Putting

scubakid

This might be a long shot but can anyone give me advice or a few tips on putting..
At the moment my game has never been better but my putting is leaving me down everywhere.
Was playing saturday, had 15 putts for par and 3 putts for birdie.. Ended up with 3 pars after the 18th..

Help please

Shannonsider

Can you elaborate as to what you think might be wrong..... reading the breaks wrong, distance wrong, forcing the put, swing not consistent?

scubakid

My reading the greens is perfect, I'd consider myself very good at it. I'm just not consistent and dont feel at all comfotable or confident when putting. A lot of this could be down to my stroke.

Trampas

How are you generally missing?

Right, left, short, to hard?

alxmorgan

Try this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5TockpcqG8

Found that it helped me a lot with my distance control as gave me very simple reference point to trust

The_Kew_Tour

Hey Scuba. Not sure what your main problem is. Like last post there plenty of things on youtube that can help you out.

If your finding it tough get anything let me know. Also another site called http://www.videojug.com/tag/golf is also useful and may have something that helps you.

Hope this helps

stockdam

The best thing to do is to spend hours on a practice green. Hit putts of 25 feet, 12 feet, 6 feet and 3 feet. You want to be able to 2 putt for all the 12 and 25 feet putts and you also want to rarely miss the 3 feet ones.

If you don't have access to a green then practice on a carpet.

redzerdrog

www.pga.com has a great instructions section and lots of videos to help improve your putting

scrubber72

Get the book "putting out of your mind" by Dr Bob Rotella. Great read and even though what he says sounds like pure common knowledge it works. I read parts of it all the time and I would consider myself a good putter. Its a game of confidence and putting is probably the most mental part of it.

kagni

Lots of putting info on this site - http://www.puttingzone.com/.
The layout is terrible though, here is probably the best place to start -
http://puttingzone.com/puttmanual.html

scubakid

Thanks a lot for the help and references guys. I'l try them all out and hopefully it'll come together at some stage.

Happy Golfing

Burgerman55

Let us know how you get on scubaman!

Maverick.ie

I can absolutly guarantee you that your head is moving. Take your line take your stance then imagine that the ball is sitting on a 20 cent peice, forget everything else except that you want to see the 20c after the ball has gone, dont worry about how you take the putter back or how you follow through, if you are over the ball properly you should be able to drop a ball from the tip of your nose and have it drop on the ball below and you keep your head still you will hear the ball drop into the hole

stockdam

Maverick.ie wrote: »

I can absolutly guarantee you that your head is moving. Take your line take your stance then imagine that the ball is sitting on a 20 cent peice, forget everything else except that you want to see the 20c after the ball has gone, dont worry about how you take the putter back or how you follow through, if you are over the ball properly you should be able to drop a ball from the tip of your nose and have it drop on the ball below and you keep your head still you will hear the ball drop into the hole

Although your advice is sound in principle I'd suggest that everyone needs to find out what works best for them.

I don't think Kenny Perry has his nose directly over the ball nor do I think Isao Aoki did (his putting stroke was very individual). Yes you'll see this advice given all of the time but I'm not sure if all of the great putters follow it. Unfortunately there aren't a lot of good photos to analyse. I'll have to watch Perry the next time he plays as I think he stands quite far away for his putts.

soundsham

practice holing 20 in a row from 4 ft is a drill i generally use before leaving practice green.....defo make u focus after 7 0r 8 are banged in

also picked up a mirror with a few parallel lines (maybe €15) so you make sure your shoulders are aligned correctly then rock the shoulders.... hit 10 balls not even aiming at a hole then maybe 5 at a hole

practice your other drills but come back to the mirror a few times to re-check yourself....

also make the hole smaller, and practice putting to something other than a hole....fringe maybe

a lot of putting out of your mind is useful,especially picking a blade of grass out in the hole for shorter ones

Mr.Capello03

Hey Scuba!

As the last person said, picking out a very small target is a good idea and actually is scientifically proven to focus the mind more than say just aiming for the hole. What this practice does is focus you in on what really matters - where you want the ball to go.

Lets take a look at how one of the best putters of all time approached putting: Tiger Woods when he was three years old was given a very simple task by his Dad, to role a golf ball with his hand towards the hole with his eyes closed. What Earl Woods was trying to get Tiger to feel was a picture in his minds eye of where he wanted the ball to go. If one is completely focused in on the target the reaction is natural and instinctive.

But then really, TBH, it depends whats going on for you. Honing in on the target is just one aspect. If your putter head is lined up way off line each time you putt... then you wanna be one hell of an instinctive putter to get the ball in the hole consistently from outside 4 feet.

Also it is a pretty dangerous thing putting it out here on the boards thread looking for putting tips because if you look down the list of advice... much of it differs. Who to listen to? I'm a pretty sure i'm a good putter, i'd say listen to me!! But then so might the other guys say that.

Bob Rotella has a good DVD on putting called putt to win. I'd recommend that. About keeping the head still... perhaps Kenny Perry does move his head but any golf coach in the world will tell you the same - you got to keep your head still through out the stroke. Simply put, your head is the heaviest part of your body and so if you let it sway around during your stroke it's likely to effect the balance of the stroke.
Do you live in Dublin? I can go through a few things on a practice green sometime for you if you wish- just let me know. I've given putting coaching before and specialise in that area.

narddog

I was in the same position as the OP. My game was working ok, but putting kept letting me down. There are probaly enough tips on this thread already on improving your putting, but the one piece of advice that has begun to help me is to do this drill on the practice green. Put a few balls in a line, at a spacing of a few feet i.e. 2ft, 4ft, 6ft, 8ft etc, towards a hole. Even if you're not holing the putts, you are getting a feel for the putting distance. I can feel some improvement, and I'm not running the ball way past the hole, or leaving it woefully short, as much as I used to.

