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18 September 2026 · 10 min read

Practising putting at home: four drills from Swiss Golf for the putting mat, and what the simulator cannot do for your putting

A winter in the simulator trains everything except putting: often the software putts for you or gives you the short putt. Swiss Golf publishes drills for coaches. Four of them fit a mat in the living room, each with a goal you can measure.

Practising putting at home: four drills from Swiss Golf for the putting mat, and what the simulator cannot do for your putting — post image

A winter in the simulator trains the drive, the irons and the wedges. It often does not train putting. The software putts for you or gives you the short putt, and the mat in the bay is usually flat and has one speed. If you play golf and want to practise putting, you need drills with a goal and a mat at home. Swiss Golf publishes such drills for its coaches. Four of them fit a putting mat in the living room. Here they are, with a number you can write down every week.

Why putting is the part the winter does not train

In the simulator you hit the ball up to the green, then the software does the sums. TrackMan's help centre describes four formats of automatic putting in its TPS software: by handicap, like a tour pro, two putts outside the gimme distance, or fixed, with one putt inside 10 feet and two putts inside 65 feet. In all four you never pick up the putter. Even with manual putting the short putt disappears: in the tournaments on TrackMan's NEXT platform the gimme circle is 2.4 metres by default. Anything closer counts as holed. Those are the distances that fit on a mat at home.

That is one of the reasons a simulator score is lower than a course score. The others are in the post on simulator scores and course scores. If you do not want to putt worse in March than in October, you practise it too, at home on the mat. Why a putt feels different in a bay is in Putting in a golf simulator.

Four putting drills from Swiss Golf, translated to the mat

Swiss Golf gives its coaches a collection of drills. The putting part holds 25 of them, written for the putting green, several of them expressly for children and juniors. Four work on a mat once adapted. The names and the rules are Swiss Golf's. What changes on the mat is noted.

Kompass. In the original, 12 or 16 tees form a star around the hole at 50 cm, 1 m, 1.5 m and 2 m. The balls are holed in a set order, the innermost first. A mat has one direction, so the star becomes a line: four marks at 50 cm, 1 m, 1.5 m and 2 m. The rule that makes it hard: hole at least two balls in a row before moving to the next distance. As a test you play one ball per mark and count the makes.

Final Putt. The basic idea: hole a one-metre putt while the others watch. The variations: with a little break, against each other, the others may distract you, who makes the most putts without a miss. At home there is no audience, but there is pressure: the last putt of every session is one metre, one ball, one attempt, and the mat is not put away until it is in. Note how many sessions in a row the last putt dropped at the first attempt.

The Break. In the original, a putt of about eight metres uphill or downhill. Small gates stand on the line as intermediate points, and the drill teaches you to fix such points when reading a line. Five balls, one point for every gate passed, three extra points for every ball holed. The mat gives you no slope, but it gives you the intermediate point: in its putting drills with Visio tools, Swiss Golf places a 60 mm gate about 50 cm in front of the ball on a straight two-metre putt. At home that is two tees. The ball must pass without touching them and go in. Five balls, the same points as the original.

Würfel. In the original, six zones of 50 cm to one metre are drawn at four metres. A die decides which zone you putt into. If the ball stops in it, you score the number rolled, and the first to 20 wins. On a 2.5 metre mat it shrinks: six zones of 20 cm from one metre, marked with tape. Putt away from the hole so the ball stops. This drill trains distance, not holing. The hole at the end of the mat forgives every putt that is too fast. The zones forgive nothing.

The putting mat: length, speed, ball return

A putting mat with ball return is a carpet with a hole at the end and a channel that brings the ball back. One example with a price: Decathlon sells the Inesis golf putting mat with ball return for CHF 64.90, 250 cm long and 30 cm wide, with two rolling speeds and two hole sizes. After your stance, about two metres of the 2.5 remain for the putt. For the eight metres of The Break you need a green.

A mat's speed is always the same. A green is different every day. Swiss Golf puts one sentence at the start of its putting drills with Visio tools and names AimPoint as the source: speed determines the line, and speed determines the size of the hole. So the mat trains the stroke and the start line, and speed you learn on the green. The ball return cuts both ways: many putts without bending down, and the ball drops on every make however fast it was. That is why the zones and the Final Putt belong in every session.

