Yet, in terms of the mind we have a completely different degree of difficulty.

The greatest ball-striker of all time, Ben Hogan, was driven to distraction by his inability to hole apparently simple putts. That pressure-filled task on the last green . . . be it for a Major win or to break 90 for the first time . . . affects us all.

But first, let's work backwards. I would like you to think of what you currently do on the putting green just before you play a round, that vital 20-minute period I consider crucial to the way you will perform.

What is this period actually about?

What purpose does it fulfil?

For me the period of time that you spend on the putting green should fulfil two vital goals: 1) you should leave with enhanced feel for the greens for that day, and 2) you should have increased your confidence in your ability to hole out from short range.

If you leave with those goals fulfilled you have spent your time wisely.

But is that what actually happens or have you just spent those vital minutes going through your normal ineffective motions? How many balls do you take onto the practice green with you? Do you take more than one? Do most of them actually miss?

Do you spend much time just hitting putts from 15 to 20 feet?

If, like the majority of golfers, you are nodding your head in answer to those questions, then that is great because you are almost certainly wasting your time.

Why is that great you say? Well, because it gives you a tremendous opportunity to look at your pattern and ask if you do actually go out aiming for those two goals. If you don't, then you can now do something different that may transform your scoring.

Let's take the first of our goals, to gain an enhanced 'feel'. Feel is a word that I hear constantly during my work . . . "my feel was great today" or "I just had no feel whatsoever".

It is always used, but I doubt many people truly understand what it means. I will give you my definition of feel with regards to putting.

Feel is the ability of your body to respond to the information given to it by your eyes. Think about that.

Let's look at some examples of feel; the cricketer runs along the boundary, picks up the ball, looks at the wicket-keeper and in an instant sends the ball into his gloves; the footballer looks up, picks a forward running into space and then sends a 40-yard diagonal ball to his feet on the run.

We look at the bin, roll up a piece of paper and throw it straight in. Our body has the ability to respond to information given by the eyes in terms of moving or throwing objects. Now the big difference with putting is the green itself. It is the critical variable because the pace of greens varies daily.

So if feel is about our body responding to information supplied by the eyes and the critical variable in golf is the green then what do we need to give our brain information about?

The green.

But when you go onto the putting green to practice, what is your brain going to focus on? The hole.

Every putt you hit simply will register as in or missed. At a subtle level, your brain is not receiving information about the critical variable.

You either holed it or you didn't.

Also, the golfer sends one ball out, leaves it short and then responds by sending the next ball out from the same place, adjusting slightly so that it gets closer . . . yet how many attempts at each putt do you get on the course?

If you wish to radically improve your feel before you play I would like to suggest this different approach.

Take one ball with you and stroke some long putts to the fringe . . . but do it with a difference.

Set yourself up and take one look at the fringe with your goal being to get the ball to rest exactly on the cut of grass. Repeat this from different locations. Each time your ball will either finish long, short or on.

When you have done this a number of times I want you again to set yourself up, look at the fringe, roll your ball but, without looking up, call long, short or on, then take a look to see if your call was correct.

What is this actually doing?

It puts all of your sense receptors on high alert, truly tuning into your feel. No longer is the goal to get the ball into the hole . . . which cuts off the sense of feel . . . the goal now is to actually sense what is going on. It's like the difference between someone who knows nothing about wine . . . and just drinks red or white . . . and a connoisseur, someone whose senses are to it are finely tuned and on high alert. For most people with putting, their senses have been dulled to the point of being anaesthetised, because they have mixed up the goal of holing the putt with developing feel and touch.

As you do this before you are arming your brain and body with the information it needs to deal with the challenges on the course. You have an incredible piece of machinery between your ears but you have to give it clear instructions or your results will continue to disappoint.

Next week we will look at the second key drill for holing more putts.

Become a Mental Game Coach Train with Dr Karl Morris and become a qualified NLP Sports Practitioner. Fiveday course runs in central Manchester 20 to 24 November 2006. Call 0161 633 6610 for details, www. golf-brain. com