Exercises to build confidence in putts under 1 metre

Practising putts under 1 metre with a clear head is what decides most rounds. Not because of technical difficulty, but because of pressure: you know you ‘have to make it’, and that certainty is exactly what causes the miss. The good news is that confidence at this distance is trained like any other shot, with concrete exercises, not willpower.

Why the short putt misses more than the long one

On a long putt, a small misread or misjudged pace is forgiven, the result is still reasonable. On one of half a metre, any hesitation shows directly in the stroke. The problem is almost never technical, it’s that the player stops trusting the routine and starts “steering” the ball with the wrist at the last moment. We already covered general exercises for confidence in putting in another article; here we focus specifically on putts under 1 metre, the distance that decides most rounds.

Exercise 1: the short clock drill

The classic drill, but at the right distance for this goal:

• Place 8 balls around the hole, all at around 50-60 cm.
• Sink all of them before moving on, without repeating any even if you miss.
• If you miss one, start the whole round again.

The “miss it and start over” rule is what really trains the mind. You already have the technique, this drill trains you so the nerves don’t show on shot number 7.

Exercise 2: the one-handed putt

• Hold the putter with your dominant hand only.
• Hit putts of 40-50 cm trying to keep the same rhythm as with both hands.
• When you go back to both hands, you’ll notice a far more stable stroke.

Without the supporting hand, any wrist manipulation shows up immediately, so the body learns on its own to stop doing it. It’s one of the drills used most often in Golf Alcanada Academy sessions, where Joan González focuses on simplifying the movement rather than constant technical correction.

Exercise 3: the putt under simulated pressure

• You need to sink 5 putts in a row under 1 metre.
• If you miss the fourth or fifth, start again from zero.
• Do it at the end of each practice session, when you’re already a bit tired.

This drill reproduces what really happens in a tournament: the short putt that decides the hole almost always comes when you’re tired and thinking about the result, not fresh and focused like on the first shot of the session.

A rules detail that helps you practise better

On the green, the official rules let you mark, lift and clean your ball at any time, and repair spike marks. Use that during these drills: clean the ball between attempts, just as you would in a real round. You can check the exact detail in The R&A’s official rules.

The practice green at Golf Alcanada is built exactly for this: repeating these drills as many times as it takes until putts under 1 metre stop being a moment of tension and become the most automatic shot of your round.