drill 5: The Ladder Drill

What you need: 4 tees or coins (as distance markers). Your putter. 3 balls. Time: 2 minutes. What it fixes: Distance control. This is the one that will save you the most strokes if you three-putt often.

Place markers at 3 feet, 6 feet, 9 feet, and 12 feet from your starting point. Putt a ball to the 3-foot marker. Then one to 6 feet. Then 9. Then 12. Each ball should stop within a foot of its marker.

Now work back down: 12, 9, 6, 3. Then go out of order. Have someone call out a distance (or mix it up yourself) and hit to that marker without measuring.

The point is to develop a feel for different distances without staring at the hole and calculating. On the course, you don’t get to measure. You look, you feel, you stroke.

I was awful at this initially. My 3-foot putts would roll to 5. My 12-foot putts would stop at 9. I had one speed. After two weeks, I could hit each marker within a foot on the first try about 7 out of 10 times.

If your carpet rolls faster than a real green (most do, around a 10 to 12 on the Stimpmeter), adjust your expectations. The distances will be shorter than on a real green, but the calibration skill transfers. You’re training your brain to associate a specific stroke length and effort with a specific distance.

How to Actually Do This

Ten minutes. Five drills. Two minutes each. Here’s my routine every morning before work:

1. Gate drill: 20 putts through the tees. 2 minutes.
2. Coin drill: 10 balance reps, 10 strike reps. 2 minutes.
3. One-handed: 10 lead, 10 trail. 2 minutes.
4. Eyes-closed: 10 reps, alternating open and closed. 2 minutes.
5. Ladder drill: 12 putts to markers. 2 minutes.

That’s it. 60 putts in 10 minutes. No phone. No TV. Just you and the ball.

If you do this every day for two weeks, your putting will improve. Not because these drills are magical. Because 10 focused minutes beats 45 unfocused minutes every time. I spent three years owning putting aids and not using them properly. Don’t be me.

The total equipment cost for all five drills is $0 if you use tees and coins you already have. If you want to upgrade, the PuttOut Pressure Putt Trainer ($40) gives you a real target with ball return, and the EyeLine Putting Mirror ($35) helps with setup and alignment. That’s $75 for a home putting practice station that will outlast your driver.

Start tonight. Five drills. Ten minutes. Your scorecard will thank you.