Come Have Some FUN on March 7th!

A few tips on putting to help you prepare!

Re- Post and update of Blog from December 2016

Basics for the tournament golfer may look like this long laborious process: Hushed whisper....

1. You start from behind the hole, walking around and looking at your putt from a few feet behind the hole gives you a better perspective on what’s going to happen.

2. Evaluate left-to-right/right-to-left break. While you’re behind the hole take a look at the turf on both sides of the cup. Which side is higher? Reading the slope at the hole will give you a great idea of how your putt will break when it begins to slow down. Look at the cup, what direction does the grass seem to be growing to help determine speed.

3. Evaluate uphill-downhill break. As you are walking back towards your ball stop about half way and evaluate the slope of the green between your ball and the cup. Is the hole above your ball? Below your ball? Even with it?

4. Commit to your line. Stand behind your ball, choose your final line, and don’t second guess yourself. Make a confident stroke and focus on executing your plan.

5. Evaluate your results. If you sink your putt it’s time for a fist pump, but if you miss all is not lost. Take a moment to note how your putt broke and make any mental adjustments necessary to improve

Only you can decide what works for you, but the more you do should settle you and enable you to make putts. A method for the sake of having a method is a complete waste of time, there must be a benefit.

While what was outplayed above has great stuff, don't feel hamstrung to do it if it doesn't feel right to you. Next time you are out, grab a few balls drop them on the green in different locations and just try to determine the right length and break of the putt by getting the feel of it when you stroke the ball. You may find that for you just simply feeling the putt after basic green reading and starting the ball on the right line may cut strokes off your score and time to boot!

Now you can take ONE BALL, (stop standing in one spot with a bucket of range balls. Your brain is dis-engaged and you are really learning nothing- you can practice stoke mechanics, tempo and feel with ONE BALL while duplicating how we actually putt in a game). Also get your ball marker and go through your your own routine of placing the marker, reading the green, taking your brush strokes and putting from say 15 ft until the ball goes in the hole to re-create the 'feeling' of an actual putt in a round of golf. Do that a few times to end your session, the emphasis still being on feeling the stroke. Always remember there is only one compound fundamental in putting- starting the ball on the intended line and working on SPEED. We measure our students using Blast Motion to dial in the right tempo- the proverbial 2 to 1 ratio, but we are not robots. The key in using metrics is to have consistency.

These suggestions will help you become a better putter if you create and learn to trust your process.

I know you will enjoy the Putting at the Plex series as I know you enjoyed the 2 Closest to the Pin competitions that have been held so far, with one more slated before the end of winter.