miss 6 footers left and right

[payne7744]

(8hcp, edel putter)  is there a good grip and or stance to promote sbst stroke? I overlap now and just started to open my stance. I tend to take the putter back outside then finish inside or torward my left toe. opening my feet and trying to keep shoulders square seemed to help a little. a  short backswing with a pop stroke helps a little but im inconsistent a little left or right distance is fine. 56yrs old 5'9 "

and yes today I worked for 30min on straight 6' putts maybe missed a few more left than right, made only about 50% of the same putt over and over.  HELP!!!

[LuciusWooding]

You can try this drill:

-Address the ball, aligned at a target not too far away. In fact, 3-8 feet is probably best.

-Without any backswing at all, roll the ball smoothly at the cup and follow through like a normal putt. Keep your eyes glued to the spot the ball is placed even after it's gone and don't move your head.

If you do anything daft in your stroke you'll push or pull the ball but if you are aligning properly it will roll on the right line. Distance control is another matter, but it will help keep your followthrough on plane and promote a proper stroke. It's very hard to consistently do this drill without balance and stable wrists and using your body for power.

My brother, who is a better putter than me, always maintained that his only thought was making sure the blade was aligned perfectly at impact. It's hard to slice or hook a putt but you can certainly leave the blade open or shut if you're coming through the ball at a funny angle. Speed control and reading is probably more important to scoring, but if you miss much on your start line you have no margin for error and no chance of making it even if you do everything else perfectly.

[Pretzel]

My problems in putting arise when I let my lower body start to get active. This will most often occur after long lag putts where I will start to sway with my putts during the swing. To remedy this I will take two alignment rods and prop them up against my hips and the ground. This gives me instant feedback if my lower body starts to move since you'll feel extra pressure on one side.

This could just be me, but it's something you could try.

[Mr Smell Good]

I got one of those indoor putting mats from Sports Authority (or you can buy on amazon for like $45) and I really think it helps with keeping putts on line.  It's also fun to play with.  I notice I have putt better since buying it.

[saevel25]

The key to making short putts, is like every other putt

1) read the putt correctly

2) return the putter head to the ball consistently

3) Learn feel

I put them in this order because you can't have the third with out the first two. If your reading the greens wrong, you start trying to adapt by changing the speed. Lets say you under-read the putt. You might hit it harder because you need the speed to hold the line. If you over read, you might end up hitting it softer than you need to.

As for the 2nd, you can't  gain feel with out consistency.

For me its all about being consistent. Don't thinker if you suddenly have a bad putting day. Bad day's happen.

Also, get fitted for a putter, and work with someone who is willing to mess around with counterbalancing and adding weight to the clubhead. I added lead tap under my putter grip, it solidified my takeaway. I just needed more weight in the hands.

[mdl]

Obviously you know this fact, but I thought I'd throw it out there.  With the two way miss, are you sure you're not getting a little wristy?  Even with the crosshand grip this is possible.

This is inspired by the fact that one of my occasional golf partners has a typical clearly athletic but solidly mechanically mediocre swing but is a lifelong athlete with great feel on green-side shots and usually an excellent putting stroke, so can sometimes put together rounds with much better scores than you might think just from watching him hit tee and approach shots on a random day.  One round I was playing with him recently he was complaining that his putting stroke had suddenly disappeared and he was hitting big two way misses on lag putts and embarrassingly big misses on 3-8 foot putts.

I watched him for a few holes where he again hit some ugly two way misses and I noticed he was getting really wristy.  I pointed this out to him and he went back to the putt he'd just missed (no one behind us luckily) and suddenly hit three in a row from 25-30 feet, made one and missed the other two just by inches.  Had his great putting back for the rest of the round.

[saevel25]

Obviously you know this fact, but I thought I'd throw it out there.  With the two way miss, are you sure you're not getting a little wristy?  Even with the crosshand grip this is possible.

This is inspired by the fact that one of my occasional golf partners has a typical clearly athletic but solidly mechanically mediocre swing but is a lifelong athlete with great feel on green-side shots and usually an excellent putting stroke, so can sometimes put together rounds with much better scores than you might think just from watching him hit tee and approach shots on a random day.  One round I was playing with him recently he was complaining that his putting stroke had suddenly disappeared and he was hitting big two way misses on lag putts and embarrassingly big misses on 3-8 foot putts.

I watched him for a few holes where he again hit some ugly two way misses and I noticed he was getting really wristy.  I pointed this out to him and he went back to the putt he'd just missed (no one behind us luckily) and suddenly hit three in a row from 25-30 feet, made one and missed the other two just by inches.  Had his great putting back for the rest of the round.

I wouldn't consider wristy a bad thing. Look at Arnold Palmer, Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus. All of them had very wrist action compared to today. Do what works, if its an issue fix it, if not don't.

