One-Hand Nine-Hole Challenge
✅ What you need: A putter, a few golf balls, and a practice green with real holes (or tees/ball markers if the green is busy).(recommended).
✅ Time required: 10–15 minutes
✅ Purpose: Train face control, quiet the hands, and build confidence under pressure
✅ Difficulty: Intermediate
How to Do This Drill:
- Start with your dominant hand — right hand if you're right-handed, left if you’re a lefty. Tuck the other hand behind your back.
- Pick your “holes.” Use actual holes on the practice green, or if it’s busy, place tees or ball markers as targets. Putt from different distances and angles.
- Play nine imaginary holes. Each putt should feel like a real one. Score it like golf: 2 is par. Make it your goal to shoot even or better.
- Alternate hands. Do a few rounds with one hand, then the other, then both hands. This helps carry over the “feel” from your solo hand into your full stroke.
About this Drill
Most golfers don’t realize how much their second hand is doing until they take it away. One-handed putting reveals the truth. It exposes every little flick, push, or steering instinct that you normally hide behind your "regular" stroke.
And it doesn’t just reveal the flaws — it helps fix them.
Practicing with your dominant hand trains better face awareness and puts the responsibility squarely on your feel and mechanics. As Tiger Woods says, "I like to feel my right hand hit." It’s how he grooves the release and builds a smooth, center-face strike.
This drill also helps you:
- Get honest with your stroke. You’ll quickly see what’s working and what’s not.
- Build touch and confidence. One-handed reps remove tension and help you feel the putter work.
- Strengthen mechanics. You’re not relying on compensation — you’re creating a fundamentally sound motion.
Want to take it further? Try alternating hands. Tiger does this too. Go from right hand only to left hand only, then back to both. It sharpens your feel and adds balance to your stroke.
Why You Need this Drill
If your stroke falls apart under pressure, this is where you start.
There’s no hiding with one hand. That’s what makes this drill so powerful. It gives you immediate feedback on your control, your rhythm, and your contact.
And when you go back to two hands, everything feels more stable.
You’re not just practicing mechanics. You’re building trust. The kind you can take to the first tee — and the last hole.
Bonus Challenge:
Grab a putting mirror and create a tee gate around the putter head. Then try rolling one-handed strokes through cleanly. This is the same drill Tiger Woods uses constantly in practice. If you can do it one-handed through a gate, you’ll feel like you’re swinging on rails when you put both hands back on.
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