BADLY need putting improvement

[Neil]

Read Stan Utley's "The Art of Putting".

There is no better advice than this. Utley's book is superb.

[sonicblue]

Following is sonicblue's PATH to better putting:

Plan: Simply put, it's reading the putt. Do yourself a favor, do NOT kill yourself on the read. You're already watching all chips and approaches (right??) to see how they roll. Without stalking it like Tiger at Augusta, see it from each side of the cup. Decide on a line and try to think of a speed.

Align: Simply put, align yourself to your chosen line. Realize, however, when you align/address the ball, you have - RIGHT THEN - chosen a line. You don't put (side)spin on a putt, you hit it square to your body line, so when the body is set up, direction is determined. Do not take this step lightly. I like to imagine I'm a little robot, set up in the perfect putting posture, and all I'm doing is rotating my robot-self to point in the right direction.

Trust: There isn't a good putter out there who skips this step, while many a poor putter does. You've read the putt, you chose a line, you've aligned to it, now think about this: If you didn't really believe you were lined up right, or had read the putt right, would you really still hit it? A bad putter believes that, somehow, he can correct for those things (i.e., "I think I underread it, I'm going to push it a little more right."). He pushes the putt, which he either does too much or too little, because who can judge how to push a putt?? Worse, IMHO, he'll find he had, in fact, read it correctly, and it was only the 'parallax effect' that made him question the read to begin with. More complicating is, the after-thought is usually, "gah, I pushed that!" when, honestly, the mistake was long before the physical error.

What a good putter does differently is, 1) if he really believes his first two steps are inaccurate (the plan or the alignment), he stops and starts over, OR 2) if he believes the plan and the alignment, he fully believes and trusts the putting stroke he's about to make.

Hit: Poor putters do not get to this step. Or, more accurately, poor putters never get to the SIMPLICITY of the step; they're still doing steps #1 and #2 DURING this step. The putting stroke is so simple, it hurts! When a good putter completes step #3, their mind is completely free. They are truly doing nothing but just hitting the ball.


The most important part of this process is, when one step is complete it's FORGOTTEN. After your read, don't question it. Once you're aligned, that's it. And once you've achieved full trust in the shot, just hit it. If you ever get hung up/overlapped, START OVER. However, in my experience, when you get really good at it (and you're not playing for the Open title), your putting process will go even faster, because you won't doubt or waste time.

Everyone can use some practice on putter grip and stroke, but it will all be for naught if you never get the head for putting. I can personally, and honestly, say that this technique has changed my putting, much more so than any physical improvement to my stroke. Moreover, I have become much more aware of why I miss putts, and much more able to get that part of my game back on track when it goes awry.

Next time you miss a 4-footer, be honest with yourself: what were you thinking when you hit it? There's been a lot of talk of both Vijay and Camilo adopting the philosophy of telling themselves, "I'm one of the best putters in the world." Coincidence they both cashed serious ching yesterday? The believing is what makes the difference.

[Jay-Bird]

Learn how to read greens. A perfectly struck putt will never go in if your line is wrong.

[erwintrace08]

This is great advice! I try to do this as well, but never thought to relay that information to anybody. If you can do this well, your lags will leave you with tap in 2 putts.

Thanks! It totally works. I'm really bad at reading greens, so try to focus on the lag and speed. But the tips above are very helpful on reading and I'll check those out too.

e

[brandon_mcg]

i'll take 4 balls, i place the 1st ball at 3' away the 2nd at 4' the 3rd at 5' and the 4th at 6'

i'll put until i miss and then start over beginning back at 3'
i do this on all 4 sides of the hole, its a similar approach to what dave s was saying in his post with a slight variation.

I very rarely get past the 5' putt so i'm consistently re-hitting the 3' and 4' putts which should be gimme's unless the put is rainbowing, etc.

i usually do 5 rounds on each side of the hole and keep up with my best score from each side and try to keep up with it until the next time i go out.

like i said its very similar to dave s's approach

[Guest]

Relax your neck & shoulders, keep your eyes down.