[WUTiger]

A true SBST stroke would require an excellent pendulum action of the arms and shoulders. If you rotate your shoulders horizontally, this could lead to pushes and pulls.

Also, make sure you have an even-tempo acceleration through the ball. I got a putting analysis at a pro golf tournament this summer, and I was not accelerating through the ball properly. I have worked on the acceleration, and am getting much better direction and distance control - 1 foot clean-up putts rather than 6-footers.

You might look up some threads on SBST. Also, female pro Debbie Steinbach wrote a short-game book which recommends SBST for both putting and chipping. (Book is called Venus on the Short Game , or something like that).,

[iacas]

A true SBST stroke would require an excellent pendulum action of the arms and shoulders. If you rotate your shoulders horizontally, this could lead to pushes and pulls.

An arcing stroke has a good pendulum-like action as well, and virtually nobody has an SBST stroke.

Also, make sure you have an even-tempo acceleration through the ball.

Please don't accelerate through the ball with your putter. There are few commonalities among the game's best putters, but reaching peak speed at or BEFORE the golf ball is one of them. The age-old "accelerate through the ball" for putting is detrimental and leads to poor distance control.

[Linkman]

Long putts are often missed 6 feet past the hole or 6 feet short. They are rarely missed 6 feet left or right. Read the putt but concentrate more on the distance/length. This will take your mind off technique and avoid a lot of three putts.

[iacas]

Long putts are often missed 6 feet past the hole or 6 feet short. They are rarely missed 6 feet left or right. Read the putt but concentrate more on the distance/length. This will take your mind off technique and avoid a lot of three putts.

Thanks, but that's not really the topic.

[TourSpoon]

An outside to inside stroke is not one that is very reliable or prescribed by too many, unless you are a fan of Billy Mayfair who really cuts his putts. You want to have a more inside to dtl or inside to inside arc path that is smooth. The old pop stroke was something needed for the bumpy greens of yesteryear and is not needed for putting on modern greens. Try this drill to correct the path. Setup with the ball on the heel and make a stroke that contacts the putter face in the center. This will exaggerate the path needed for consistency.

[newtogolf]

Erik is much more qualified than I am on Edel putters so just throwing this out there.... The benefit to Edel putters is they are fit to the way you putt.  If you're changing your putting method, is it possible the putter is no longer fit properly for you and needs to be adjusted?

[payne7744]

I was fit for the edel 6mo. ago, I know I needed to be fit after the fitting, my putters couldn't be adjusted because I was aimed so far left, and believed I was aimed perfect (until he showed me where the laser pointed) my distance is on putts is fine and my edel is good.   I am also putting the same way I did at the fitting, but practicing on 4 to 6' straight putts over and over and over the same putt and missing half of them on either side is not acceptable. so without completely changing my stroke (again) is there a simple way to fix the slight out to in path? (not as bad as mayfair but I know its there)  the thing that confuses me is im close but on each side, not a consistant miss on the same putt.

[iacas]

Post a video of your setup and stroke from FO and DL. Your stroke might just be terrible. It sounds likely that you need to work on that.

[PirateJim]

I probably don't have your answer, but I've been wrestling with the same symptom for the last month or so.  I also do not have a straight back, straight through stroke, being more of a "square to the arc" putter, as Utley describes it.  That said, there isn't that much arc on six footers so we aren't too far off.  For me, I believe it is mostly a loss of confidence in my stroke that has led to thinking about my stroke as I make it.  This, for me, is a killer.

Here's what I'm working on, it seems to be helping, but I don't think I'm cured completely yet:

1 - Align with the eyes over the putter to make confirm line.

2 - Set up square to the putter blade, for me this seems to move my eyes back a couple of inches, and double check the alignment looks okay.

3 - Make a smooth and pretty short backswing, then think only of 'tossing' the ball toward the cup gently. You can no doubt do this thinking of either the back of your left or your right hand, but I think of a sort of underhanded right hand move toward the cup without really thinking any more about the 'stroke' than that.

This seems to be helping a lot, but I am planning to spend a good bit more time on the practice green in the next week or so working at it.  Time on the practice green knocking in putts is probably the best cure for a confidence problem.  And misses on both sides could be just that.

[newtogolf]

One thing that I tried after reading "Putting Out of Your Mind" by Dr. Bob Rotella is the following practice drill.  Line up your putt as you normally would, but instead of looking at the ball when you make your putting stroke, look at your target.  The drill is supposed to prevent you from making any last second hand adjustments which you shouldn't have to using SBST on a 6' putt if you're lined up correctly.

At first it feels really awkward but after practicing a few times, it starts to feel more familiar and the results are much better than I would have expected.