The Lag Putting Ladder
The Lag Putting Ladder is a scoring skills drill from The Adaptive Golfer. Lag putts from 10–50 feet, scoring how many finish inside a three-foot-radius circle, aggregated across three sequences of five. It trains lag distance, and your result is measured as Practice Strokes Gained against your handicap band.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Here's the Lag Putting Ladder. It trains the one thing that kills three-putts. Distance control from long range. Place a ball at ten feet, twenty, thirty, forty, and fifty feet from the hole. Mark a three-foot circle around the hole with four tees. That circle is your target, not the cup. Putt each ball toward the hole. Score it inside the circle, or outside. Note which distances you trust and which leak away. From thirty feet and beyond, pace is the dominant variable. Set a pace intention before you ever think about the line. Run three sequences of five putts, fifteen balls in total, and record how many finished inside the circle. For a mid handicap, aim for eight to ten inside the circle. Log every rep in The Adaptive Golfer.
How to do The Lag Putting Ladder
- Place balls at 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 feet from the hole.
- Set four tees at a radius of three feet around the hole, marking a circle six feet across.
- Putt each ball from its distance toward the hole, scoring inside the circle or outside.
- Record the total out of five and note which distances consistently succeed or fail.
- Run three sequences (15 balls) and record the aggregate.
Focusing on line rather than pace. From 30+ feet pace is the dominant variable — set a pace intention before the start line on every putt.
▲ LEVEL UP
Run the Chapter 12 elimination variant: putt the distances in sequence (50, 40, 30, 20, 10) and stop the moment any putt misses the standard, recording how deep you get.
How The Lag Putting Ladder is scored
Total your successes across all sequences.
Here is what each handicap band should be hitting (inside the circle, higher is better):
| HANDICAP BAND | TARGET |
|---|---|
| Scratch (0–2) | — |
| 3–7 | 10–12 |
| 8–13 | 8–10 |
| 14–19 | 5–7 |
| 20+ | 3–5 |
Your result is converted to Practice Strokes Gained against your band, so you always know if you are above, at, or below where you should be.
Log each rep and see whether you are above, at, or below your band — not just the target.
The 5-pillar diagnosis tells you whether this drill is even the thing costing you strokes.
A four-week plan picks your drills and recalculates as your numbers move.
As seen in Chapter 25 — Drill 8 of The Adaptive Golfer. The drills, benchmarks, and plans in the app are built on the published methodology.
The Lag Putting Ladder FAQ
Lag putts from 10–50 feet, scoring how many finish inside a three-foot-radius circle, aggregated across three sequences of five.
A mid-handicap golfer (8 to 13) should aim for 8 to 10 inside the circle.
It builds your scoring skills, specifically lag distance.
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Log The Lag Putting Ladder in The Adaptive Golfer and see your Practice Strokes Gained against your handicap band.
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