Yes. Mini golf can definitely improve your putting.
You might be playing mini golf to spend your free time in a fun way, but it can be much more than that… precisely, an effective approach to improving your short game!
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Leave everything and dive deep into this article to learn about the reasons how mini-golf can improve your putting.
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6 Ways Mini-Golf Can Improve Your Putting Skills
1-Opportunity to Improve Posture
Working on a few basics for correcting your posture provides a wider opportunity to improve your putting.
While playing mini-golf, your back posture, shoulders, and feet are the key elements that you’ll need to focus on.
Roughly, your back needs to be at 45 degrees and your shoulders directly above your feet to play a proper putting shot.
In addition to this, measuring the ball position and guessing the putter face alignment is also important for a good short game.
Watch Jim Roy talking about improving posture in this youtube video by Performance Golf channel;
2. Better Visualization Capability
One of the good things about mini-golf is that it allows you to plan your shots carefully, which gives you enough time to imagine the result of every shot before even playing it.
Furthermore, you can also imagine the flight and roll of the ball and its behavior with the obstacles to help you become a consistent putter.
Remember that you’ll not necessarily be correct every time however, practicing this on a daily basis can improve your visualization capability.
3. Analyzation of Putting Green Slope
No putting green surface is perfectly flat, which affects the ball movement in terms of both speed and direction.
To tackle this, you need to analyze the slope and contours, which is not possible in an actual game of golf; however, mini-golf gives you a great opportunity to study the putting green surface before playing your shot.
Studying the contours to access the ball speed and direction before playing your shot is one of the highest-level putting skills.
Here’s a YouTube video by Golfing With Gary Russell II to help you read the tricky slopes on putting greens;
4. Enhanced Distance Control Skills
Distance control is considered one of the most critical skills in mini-golf because it determines your capability to supply the ball to the desired position.
Furthermore, the mini golf course also has multiple obstacles and side banking to keep the ball from flying off the course. All of these hurdles affect the golf ball distance, which requires the player to have maximum distance control abilities.
Lastly, an approach shot to the green also requires controlling the distance the ball travels.
Here’s an effective drill to improve distance control by the Meandmygolf YouTube channel;
5. Enhanced Hand-Eye Coordination
Mini golf players require a high degree of hand-eye coordination to hit a putt in the center of the club head and return the putter to a desired position.
In addition to this, there’s also the need to control the putter path direction and club face angle for playing a standard shot.
Practicing mini-golf on a routine basis can help in analyzing and enhancing the hand-eye coordination without even using much technique.
6. Improved Mental Putting Routine
While you’re executing a golf shot, your mind visualizes and calculates every minute detail that is critical for playing a desired shot.
This phenomenon, called mental putting routine, is counted as a major aspect of the game by professional golfers.
Golfers with a great mental putting routine can effectively cope with the most competitive environments while playing on-course.
The process involves 4 basic steps;
- Assessing the ground conditions like slope and contours
- Accessing the required ball speed, direction and angle to play the required shot with maximum accuracy
- Shifting your body posture according to the required conditions
- Executing the shot based on these calculations
Treating mini-golf as a training drill for improving short games can also improve your mental putting routine.
Watch this youtube video by ChrisRyanGolf to have a better understanding;
Disadvantages of Mini-Golf:
Although mini-golf plays a key role in improving your putting, it also comes with some disadvantages and risks that you may not be willing to take.
Firstly, the putting conditions on an actual golf course are far different than the putting conditions on a mini golf course.
For instance, the slopes, distances, contours, and climate conditions are not even close, which can compromise your analyzing and assessing abilities to pay a proper shot.
Secondly, the putters that are issued at a mini-golf course are heavy steel roads with an iron blade at the bottom, which perform differently than the putters issued at an actual golf club.
Although these putters are fine for practice, if you get used to them, you’ll need to make necessary weight adjustments to your on-course putters.
This may cause problems for you.
Thirdly, playing on a real golf course after practicing on a mini-golf course also demands you to change your playing technique at times.
This is the most challenging task for a golfer because you require sufficient practice to adjust and get confident with it.
Lastly, the putt-putt balls are not like the real golf balls, which means that there’ll be a huge difference in their behavior on hitting.
If you’ve been practicing putting on a mini-golf course, you’ll need to adjust the amount of force and putter path direction for playing real golf balls which can result in a poor assessment of the shot.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does mini-golf require proper skill?
Although playing mini-golf requires proper putting techniques, even a non-golfer with almost zero skills can play a good 9-hole round.
What’s the objective of mini-golf?
The key objective of mini-golf is to get your ball in the hole in a few strokes. The faster you are, the better you are!
What kind of golf clubs are used for putting?
Golfers use putters to play the last strokes and knock the ball into the hole. Mini-golf putters are slightly different from real putters.
Final Thoughts: Can Mini-Golf Improve Your Putting?
Although mini-golf can’t be treated as a proper substitute for real golf, it’s an effective training method for improving your putting skills.
As you’ve read through this article, I’ve plainly described every reason why playing mini golf can improve your putting.
It helps with everything, from improving your posture to enhancing your mental putting routine.
Implementing the above given suggestions on daily basis can give a quick boost your putting.
Catch you in the next one!