God I hate putting

[WUTiger]

GrahamD,

Lots of good ideas from other posters. I have some specific suggestions:

* Take a shortgame-putting lesson . Have someone work with your set-up. Three basic forms of putting are hands, forearms and shoulders. Hands relies most on feel, shoulders on mechanics. You may have picked up a combination of styles which work against each other and prevent you from rolling it in . A lesson can tell you where you're at, and where you need to go.

Note: to maximize your lesson, you need to practice several times in the following days.

* Get a putter tune-up . After the putting lesson, have your putter adjusted by a clubfitter. I won a putter fitting at Golf Galaxy, and found my putter was an inch too long (already knew it), one degree too upright, loft a bit low, and a very light C7 swingweight. Anyway, after these adjustments, I quit missing so many putts to the left, and started hitting more 8-10 footers.

* Review mental approach . I tend to putt better when I'm non-verbal. No self-talk or swing thoughts on putts. I just envision the ball breaking and going into the hole, and then hit it.

[Tomboys]

You're a much better than average player, so there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with your abilities. As such, it sounds to me like you have the yips with the putter. From what I understand, it's caused by the player putting too much emphasis on making that putt, so they end up being too mechanical and lose their rhythm/tempo. It's at this point that your stroke gets all herky jerky.

Try this drill for a bit. When you make your practice swings, think of the sound that a metronome makes--one beat when you're at the top of your backswing and one beat as it impacts where the ball would be in your stance. Be sure that the length of your follow through matches the length of your backswing. Continue to swing your putter back and forth from backswing to follow through and each time try to time the top of your backswing and impact with a rhythmic one, one count.

Go to a practice green and throw down a few balls about 5' from the hole. Stand either behind or next to where your ball is and practice the length of stroke you think you need in order to get the ball to the hole. When you practice that stroke, be sure to use the above drill to match the rhythmic one, one count. From there, take your alignment and hit the putt with your eyes closed. Each time you hit a putt, say out load where you think the ball ended up (short left, long right, etc.). Look up to see where the ball is. If it's short, then you'll know that you need to lengthen your stroke. If it's too long, then you'll know that your need to shorten your stroke. Repeat the drill with balls that are about 10' from the hole.

The key here is to put the rhythm back into your putting stroke. Once you've regained the feel portion of your putting stroke, you can work on the mechanics again to make sure the ball rolls on the intended line you've selected.

[billysandy]

Wow that's some score. I probaby haven't ever had as many putts as that. And i have an 18 handicap! Have you ever thought of buying a new putter to get any more confidence, or just to distract you from your pooor putting? Would you say you have a quick putting routine, or a slow one?

[Stretch]

Feel your pain. I average 2.2 putts per GIR and my most recent low rounds were 84 and 85 with 39 putts each time. Don't feel like I have a block though, just a chronic lack of practice. In my uninformed opinion, lag putting is the key thing to work on if you want to suffer through fewer three jacks.

[imtomtomim]

Seriously buddy, don't feel bad. I'm in the exact same boat. The only times I make one putts are if I have a chip up, or if I knock down a flag with my approach. Otherwise, I live by 3 putts haha. My driving is acceptable, but my iron play is by far my best aspect hitting at least 13 greens a round. Get this, I shot +2 last week, 4 bogeys, all from 3 putts, 2 birdies. Too bad those birdies were actually eagle attempts and I had at least 10 tries at birdie beyond those eagle putts. It kills me. Maybe I need to look around for a good putting teacher because I spend a good amount of my practice on the greens, it's just frustrating.

I'd spend a lot of time putting if I were you, you don't want to be me. I thought, if I could hit more greens, I don't need to putt well! But now, I'm getting very close to making par a norm, but I can't make any putts.

Just wondering, what do you guys do to get your putting going again? I was a very good putter last season and I'd at least make a handful of one putts from over 20 ft each round, but this year, I've maybe only had 3 or 4 putts from that long. I just can't seem to figure it out.

[Deryck Griffith]

That is an amazing score with the amount of putts that you made! Keep your head up and I would suggest 1. getting fitted (as WUTiger mentioned) and 2. practicing your lag putting.

