Improve Your Putting Accuracy with the Toll Booth Drill

The Toll Booth Drill is a simple way to sharpen one of the most important skills in putting: starting the ball on your intended line. A lot of missed putts are blamed on green reading or pace, but many of them actually begin with a poor start direction. If the ball does not leave the putter face on the line you chose, the read never has a chance to work. This drill gives you immediate feedback by forcing the ball to pass through a narrow gate just after impact. When you can consistently roll the ball through that gate, you know your start line is improving and your reads become much more trustworthy.

How the Drill Works

To set up the drill, place two tees in the ground a short distance in front of your ball, creating a narrow gate, or “toll booth,” that the ball must roll through. The space between the tees should be only slightly wider than the golf ball—roughly a quarter inch to a half inch of clearance on each side. That gives you enough room for the ball to pass through cleanly, but not enough to hide a poor start line.

Before you hit the putt, go through your normal process of reading the green and choosing your starting line. The gate should be positioned on that intended line. If your read is correct and you deliver the putter face properly, the ball will roll through the toll booth and begin on the path you selected.

This is what makes the drill so useful: it separates start line from everything else. If the ball clips a tee, you know the issue happened right at the beginning of the putt. If the ball goes through the gate but still misses, then your attention can shift to green reading or speed control. In other words, the drill helps you identify whether the problem is your stroke, your read, or your pace.

Step-by-Step

Choose a putt with some break. A straight putt works too, but a breaking putt makes the purpose of the drill even clearer because you must commit to a true starting line.
Read the putt first. Decide where you want the ball to begin. Pick the line you believe will allow the ball to track toward the hole.
Set the toll booth. Place two tees just in front of the ball on your chosen start line. Make the gate only slightly wider than the ball.
Address the putt normally. Do not change your setup just because the gate is there. Use your usual posture, alignment, and routine.
Roll the ball through the gate. Your goal is not just to make the putt. Your first job is to start the ball cleanly through the toll booth.
Watch what happens next. If the ball passes through the gate and tracks well, your start line was solid. If it misses the hole after that, the more likely issue is pace or read.
Repeat from different distances and slopes. Practice on left-to-right putts, right-to-left putts, and flatter putts so you learn to trust your start line under different conditions.

What You Should Feel

When you do this drill well, the stroke should feel simple and centered. You are not trying to steer the ball through the gate with your hands. Instead, you want the putter to swing naturally while the face returns square to your intended start line.

Pay attention to these checkpoints:

Commitment to the line: You should feel clear about where the ball is supposed to start before you pull the trigger.
A quiet face through impact: The putter should not feel overly manipulated or flipped with the hands.
Centered contact: Solid contact helps the ball come off the face predictably and hold its intended line.
A clean launch: The ball should appear to leave the face smoothly and roll through the center of the gate, not squeeze through one side.

If the ball consistently passes through the middle of the toll booth, that is a strong sign that your face control and start direction are improving. At that point, you can begin to focus more confidently on matching the speed to the read.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Making the gate too wide: If there is too much space, the drill loses its value. Keep it narrow enough to challenge your precision.
Skipping the read: The drill is not just about hitting through tees. You need to choose a real start line first.
Aiming at the hole instead of the start line: On breaking putts, those are not the same thing. Train your eyes and stroke to match the line you actually selected.
Trying to guide the putter: Steering usually creates tension and poor face control. Let the stroke stay athletic and repeatable.
Ignoring pace completely: Start line is the focus, but speed still matters. Once the ball goes through the gate, it still needs proper pace to finish near or in the hole.
Changing your setup to avoid the tees: The drill should improve your real stroke, not create a temporary one just for practice.

How This Fits Your Swing

Good putting is a blend of read, start line, and speed. The Toll Booth Drill strengthens the middle piece of that equation. It teaches you whether you can actually launch the ball on the line you see. That is a critical skill because even a perfect read is useless if the ball starts offline.

This drill also helps you become a better problem solver on the green. If the ball misses the gate, the stroke needs attention. If it rolls through the gate but misses low or high, the read may be off. If it starts correctly and holds the line but finishes short or long, then pace becomes the issue. That kind of clarity makes your practice much more effective.

In the bigger picture, this drill builds trust. When you know you can start the ball where you intend, you can read putts with more confidence and make more committed strokes. Over time, that leads to better distance control, fewer second guesses, and more putts that track on line from the moment they leave the face.