Help With Putting

The Golf Blogger is a deadly putter. A three-putt is such a rare event that when one does occur, it causes much comment from his playing partners. (If it were not for this, the Golf Blogger would be a high-handicapper, indeed).

As a high school golf coach, I’ve notice that what kills most players is not the line, but the distance. In order to be an effective putter, your first putt has to—at the very least—end up in the “gimmie” range.

My pro friend says to imagine a two foot circle around the hole, and just try to get it into that area. From there, it will be a tap in.

Even with this visual, controlling the speed of the putt is key. One way to help is to know your putting distances, just as you know the distances with your clubs.

Here’s a tip that I’ve used with my players (especially my new girl players who want to “stab” at the ball):

Take a couple of ball markers and put them a few inches apart. Then, put the ball outside of, but centered between the markers. Take the club back to the first marker, and then stroke through the ball, finishing on the second marker. Try it a couple of times, and the note how far the ball goes with another ball marker.

Then, move the markers a couple more inches apart. Note the distance again.

Keep doing this until you are making long stroke lag putts.

This will not only give you the correct distances for each stroke, but also will help you with the (generally accepted) technique of making the backstroke and forward stroke the same distance.