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Will Putting practice on the carpet shrink your score?

Will Practicing on Your Carpet Ruin Your Scores?

And, given that putting accounts for approximately 40% of all strokes taken by any golfer during a round, regardless of ability, it stands to reason that we should spend as much time as possible practising our putting.

Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse that is what golf instructors constantly tell us we should do more of if we want to improve.

Check out the comprehensive Blog 15+ Basic Golden rules for Golfers- A beginners Guide and 🏌️‍♀️Women’s Golf Tips For Beginners- Just for Ladies

However, with hectic family lives, it’s not always easy to find time for a round of golf, let alone carve out some extra practise time for that critical putting stroke.

And for the majority of us who do not have year-round perfect weather, the rain, cold, and even snow in the winter months make it difficult to practise and play outside.

Winter greens are often dissimilar to the summer surfaces you are accustomed to.

Given that you are unlikely to injure anyone, practising your putting on the carpet in the comfort of your own home is an excellent way to get some critical practise time in.

Is that correct?

Obviously, a carpet is not the same as a green, so can you effectively practise your putting on it?

Practice tips:

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• Well put Golf Putting Mat – After the hours of testing we did I picked it as my favourite and it has helped me hugely step up the amount and quality of my putting practise!
• PuttOut Pro Golf Putting Mat: The PuttOut Pro putting mat is another great product enabling effective putting practice of short putts up to 6ft. I was also surprised at how much value for money it was.

If you want to learn to putt straight, a better surface than carpet will be more beneficial.

Every putt you make on the golf course is a straight putt, no matter how difficult the situation may be.

When a ball travels 5 feet from left to right after you hit it, it may seem strange to say something like that, but it does not follow that your goal for every putt should be to hit the ball straight.

Yes, it is.

When putting, better putters will always aim to putt their ball in a ‘end over end’ motion in a straight line towards a predetermined spot and then allow the contours of the green to guide the ball to the hole.

Poor putters, on the other hand, make an attempt to steer the ball into the hole with their hands.

Despite the fact that learning to putt straight is best learned in the controlled environment of one’s own home or any other indoor location, and that one can easily practise and groove one’s putting stroke on a carpet, practise drills aimed at ensuring that one’s putt is straight are not recommended.

One of the primary reasons for this is that on standard home carpets, even when you hit the ball with a very true stroke, the ball is likely to weave and bobble around.

A standard carpet or hard floor is not the best surface to use when practising putting drills that are specifically aimed at checking whether or not you are hitting the ball “end over end” in a straight line, as a result.

As a result, instructors frequently recommend that you practise on a putting mat or some other surface that is sufficiently ‘true’ to ensure that the ball runs exactly where you intend it to.

Remember that this does not rule out the possibility of practising your putting stroke on the carpet indefinitely.

It simply means that it is preferable to practise drills on a surface other than a standard carpet or hard floor at home, in order to ensure that you are hitting the ball straight off the putter face when you are putting.

If you want to learn to putt straight, a better surface than carpet will be more beneficial.

A Surface that is superior to carpets will aid in the process of learning to putt straight.
On the golf course, every putt you make is a straight putt.

While that may seem strange when a ball moves 5 feet from left to right after you hit it, it does not mean that your goal for each putt should not be to hit the ball straight.

Indeed, it is.

Better putters will always strive to putt their ball in a straight line towards a predetermined point and then allow the green’s contours to carry the ball to the hole.

By contrast, inexperienced putters attempt to direct the ball into the hole with their hands.

The USA Vs. The UK

At the US Open, PGA Championship the greens will usually get anywhere from 13 to 14 feet on the stimpmeter while on the slippery surfaces of Augusta the reading can get as high as 15 as they dry out in the sun.

At the British Open things are a bit slower due to the winds that are typical on links courses and the R&A therefore sets a maximum speed of 10.5 feet.

Your Home Carpet is too quick to properly control your distance

Distance is another issue that is affected by your mounting.

Despite the beautiful appearance of your tapestry, its fabric and the bobbins are quite unlikely to be a real surface. Therefore, your remote control skills are not an excellent area to improve.

The ball slows down too quickly with a thick carpet, so that your timedness and swing speed can go off.

And whether that is so, you probably shouldn’t be able to hold a PGA Tour tournament, if your carpet’s nap is pretty tight.

Yup, that’s the right one you read. Standard home tapestries and tapestries would usually be considered to be too quick for tournament players.

Today, a device called a stimpmeter, monitors how many feet a golf ball rolls on the green floor, measure the pace of greens.

