Darrell Klassen Inner Circle

PUTTING SPECIAL REPORT #1

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. I know that
has nothing to do with the game of golf, but I have an old saying which is
very similar: “You can take a man to the golf course, but you cannot make
him practice his putting—enough.”

That’s pretty corny, and I know it. However, there is not a man walking
the face of the planet who can play great golf without being a marvelous
putter of the golf ball. Putting is the key to scoring. Yes, chipping is also a
vital part of the scoring game, but it all boils down in the final picture to
how well you can putt.

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Darrell Klassen Inner Circle pg 1
I hate to tell you this story, but I have a youngster who is working like
crazy to become a touring professional. Well, he is working his fanny off
at everything but the short game in general. I was visiting with his parents
recently, and they are the ones who are mainly picking up the financial
pieces of his career at this time.

They asked how their son was progressing, and I have never been one to
beat around the bush—when question has been tossed directly at me. I
looked them right in the eyes and said, “He swings the golf club as well as
ANYONE on the PGA Tour. However, he has reached his maximum growth
level IF HE WILL NOT DO WHAT I HAVE ASKED HIM TO DO WITH HIS SHORT
GAME.”

This shocked them a bit, so they naturally wanted to know what I had
asked him to do with his short game. I informed them I wanted him to
practice a MINIMUM of five hours per day, six days per week, on nothing
but his putting. And then I want him to spend a MINIMUM of three to five
more hours per day on nothing but his chipping and pitching, out to at
least seventy-five yards from the green.

They were quite surprised at that. They wanted to know how much time I
wanted him to hit balls on the regular driving range in addition to all of
this. I shocked them once again when I replied that I didn’t want him to
spend any time at all on the driving range hitting regular shots. I did
soften just a bit and finally gave in to his doing that a MAXIMUM of one
hour per week.

They still don’t see the picture I was and am trying to paint for this young
man. This youngster has so much talent it’s scary. He drives the ball
consistently three hundred to three hundred and twenty-five yards off the
tee, and he hits the fairway at least eighty percent of the time.

Those are great statistics, and he hits his irons just as far as Phil and
Tiger. He also hits a lot of greens. Nonetheless, he just cannot quite get
his feet on the ground when it comes to his short game.

Almost every tournament he calls to tell me, round after round, how well
he is striking the golf ball. He tells me how there is not a player on the
Canadian tour who can strike the ball as consistently well as he does, yet
he hardly makes a cut, and he is just barely making enough money to
keep paying his traveling expenses.
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Darrell Klassen Inner Circle pg 2
He tells me, “I just don’t understand it. I can hit the golf ball better than
almost any player out here, but they are ALL consistently beating me.”
That ‘s when I ask him to analyze what he has just told me, and he seems
totally baffled.

I tell him it is a very simple task. They know how to get the ball into the
cup and you don’t.

I could go on with this, and you hopefully will someday see him out there
in the big tour. He has all of the tools to get it accomplished, but he just
isn’t applying the things I am requesting of him. “PRACTICE YOUR
PUTTING, AND THEN YOUR CHIPPING AND PITCHING,” is the advice I give
him. I guess I am going to have to embarrass him and play him for a
couple of hundred bucks over a course of eighteen holes. All of the holes
will be one hundred yards or less, and I get to pick the teeing venues.

I will take him to the cleaners on this one, and I don’t even practice or
play anymore. In fact, I have not practiced in over ten years, and I will play
him right now.

I just had a gentleman come out from Chicago for a few days of
instruction, and in the nine-hole round we played together I made one
putt from forty feet and another from twenty feet. Both of those were par
saving putts, and I shot one under for the nine holes.

If you can putt, you can play a lot of great golf. If you cannot, you might
as well pack your saddle and send it home. Your are finished before you
ever even get started.

That is why we are here. We are going to learn how to make putts drop
into the cup from everywhere on the green, and I expect you to be doing
that quite consistently.

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Darrell Klassen Inner Circle pg 3
Your First Putting Drill
We will begin with what I call the “Short Line Drill.” This drill is to help you learn
how to make EVERYTHING out to a distance of at least five or six feet from the
cup.

THIS DRILL NOT WILL NOT ONLY HELP YOU DEVELOP A GREAT PUTTING
STROKE, BUT IT WILL DEFINITELY HELP YOU BUILD YOUR CONFIDENCE ON
THE PUTTING GREEN.

I hope you noticed that I highlighted that statement. This drill—if you will
practice it faithfully—will turn you into a super putter.

Here’s What To Do: Place your first golf ball just a couple of INCHES from lip of
the cup, and then place your second ball approximately one foot farther out and
on the same line. From there continue placing another four or five balls on the
same line, and each one approximately one foot farther back. This should give
you a straight line of golf balls starting at two inches from the cup and then
another golf ball each foot from there on out to approximately the six foot
range.

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Darrell Klassen Inner Circle pg 4
Here is the drill. Start with the little two-inch tap in putt and continue one ball at
a time, working your way right on out to the end of the line. DO NOT TAKE A
LOT OF TIME SETTING UP FOR THE PUTTS. I do not want you to stand over these
putts the way you have probably been doing it on the golf course. I simply want
you to tap the first on in, and do the exact same thing with each of the
remaining balls.

It shouldn’t take you more than fifteen or twenty seconds to work your way out
the line. This is part of the exercise we are doing. I want you to eventually see
the putt and simply step up and roll it into the cup. I do not want you to stand
over it, thinking, and creating tension. Just do the drill the way I have described
it, even if you do not make more than two or three of the putts.

Now set the balls back up for another run at it. If you will do this drill on a
sloping green, and if you will change the direction from which you are putting,
you will gain some GREAT experience in your practice. By changing your
direction each time you set up a new line you will be able to practice your uphill
and your downhill putts. You will also have left and you will have right breaking
putts.

Once again, do not worry about whether you miss or whether you make the
putts. Simply go through the drill. In no time at all you will begin to make almost
every one of those putts, and it will not matter which way your ball is breaking.
You will just make everything. You will finally come to a point in your practice
where you are bored out of your mind. This will take place when you are making
everything you stroke, and it is only boring, because making putts out to six feet
had become way too easy for you.

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Darrell Klassen Inner Circle pg 5