Disc golf: 5 tips for improving your practice putting

Armed with little more than a practice tote and a fat stack of Star Wraiths, you can spend all the time in an empty soccer field you like – at the end of the day, it’s putting that moves the needle.

Does getting intimately involved with your backyard practice basket sound awful?

See if these five tips can help …

1. Take it seriously

Don’t be a Nazi about this …

If you like listening to music, do it. And if you’re more of a podcast person, that’s fine. Whatever it takes to help you focus on doing the same thing over and over (and over) again, go for it.

But gardening, pulling weeds, watching the kids and visiting with your next-door neighbor are great ways to NOT get better at putting. Don’t cheat your game – focus on the task at-hand.

That’s that.

2. Gamify the process

Regular rounds of disc golf are fun. And while there’s a certain degree of monotony and playing fetch with yourself to field work, watching the disc fly through the air is always a good time.

To achieve the same level of enjoyment when practice putting, make a drill or game out of it. There are a crap-ton of Reddit threads on the specifics of how to do this – click here to check one out. If you don’t love the idea of competing against yourself, bring a child, friend or spouse along for the ride. Pull a page from basketball’s playbook and play H-O-R-S-E with the basket.

Whatever the activity, I like to place restrictions on myself:

• I can’t go inside until I make 10 18-footers in a row.
• As soon as I hit 50 putts from 22 feet, I’ll eat dinner.
• Monday Night Football starts after I drill five from 40.

You get the idea.

Do this enough, and you’ll come up with your own.

3. Keep sessions short

And I mean it …

Fifteen-minute putting sessions are fine.

Not only are they less intimidating, but they’re easier to turn into a habit, as well. Given the madness of life, it’s hard to dedicate an hour of time to your practice basket three times a week. 

It’s NOT hard to find 15 minutes five or six times a week, though. Come tourney time, my cash is on the cat who’s putting in daily C1X work over the guy who does once a week for two hours.

Consistency trounces extremism.

4. Prioritize manageable distances

It’s not evil to practice edge-of-circle putts.

Get some circle-two jumpers in, as well.

Regardless of how good you are, you’re winning (or losing) tournaments from 15 to 22 feet. This is especially true for amateurs. Throwing 400-plus feet is an admirable pursuit. Heck, I’ll even give it the “worthwhile” label, if you like. But you’re guaranteed to lose strokes to the field if you’re regularly missing two, three or four 18-footers every round of a weekend-long event.

Focus on what matters most.

Then, flirt with “bonus” putts.

5. Routines, routines, routines, etc.

Chris Dickerson is known as the “Robot Chicken” for his dedication to being methodical with his approach to the game – this is especially apparent on the putting green. If you’re curious, the “Chicken” part of the nickname comes from his love of fried chicken tenders – now you know.

The message is clear:

• Find your putting routine.
• Stick with your putting routine.
• Practice using your putting routine.

Every. Single. Putt.

As you putt in practice, you’ll putt in tournaments.

Don’t neglect your routine.

The good news?

Screw form, inborn talent or raw athleticism …

Putting is ALL repetition.

Get yours in.

Have anything to add? Take to Twitter to let us know – we’ll actually (for real) get back to you.

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