Ever notice how many players neglect to practice the long putt? And then taking it one step further, how many players are "faced" with a long putt during their round? A long putt, in general, is any putt over 10 feet from the cup. Even the pros get a little any when they have to make a putt from this distance or beyond. There's a good reason the pros (and we) get ansy at this distance--it's because we usually miss the cup! And in some cases, we end up with the next putt being more difficult than the first.

But there are a couple of things we can do about this.

First, on a long putt the key factor is speed. Too hard and the ball will roll right on past the cup and who knows where it will stop. This is especially true if the green has any down slope on the far side of the cup.

The flip side of speed is that a ball that isn't hit hard enough will die before it gets close to the hole. In this case, the player didn't even give himself a chance to sink the ball. Pure physics--the ball has to at least reach the hole in order to fall into the hole.

A great little practice drill for improving speed is to get on the practice green and then putt a handful of balls to fartherst edge of the green. You're trying to get as close to the fringe as possible without actually getting "on" the fringe. By to the fringe instead of to a cup, you're focusing only on speed--there is no cup to distract you, only the far fringe.

Now another tip (and this one incorporates using the cup) is to play a little trick on your mind. Tell yourself, and believe it, that you don't care if you sink the ball on your next long putt. All you want to do is get within 5 feet of the hole, and you'll putt out from there. Forget the hole, just try to get within a five foot radius of the cup. Now, the trick of course, is you still aim for the cup, you still want this miracle putt to sink, but release the pressure from yourself. If it sinks, great! But if it stops within your five foot radius, well, that's great too.

Try these tips on the practice green and then take them with you on the course. You'll be pleased you did.