Readings of over 8 feet on the stimpmeter on ordinary golf courses are often quick.

The speed of the greens is roughly 12 feet during the weeks on the PGA Tour, although things fluctuate a little more in the major championships.

In comparison, the stimpmeter will be around 15 to 18 feet in length, compared to most home and office tapes and rugs, particularly those with a tighter nap.

A low-cost nylon pile carpet can potentially be greater than 20!

That might seem odd, but because to the flatness of the floor it just doesn’t feel that quick.

Think about all the really smart putts you have seen at Augusta throughout the years, and I can guarantee you will have a severe path or two instead of an absolutely flat surface.

If you also want to exercise distance control effectively at home, you also need a truthful, constant pace surface that you don’t have a regular carpet.

That doesn’t mean that they’re not options to do that, though when you place your distance control at home in a structured exercise.

You just don’t have to include a carpet if you want to have a decent notion how well you put it.

Ascertain that the Procedure for Putting Practice on the Carpet at Home is Structured.

Practice, as they say, makes perfect. That is not entirely accurate.

Because practise makes perfect, if you focus on your putting on the wrong things at home, you will unintentionally create more difficulties for yourself on the course.

Therefore, while you practise putting at home or in the office, it is critical that your sessions follow the same structure as they would and should if you were hitting balls at the range.

Thus, here are a few putting drills that you may arrange your home or workplace putting practise around.

On any carpet or hard floor, these exercises can be joyfully practised on.

As previously stated, the mechanics of the putting stroke remain constant regardless of the type of surface on which you are standing. As a result, these are excellent projects to work on during the winter months or any downtime at home or at work.

Establish a ritual for putting – As you should do every time you take a shot, you should also have a putting ritual that you go through every time you take a putt. According to Dave Pelz, a well-known putting coach, golfers should consider their putting ritual as the first component of their stroke.

They should begin with a ‘trigger’ and then repeat the same series of physical actions before each putt, on and off the course, in the same sequence and with the same rhythm. For instance, you could ‘trigger’ your ritual by placing your putter behind the ball, then looking at the hole, then returning your gaze to the ball, returning the putter and swinging through.

Thus, the procedure is as follows: putter down – look – look – back – through. Whatever your routine is, ensure that you are comfortable with it and that you perform it consistently. And why bother?

For the simple reason that it will train your mind to operate in automatic mode, which will aid you while making those pressure putts. Because performing what you’ve done thousands of times on the carpet at home informs your subconscious of both what you’re going to do and when.

Maintain a still lower body – It is critical to maintain a still lower body in order to consistently hit solid putts.

This can be accomplished by simply laying your bottom against a wall and practising your putting stroke while focusing entirely on your lower body.

Do not be concerned with the direction the ball travels throughout this drill. It makes no difference. All that counts is that you practise maintaining a still lower body when putting.

Master the putter’s ‘path’ – A wonderful drill for honing the ‘path’ your putter should take each time is to tilt your putter sideways and stroke putts with your putter’s toe.

Due to the weighting of the putter, it’s difficult to swing it incorrectly, and you’ll develop a fantastic feel for how your stroke should appear. 

Fine tune your Putting Strokes

Drills that are more focused on ensuring you are hitting the ball in a straight path or on developing good distance control, on the other hand, are best done on a more ‘true’ and ‘green-like’ surface, such as a putting matt.

There are numerous putting mats available that are excellent for practising all parts of your putting at home and may be used on carpet, wood, tile, or concrete surfaces.

And if you’re lucky enough to possess a Toyota Camry, the carpet in the trunk / boot gets the seal of approval from five-time PGA Tour winner Ben Crane, who calls it the ‘greatest indoor putting surface’!

Regardless of how you choose to practise putting at home, whether on the carpet to fine-tune your stroke or on a putting surface, be certain you are not simply hitting a ball around with your putter for a few minutes.

Concentrate on a particular objective and obtaining reliable and immediate feedback from the drill you are performing; otherwise, you will be wasting your time if your true goal is to develop.

Key take Away!

Putting is a learned skill, and practising on your own carpet is an ideal way to polish the all-important putting stroke.

If you want to take it a step further and incorporate drills into your scheduled practice that focus on getting the ball travelling straight and controlling your distance, putting matt installed on top of your carpet or hardwood surface can enhance the reliability and value of the feedback you receive.

You may even create an artificial green space in your backyard or garden.

However, whether your companion will be as enthusiastic about that notion is another story!

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