A lot of poor putters put WAY to much emphasis on making putts rather than controlling the actual "distance or lag" of the putt. In the last year, I made it a point to soley practicing my distance control on putts from 20, 30, 40, 50 feet away. With this approach and hrs and hrs of ONLY practicing and focusing on distance control, I have become a fantastic lag putter which has given me the confidence in two putting no matter where I am on the green. The great thing is that when I do find myself 10 feet or less away, it feels so close (LOL) and I am confident that I can sink it from that distance (which is the only distance where I REALLY focus on getting it in the hole).

I am sure that when you are say 20 feet away, you press and focus so much on making the putt which causes you to guide the put rather than natually just get it there. Give yourself a 2-3 month goal and within that time period, practice practice and practice some more, your lag putting and I am sure you will see improvements.

[GrahamD]

I am sure that when you are say 20 feet away, you press and focus so much on making the putt which causes you to guide the put rather than natually just get it there. Give yourself a 2-3 month goal and within that time period, practice practice and practice some more, your lag putting and I am sure you will see improvements.

You hit the nail on the head there my friend, this is exactly what I do and I walways end up leaving myself a 10 footer back to save par.

Btw guys thank you all very much for all the tips, I didn't expect to get this much feedback, I still havn't played since last sunday because I have school exams this week but summer starts this friday for me and I will be heading down to the putting green to try out these drills you guys have advised, Graham

[saevel25]

There is something i remember from a friend, he said, you get to wrapped up on the line and forget to hit the putt. I did it one night, it was an easy 12 footer, and i leave it 3 feet short, if i hit it, it would be dead center in the cup.

Just practic putting. Putt at intervales, 3,6,9,12,15,18,21 feet, something like that. Get to know these distances. Practice them down hill and up hill.

[McGolf-Doggie]

I wondered what all the little bitty brown bits were on the green, and then they stuck to the ball.

Putting in organic poopy fertilizer. (There was no sign on the green, and with my questionable eyesight, it looked just a bit fuzzy and spotty.)

I still love putting,... but I got out of there a little sooner than normal, and cleaned my Pentas. Just have to be sure not to wipe my face with that, er, corner of the towel!!

[ks8829]

Putting is two parts
1) distance control
2) hitting a straight putt.

I love putting and it currently my strongest part of my game, my average is 30 putts for 18 holes.

The distance control is easy to control with keeping the same follow through on all putts and judge the distance with the lenght of my back stroke.

For straight putts, I keep my putter head low to the ground and my follow through I focus on keeping the putter face square to the target. a great drill is using string with stakes on both ends and putting down the line.

[andef]

I think it's a lot more fun that people think. I have been struggling with my putting since starting to play and have recently improved significantly.
Working on my technique has allowed me to improve the roll of the ball and a lot more putts are starting to drop. In a few of the final rounds of the year I had 28 putts, something that never happened to me.
The way I look at it is that putting is the hardest thing to the right. You need good speed and line to make putts but experience really helps you out. My suggestion is to go out and practice, your stroke and your putting as a whole will see the benefits.

[andy-golf]

I sometimes pull my putts when im amming straight it is very frustrating at times

[ash]

What about your irons into the greens... yes, putting needs work... but it seems to me that even though your long game is 'on', you are not getting close with your approach shots, to give yourself a 'certain' (if there ever is such a thing) 2-putt.
I have found that when my long game is 'on' I tend to have more putts, as I am leaving myself longer putts on the green. When my irons aren't going well, then I end up missing the green, and chipping to much closer to the hole, so my putting stats drop. And my total score tends to even out...
Just a thought....

[noefi13b]

I second the recommendation of a book by Bob Rotella, "Putting out of your mind". It talks about, and expands on many of the suggestions in the thread...

From a mental point of view he suggests putting like you are going to make them all but not caring if you do....

From a technical point of view I'm certainly not an expert but something that really helped me was focusing on the spot where the ball was for at least 1 second after impact, longer if I could help it... Helped on all putts, long, short, straight or breaking. On short putts I really try not to move my head at all until I hear the ball go into the cup.

Best of luck!