Perfecting Your Putt or at least get better at it

There’s no doubt about it. The putt is paramount to a good game of golf. Your drives may well be straight and long, but if your short game isn’t holding up, you’ll soon be frustrated which will affect your entire game. It’s said that the average player takes two-thirds of his/her total shots from less than 100 feet from the hole. Although it’s no easier to perfect your putt than other parts of your game, there are certainly things you should know and practice to “better” your putt and therefore improve your game overall. In an 18-hole round of golf, there are an “allotted” 36 putts per round, but better players actually putt an average of 32 per round. Make this your goal and continually keep tabs on where you’re at in reaching it. But first, let’s look at the basics. The Grip: Using your hands as a unit when holding your putter is important so that one hand doesn’t dominate the other. A quick tip to remember to keep your hands together is to make sure you can only see the top of one thumb (your lower hand) when you make your grip. Although it comes down to personal preference, more often than not golfers focus their grip more in their fingers than their palms. Think Pendulums: When putting, you must use both your arms and shoulders as one unit, like a swinging pendulum. When you use them all in unison, your wrists are less likely to bend, which is what produces inconsistent results. When you keep your “pendulum” swinging evenly, your upper body will become more engaged in your stroke, and therefore turn out smoother strokes. Whether you have a long or short putt, the same rhythm ought to be used for both; long putts don’t need to be long, slow strokes, and short putts shouldn’t be quick, swift strokes. The key is to maintain a similar stroke speed for all your putts, and simply adjust your “count” as needed, based on the length of the putt, and keep it equal on both ends—for example, on a longer putt, you may count 1-2-3 on your back stroke, then mirror that on your follow-through—1-2-3. Also be sure to keep your shoulders down, and to not lift them. When you lift your shoulders and thus your putter, you lose a sense of your putting arc, which then leads to a whole host of problems. Instead your shoulders should rock from side to side. Again, think of your shoulders and arms as a pendulum—all one unit. Practice without Looking Practicing with your eyes closed is a great way to retrain your body and mind to get used to making smooth, pendulum-like putting strokes. Simply set up your ball, look at the path your ball will follow to the hole, judge the distance, then close your eyes and swing! Then open your eyes and judge the results. Keep practicing until you can gauge the length of the putt with your eyes closed. This will, in turn, help train the body to recognize how hard to stroke a putt from varying lengths from the hole. Practicing the Straight Putt Let’s start with the basics and practice a “straight” putt. Take 10 balls and line up your putt about 4 feet from the hole. Make sure the putter head is going straight back and that it continues straight through. Also make sure your putter face is square to your line on the hole at all times. Not keeping your putter square is a common mistake and takes a lot of work and concentration to correct. However, when you get it right, it will greatly pay off. Set yourself a goal for the number of putts that you can hole in a row. Gradually increase this goal until you can get up to 50. If you miss one, start all over and see if you can do better! This teaches you how to putt under pressure, because as you reach the 40s —you don’t want to start at one again—so you must make a good stroke. The secondary benefit of this practice method is to your subconscious. As you hole putt after putt at this distance, your confidence escalates and you have less and less fear of these putts. Practicing a Breaking Putt If you’re faced with a breaking putt—a putt that is not a straight line to the hole—it’s imperative that you visualize the path the ball will need to follow to make the putt. So now you need to visualize the hole, as well as the path. If you focus only on the hole, your ball will more than likely not curve enough to make it in. Also, since a breaking putt is always longer in length than the actual distance between you and the hole, rehearse your stroke for the length of the putt with the break, not the length you are from the hole. So practice, practice and then practice some more. In fact, putting can be practiced without ever leaving your home. Drop the ball in your living room or back yard, square up and get in some valuable practice time that you’ll soon reap the rewards from once you’re actually on the course! Just keep this in mind: touring pros only make about 50 percent of their 6-foot putts, so the average golfer shouldn’t get too frustrated when their percentage is lower than this. However, if you start making 50 percent or more of your putts, maybe you should consider going pro!