In the present study, an attempt was made to examine two types of pre-performance routines on the acquisition, retention, and transfer of a golf putting skill. Participants (N=48) consisted of male and female students from a college in Western Massachusetts and were randomly assigned to of the three groups: specific pre-performance routines (SPR); self-developed routines (SDR); and control with an equal number of males (n=10) and females (n=6) in each group. The task involved in putting golf balls toward a target. A pretest involving 5 trials of putting performance without KR was administered to all participants. Shortly following the pretest, participants in each group were asked to observe a skillful demonstration of the putting skill and then to perform 25 putts from a distance of 15 ft under their respective pre-performance routine condition. In the acquisition phase, participants in the SPR group were required to follow the five-step pre-performance routines (Singer, 1986) prior to each putt. Participants in the SDR were asked to develop their own pre-performance routines based on cues before each attempt. Those participants in the control group were not asked to engage in any kind of pre-performance routines. A retention test was conducted 5 min after the completion of acquisition trials with the procedures similar to those used on the pretest. Shortly after the retention test, a transfer test involving 5 trials of putting performance from a distance of 20 ft was administered to all participants. A 3 x 2 (Groups x Tests) analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures was used to determine group differences in putting performance on both the pretest and the retention test. A 3 x 5 (Groups x Trial Blocks) ANOVA with repeated measures was also employed to examine group differences in putting accuracy on the acquisition trials. A separate 3 x 5 (Groups x Trials) ANOVA with repeated measures was conducted to analyze transfer performance. The participants in the SPR group were found to have significantly (p<.05) higher putting accuracy scores over the acquisition trial blocks than those in the control group. The participants in the SDR group, however, were found to have significantly (p<.05) higher putting accuracy scores than those in both the SPR and the control groups on the transfer trials. These findings suggest that the five-step pre-performance routines enhance skill acquisition whereas the self-developed pre-performance routines promote transfer of skill learning.