This drill highlights the importance of striking the ball consistently from the sweetspot.

At the Dunlop Masters in the late 1970s I watched Peter Butler, four-time Ryder Cup player, rolling putts across the practice green. He didn’t seem to be holing many but as I looked closer I realised he wasn’t even aiming at a cup. He would just send one ball across the green and then two more alongside it. What was he up to? Rather than aim at something specific, he was rolling the first ball 25–30 feet then trying to keep his next two as close as possible to it, like a game of bowls. Anything stroked in the same way but slightly mis-hit will come up short. It takes a good touch to get one that ‘touches’. As a variation, hit the first ball then attempt to hit the next ball a little further and the third one a little further again, with all three balls ending within a putter’s length.