1.   Use the practice green to guage speed and work on distance control. Distance control (sometimes called speed control) should be the focus when practicing putting.

2.   Hit your putts at a ball marker, not at a hole, to start with. Don't immediately try to make putts - simply roll the ball toward a ball marker you've put down about six feet away. Think about the stroke and centering the ball on the putter face.

3.   Set down distance markers and alternate putting to different distances. Set ball markers, clubs or some other markers at 10-foot intervals, out to 30 feet. Alternate hitting balls to the different distances.

4.   Hit from one side of the green to the other to practice long putts. Making a 70-footer is something we're very unlikely to do, it doesn't make sense to aim at the cup. You'll only be disappointed when the ball doesn't go in.

5.   Practice making putts, not missing them. Putt from no more than six feet out, and preferably around four feet out. Even the pros make only about half their 6-footers. If you're practicing 15-footers, you're only hurting your confidence.

6.   Putt on a flat part of the practice green. On a practice green, you want to practing making putts. That means putting from a short distance - and on a flat part of the green. Short, flat putts are the ones you have to make to get better.

7.   Always end your practice session by making short putts. Don't walk off the green on a miss. Force yourselve to make five or six putts in a row to end the session - even if you have to putt from 6 inches to do it.

Also

Visualize to stay positive. Confidence plays a huge role in putting. As you stand over putts on the practice green, visualize a trough leading from your putter to the cup and imagine hearing the sound of the ball dropping into the cup.

Put down a chalk line to practice keeping your putter on-line. You can find a chalk line in a hardware store - it's that string carpenters snap to a surface to leave a chalk imprint.

Practice keeping your putter on line and hitting the sweet spot in your living room. Use an alignment tool (a ruler, for instance) and putting aids you can buy to affix to your putter's head that will help with centering the stroke.