A Putting Secret

During our recent drought conditions, greens were not as smooth as I would have liked and I suffered with inconsistency. Put more bluntly my putting average was closer to three than it was to one.

In desperation I was searching for the silver bullet amongst the many golf videos available for free on the internet.

Was my grip wrong, my stance misaligned, my head not over the ball correctly, was I moving my head, legs, feet and anything else that might cause the misses? At least, those problems that were possibly within my control to fix. 

 I came across an interesting video about distance control. Now here was something slightly different. The instructor talked about the likelihood of a 3-putt being higher IF you missed the distance by more than 3 feet, no matter how good you had read the line of the putt. In my case sometimes read 10 feet +!!

THE FIX

Recent rains finally have seen real growth in the greens and are starting to smooth out the imperfections. So that’s a variable unchallenged on the positive side. The ball is definitely rolling more smoothly.

So what I am doing. I line up the ball with the ball mark I have drawn to what I think is the apex of the curve to the hole. Then I set up for a practice stroke*. 

Looking only at the hole (or actually the imaginary hole using the previously read line) I swing the putter back and through multiple times until I feel I have the correct length of backswing to allow my pendulum stroke to get the ball to roll just past the hole (I’m fairly deadly from 12 inches on a smooth green!!) When I have the feel locked-in, I address the ball and hit it with the same stroke as last practiced. I may not even take time to look at the hole again. After all, I lined up my ball before this action began.

The results have been consistently great in the last week or so. I am finding that even if I have mis-read the line, because I have the distance under control, I am still getting inside the 3-foot circle. 

I think many misjudged approach putts happen because we get second thoughts when we are about to make the stroke. We lose the rhythm of the pendulum with a last-minute burst of energy to get the ball up the slope for instance (or vice versa where we decelerate for the speedy downhill situations). This creates a choppy or weak strike that causes the ball to jump rather than roll or even worse, you hit the ground behind the ball, with the result being that you come up at least 6 foot short. I am guilty of all these things so perhaps in presenting this Fix you too can benefit from this fairly simple approach.

Cameron Smith’s perfectly weighted putt doesn’t fall despite his attempt at magick to wish the ball to his left with this dramatic finishing gesture.

 *Being conscious of the Pace of Play drive by the authorities, I will line up my ball and try some of these practice swing routine when it is not yet my turn to play. Unless, of course, by placing my ball I may be causing interference to a playing partner, in which case I will have to wait my turn.