What can be measured: the one-metre rate and the ladder

The collection has a test that fits the mat: in the drill it calls «Die» Übung, you mark four distances on a straight putt, 1, 1.5, 2 and 2.5 metres, and play ten balls per tee as a test. On the mat the 2.5 drops away. Count the makes at 1, 1.5 and 2 metres. That is your rate. Write it down once a week. For comparison: TrackMan's auto-putt model works with PGA Tour statistics and gives a putt from 10 feet, three metres, a 38 percent chance of a one-putt. For a player with handicap 0 the same model gives 30 percent, with handicap 20 still 19 percent. And in the Luke Donald drill from the Swiss Golf material, 20 putts between 1.2 and 2.4 metres, the tour average is 14 makes.

The ladder comes from the same document. Four zones marked with tees, at 3, 4, 5 and 6 feet, each one foot long, so 0.9 to 1.8 metres with 30 cm zones. You go up the ladder and back down and note how often the ball stops in the zone. On the mat, again away from the hole. Add the tee drill: a tee one grip length away. Hit it three times in a row, then move back one grip length. Note how far you get.

Setup and contact: what the coaches check

The same document describes what a coach checks in the setup: eyes, shoulders, hips and feet parallel to the target line, the putter face square to the target at address. Three of its drills need only balls, a string and tees. Eye position, with the mirror in the original: lay five to seven balls in a straight line towards the target and see with your eyes outside, inside and over the ball where the line looks straight. The string: stretch a string over the line, set the face square to it and start the ball on the line from one metre, then with the left hand only and the right hand only, to find the dominant hand. Contact: two tees so close that the putter just fits through. And the rule Swiss Golf puts before every drill with an aid: five balls with the aid, then five without. What the Platzreife exam looks at in putting is in the post on the Platzreife in Switzerland.

Auto-putt, gimme, putting mode: what your simulator does

Whether you putt in the bay depends on the software and the operator's setting. TrackMan, the system named by 83 venues in the directory, has manual putting in TPS besides the four auto formats. It is a setting in the software. Ask at the venue when the number of putts should mean something. Which system a venue runs is in the directory. What sets the systems apart is in the simulator comparison. Even with manual putting, the mat in the bay usually stays flat and one speed. It shows you whether your putt starts on the line. Reading a green is not something you practise there. What else the hour in the bay gives you is under indoor golf training.

More on this: Golf putting rules, Choosing a putter, Learning to putt in golf.

Rules on the green, in short

What does not matter on the mat counts on the course. Rule 13 of the Rules of Golf covers the green. You may lift and clean the ball, but mark it first and replace it on the same spot. You may repair ball marks and spike marks and remove sand and loose soil. Testing the green by rubbing the surface or rolling a ball is forbidden. If the ball hangs on the lip, you get the time to reach the hole and ten seconds more. If it drops after that, one penalty stroke is added. The rest is in the twelve rules for beginners.

The next step is small: a mat, four marks, a notebook. Play the four drills twice a week and write down your rate at 1, 1.5 and 2 metres. When you go to the bay in winter, ask for manual putting. What else can be practised at home is in the post on practising golf at home, and the venues near you are on the map.

Frequently asked questions

How long does a putting mat for home need to be?

The Swiss Golf drills that fit a mat run from 50 cm to 2 metres. Decathlon's Inesis mat is 250 cm long and 30 cm wide and costs CHF 64.90; once you have taken your stance, about two metres of putt remain on it. For longer putts and for slopes you need a green.

Can you practise putting in a golf simulator?

It depends on the software and the setting. TrackMan's TPS offers four auto-putt formats and, next to them, manual putting as a setting in the software; in NEXT tournaments a gimme circle of 2.4 metres applies by default. The mat in the bay usually stays flat and one speed, so you practise the start line on it, not reading a green.

How many putts from three metres does a pro hole?

TrackMan's auto-putt model works with PGA Tour statistics: from 10 feet, three metres, a putt drops with a 38 percent probability, at handicap 0 it is 30 percent and at handicap 20 still 19 percent. In the Luke Donald drill from Swiss Golf, 20 putts between 1.2 and 2.4 metres, the tour average is 14 makes.

What does a putting mat with ball return cost?

Decathlon sells an Inesis mat with ball return for CHF 64.90: 250 cm long, 30 cm wide, with two rolling speeds and two hole sizes. From 2.5 metres, about two metres of putt is left once you are standing on it, and short putts are exactly the part you can practise at home.

What can I not practise on a mat?

Speed. A mat always rolls the same, a green is different every day, and Swiss Golf's putting drills put the AimPoint line first: speed determines the line. Nor do you practise reading break or long putts. The mat trains the stroke and the start line.

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