GreeBo

Mr.Capello03 wrote: »

any golf coach in the world will tell you the same - you got to keep your head still through out the stroke.

The problem with that is that any Professional golfer will tell you that you dont! Read any of Rotellas books, some of the best putters on the tour putt better when they feel their heads moving.
Now obviously you need to not "lookup" during the stroke, but there is no reason for your head to be still.

Putting is an art, not a science.

Also, OP, you havent answered how you are missing so many putts yet?
You say you have a good read so Im guessing its distance control? Long, short or a combination?
I went through a recent phase of leaving everything short. I could hole out really well from 10 foot and in, but any longer than that and I was always short, sometimes painfully short.
Also, my long game has improved to the point where Im hitting 8-10 GIR every round, this really shows up poor putting/short game.

Myksyk

I put myself to the test recently practising putting to explore this 'head up' thing. placed the ball on an obvious mark like a dark piece of grass or something and challenged myself to be still looking at that after the ball left and until I knew the ball had dropped or stopped. I couldn't get over how bloody difficult and weird it felt to do this but I can tell you that it dramatically increased my consistency from about 6 feet in. Well worth ingraining this. Woods is particularly good at it.

GreeBo

Myksyk wrote: »

I put myself to the test recently practising putting to explore this 'head up' thing. placed the ball on an obvious mark like a dark piece of grass or something and challenged myself to be still looking at that after the ball left and until I knew the ball had dropped or stopped. I couldn't get over how bloody difficult and weird it felt to do this but I can tell you that it dramatically increased my consistency from about 6 feet in. Well worth ingraining this. Woods is particularly good at it.

I 100% agree. I cant miss from 3feet if Im staring at the ground after the ball has gone. Its remebering to do it thats the problem!

Im just saying that you can be staring at the ground with a moving head...

scubakid

Was out today and after reading all the advice and looking at the links, the keeping the head down is definately working. I know it's not gonna just come together with 18 holes of golf but at least it's a step in the right direction.

Thanks Guys

Snakey

GreeBo wrote: »

I went through a recent phase of leaving everything short. I could hole out really well from 10 foot and in, but any longer than that and I was always short, sometimes painfully short.

How did you solve this? I'd been putting well all year now suddenly I'm leaving all long putts short as well, confidence is draining rapidly...

The_Kew_Tour

scubakid wrote: »

Was out today and after reading all the advice and looking at the links, the keeping the head down is definately working. I know it's not gonna just come together with 18 holes of golf but at least it's a step in the right direction.

Thanks Guys

Great to hear this.

Thats what ya have to do. Practise. I do use books, internet and also advice from mates when I have problem with swing or technique. Also get pro lesson twice year and it has worked most times.

But the most important thing is you keep going to range or putting green and with bits of help from anywhere either from Internet or whatever using that to good effect is only way your going see major improvement in your game

Hope it comes off Scuba

GreeBo

Snakey wrote: »

How did you solve this? I'd been putting well all year now suddenly I'm leaving all long putts short as well, confidence is draining rapidly...

I feel your pain.
I took 6 balls onto the practice green one evening (in fact a few evenings!) and took some putts towards a target (like the fringe or another club, its important to not do it towards a hole...yet)

I started with some 10 footers and paid attention to how far back I was taking the club. I then took some 15-20 foot putts in the middle of a set of 10 footers and noticed that I was only taking the club back the same amount. Once I noticed this it was a bit of a Eureka moment to be honest. I realized that to hit the putts further I need to take a bigger swing. Seems kinda dumb now but somehow I had gotten away from it. My brain had developed a swing for all putts that just doesnt/didnt work from longer than 10 feet. Bearing in mind that this all only happened ~3 weeks ago, I have seen great results and have actually lost two shots in the last two weeks (11-9).

Let me know how you get on with the above "drill", would be very interested to hear how it goes.

Snakey

Cheers GreeBo, I'll try some of thiose drills and pay attention to the length of backswing, hopefully that'll help.

Congrats on getting cut to single figures, nice milestone!

GreeBo

Snakey wrote: »

Cheers GreeBo, I'll try some of thiose drills and pay attention to the length of backswing, hopefully that'll help.

Congrats on getting cut to single figures, nice milestone!

Yup, delighted and got a nice trophy/cup at the weekend too. Hurray for me

Cheers!

PhilipMarlowe

If you are struggling with distance control, try some putts with your eyes closed.
Obviously line yourself up first, take a good study of your target, keep it in your 'mind's eye'... you should be able to close your eyes and take the putt. Don't open them and try and predict what the result was before you open them and look up.
This will help you to become more of a 'feel' putter... like was said earlier, it is an art

Myksyk

Another putting swing thought i have is aimed at increasing the smoothness of my takeaway which at times could suffer from jerkiness. I now do not think about taking the clubhead away smoothly. I think about taking the handle away smoothly. This is far easier to do as the handle, unsurprisingly, is in your hands and easier to control. the putter head is comparatively a long distance away. This consistently improves my smoothness of takeaway and makes my stroke feel freer. Works for me.