I’ve always been a “range rat” – I just love hitting balls and learning more and more about my swing. As a result, I’ve always been a pretty solid ball-striker.

My driving and iron play have been my strengths my entire golf life. It probably goes back to the advice my father gave me when I was very young. “There’s nothing wrong with your game that another 5,000 practice balls won’t fix,” he would repeatedly tell me. And I took that to heart and pounded balls by the hundreds daily it seems.

As I began to focus on wedge design and wedge play, I took that interest in “banging balls” to all kinds of short shots. And my pre-round routine has become about 70% those swings and 30% full swings, working my way from wedges to middle irons to driver. Then I finish the warm up with about a half dozen short pitches of various types.

But I’ve never applied that same philosophy to my putting. Hmmmmmm.

I’ve had a nearly lifelong struggle with the yips, and have had plenty of advice on how to beat them, mostly unsolicited. But in my past, two things I have learned in my life seemed to come together to give me a new perspective.

First, back in 2012 I had the opportunity to listen to a full day presentation by Dr. Rick Jensen, renowned sports psychologist. Part of his topic was on the subject of “you’re not good enough to choke.” What he meant was that most are too quick to apply the “choke” label, when what really happened is that the golfer didn’t have his or her skills polished to an adequate level. It was a very interesting angle on the subject. I highly recommend his books.

The other piece of the puzzle came in a small book I came across. In “How To Make Every Putt”, Dr. Joseph Parent advocates practicing your putting like you do everything else. Work on your fundamentals, where a hole is not even in the picture. Approach learning how to make solid, sound putting strokes like you do making solid, sound full swings.

So, way back when, I put these two together, I took my 100-ball bucket to the practice green one afternoon and hit about 500 putts. Various distances, no target . . . just making good solid strokes, evaluating and correcting, until I felt my routine and technique were gelling to something I could count on. It was as much fun as going to the range, to be honest. A concentrated practice session that was totally focused on the process, not the outcome.

Then I took that same drill to the practice green before a tournament round. I put down six balls and putted them different distances, but never to one of the holes on the green. Just practicing my technique, rhythm and tempo. Then I finished my putting warm up by making about 10-12 putts of not more than 2 feet. I wanted fresh feedback of the ball going into the hole.

I’m going to revisit this drill for a while to see if I can’t get my putting back to where I’m proud of it, and where it contributes positively to my rounds. Sometimes you just have to remember what you know.