How often do you walk off the 18th green relatively happy with your game, only to sit down afterwards and find yourself saying, “I missed a few silly short putts out there today? Few things in golf are more frustrating than walking off a green knowing you've given a shot away. Perhaps you hit a good approach, lagged your first putt close, then missed the short one coming back. Or maybe another good putt finished inches short right in the heart of the hole. Putting can feel complicated, but good practice doesn't have to be. Here are three simple drills you can try on the putting green to work on three important areas: strike, accuracy and pace. Putting drill #1 - Find the middle Our first drill is designed to help you make more consistent contact with the middle of the putter face. Set your putter down behind the ball as you normally would, then place two tees in the ground just outside the heel and toe of the putter. You want to create a gate that's wide enough for the putter to pass through without touching either tee. Now hit a few putts. Your goal is simple: make your normal stroke without clipping either tee. If you regularly catch one of the tees, it gives you immediate feedback that the putter isn't returning cleanly through the gate. Start with a reasonably generous gap and gradually move the tees closer together as your confidence improves. It's a simple exercise, but being able to consistently return the middle of the putter face to the ball is a great foundation for more reliable putting. Putting drill #2 - The ladder Now that we've worked on strike, let's add a little pressure. Find a relatively straight putt on the practice green and place balls at increasing distances from the hole – perhaps 3, 5, 7 and 9 feet as shown in the images here. Start with the closest ball. Hole it and you can move back to the next one. Keep going until you've holed a putt from every distance. There's just one catch: if you miss, you go back to the beginning. It sounds simple when you're standing over the first three-footer, but how does it feel when you've reached the final ball and know a miss will send you all the way back to the start? Putting drill #3 - Master your pace How many times have you read a putt beautifully, started it on exactly the right line... and watched it finish a few inches short? Our final drill is all about improving your pace control. Place an alignment stick or spare club on the green around a foot behind the hole, then set five balls down approximately five feet away. Your first target is still the hole. However, if the ball misses, the challenge is to make sure it travels beyond the cup without reaching the alignment stick behind it. Once you can consistently control your putts from five feet, move further away and try again from 10 or 15 feet. You can even keep score. Give yourself a point every time you hole the putt or leave it in the area between the cup and alignment stick. How many points can you score from five attempts?