Good Putting.com

Relaxing is the key to good putting

When you’re on , you’re on.  The world is your oyster.  When you’re off… well, it seems even a preschooler has more of a chance to get the ball in the hole than you do.

You’d swear you have the same stance, the same putter, the same “feel” as the times you made the shot easily.  What happened?

Is putting merely a game of luck?

Not a chance.  It may seem that there’s no real key to putting successfully.  And granted, putting isn’t an exact science.

But if you’re having a poor game due to putting problems, it all can be summed up in one simple word.

Tension.

The more you relax your muscles during your putting, the more accurate your shots will be.

You make the game hard for yourself when you stiffen your muscles.  The basis of good putting, as with all other shots, is absolute relaxation of the muscles.  Fluid movement allows for perfect freedom and play.  If you’re trying to brace yourself to keep your balance, you’re courting disaster.

When you’re putting well, your movement is free and your confidence high.  The second you miss an easy putt, you become anxious and brace yourself to try more carefully.  The more you brace yourself, the worse the tension in your body becomes.  Consequently, your putting suffers.

You can change putters, change your stance, and mimic every pro player you’ve ever watched.  But it all comes down to loosening up.  Make your muscles go flabby and limp, loose and free.  Pretend your muscles are jelly.

Tension kills good shots.  When you furrow your brow and set your muscles in a rigid fashion, you lose the freedom necessary in successful putting.  Now you may make several shots in a row, but the time will come that no matter what you try, nothing seems to work.  That’s the time to gelatin-ize your body.  Relax your whole body as if you’re about to fall to the ground.  (But stay standing!)

The extra bonus here is that as you use this method of relaxation and putt more successfully, your confidence will increase and you’ll be even more relaxed on the green.

Loosening those muscles really is the magic bullet when it comes to putting!

The majority of the game of golf is putting - pure and simple.

It looks so easy - rolling that little ball into a nearby hole.  But mastering the skill has threatened many a golfer’s sanity.

Here are a few quick tips to help improve your putting skills this year.

• When practicing use one ball instead of your whole bag.  This is what really happens on the course so practice this way.

• Lock your wrists.  When holding your putter your palms face each other.  This prevents one hand from being dominant over another.  Your wrists should have no movement at all.

• Make sure you’re totally relaxed before you strike the ball.  Your muscles should have no tension in them at all.  All the work should be done with a rotation around your shoulders.

• Make sure your follow through is longer than your backstroke.  This ensures that you are accelerating through contact with your ball.

• Relax your knees a little.  Don’t lock up.  Think of an athletic stance because you are doing an athletic activity.

• Your heels should be shoulder-width apart.  This gives you a nice stable base to putt from.

• Your body should be parallel to the line you have chosen not pointing toward the hole.

• Always accelerate through ball.

• Make sure you get the ball to the hole.  No putt was ever made that came up short.  Besides if you putt past the hole you can watch the ball very closely and you will know what the line is.

• Practice your putt at home on your carpet by putting to a coin.  The smaller the coin the better.

• Find a putter that you like and stick with it.  It usually is not the putter that is the problem.

• Challenge yourself at every hole.  Make something up so that when the pressure is on you are ready to perform.

Do you ever get those really long putts? Like 75 feet or more? Yeah I know it is crazy long, and you have to swing your putter way to long to make a proper putt. So what do you do?

Play it just like a chip shot. Open up your stance a little bit (to the left if you are right handed). Play the ball a little further back in your stance. Not extremely far back but only two balls further back than normal. And use your chipping stoke.

Opening the stance up will allow you to make a little longer backstroke and give it a little more pop than normal. It will also involve your body a little more with the stroke.

How much further? Just as much as a normal chip. Practice a few times and you will see that it makes those long long long putts a little easier.

Playing with a young player who was struggling during a recent round I noticed something that I have not yet addressed here.

I have talked about the 40-60 swing where the back swing should be about 40% of the total swing and the follow through should be about 60% of the swing. I personally exaggerate this even more giving it about a 20-80 swing. But that was just a simple quick problem to fix.

The big problem with the young man was that because he was using a longer backstroke than a follow through he was not accelerating through the ball. Now I don’t want to imply that with a putt you should accelerate through the ball like a full stroke, but you should have a steady acceleration to promote a longer follow through than backstroke. It is quite a simple step that will improve your putting stoke.

This may be one of the biggest faults in amateurs golf strokes. But it is also the most simple to fix. Try a longer follow through. The only way to achieve this is to accelerate through the putting stroke.

Warm up routines are very important to having a good round. It is probably more important to warm-up on the putting green to get ready to play.

A good warm-up routine is to start with short putts. Use no more than three balls to start out with. Hit 9-12 shots or all three balls 3-4 times.

Then go to a medium length putt. Medium is different for everyone, I would say from 10-15 feet. Do that for 9-12 shots or all three balls 3-4 times.

Then try a few long ones. Go as long as possible. You don’t have to spend a whole lot of time doing this, you don’t even have to make them. Practice getting it as close as you can to the hole. If some go in it is a good boost. If they do not go in but get close then you have the right speed. Again don’t spend too much time on the long putts. Focus on getting the right speed and distance.

Finally finish up with some short 3 foot putts. Start off with trying to make 3 in a row. Once your skills are getting better make 6 and 9 in a row. This is a great boost getting ready to play, and will build the confidence in the short putts. Knowing you can make 6 in a row on the practice green will help you with those tricky putts on the course.