a. This is a very good lesson for putting, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bfo5sA4h8E and see also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgTFwevoaFc (stance, having a straight back, setting up in an athletic position, frame and connection between arms and body, etc. are all discussed).
b. LIFELINE GRIP FOR CONTROL AND ACCURACY: Do not hold your putter like how you grip your other clubs for a full swing, instead you want to hold the putter with your palms together using the lifeline grip to immobilize your wrists https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgxPrBuAVas. Holding the putter this way will help to avoid pulling and pushing your putts, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvcAlnMq56Y#t=98.075533. NOTE: Holding the putter shaft with a cross hand grip (left hand is below right hand) makes it easy to hold the club with the lifeline grip.
c. GRIP PRESSURE: Although grip pressure varies from individual to individual perhaps we can learn something from professional golfer Steve Stricker who is known as one of the best putters on the tour, he is a right handed golfer but is left hand dominant, thus his pivot point when putting was his left shoulder, he also had considerably more grip pressure on his left hand than his right hand http://www.golfdigest.com/story/steve-stricker-putting.
EDITORIAL COMMENT: Rather than have the same grip pressure for both hands, we can learn a lot from Steve Stricker, so experiment with different grip pressures for each hand and see which one gives you better results when putting. In this Golf Digest article Steve Stricker who is left hand dominant said on a scale of 1 to 10, his left hand had a grip pressure of 7 and the right hand one was considerably less than that, he did this to reinforce the feeling that his left side (his pivot point) controlled the stroke so, if you are right hand dominant then you would do just the opposite since your right side would be your pivot point.
TIGHTEN YOUR GRIP PRESSURE: The biggest mistake that poor putters make is that their grip pressure is way too light (as if they are holding a birdie in their hand), when this happens they lose control of the club face and are not able to putt on any sort of consistent basis, especially when under pressure to make a putt. See this video where the instructor says your grip pressure should be harder so as to be more in control of the club (like a 7 on a 10 scale), sort of like the same pressure you would exert when shaking someone's hands https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gat9x3CNUs.
d. How you naturally putt the ball, whether it be on an arc, straight back, or if you have an inconsistent stroke will determine what kind of putter would be compatible with your stroke. There are different types of putters out there, for instance you have heel weighted putters, toe weighted putters, face balanced putters and mid balanced putters, see https://www.golftec.com/blog/2015/07/find-the-right-putter-style-for-your-stroke/ As an example if you putt straight down the line you would be better suited using a face balanced putter than a toe weighted putter. Although for the short putts your stroke is more straight down the line, for the longer putts the putting stroke usually goes along an arc, just like how you take your club back on your full golf swing, Here is a drill to help you develop a fundamentally sound putting stroke using a sand wedge, this drill should help you to stabilize your head and feel how it is to putt on an arc, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHxC6ujdZPg.
e. How to determine the length of your putter shaft https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zn1iwjVLmX4. Unfortunately most golfers do not get fitted for shaft length, instead they will buy their putter off the rack which usually has a shaft that is 34 to 35 inches long, as a result a majority of the golfers have putters whose shafts are too long for them.
f. Find your pivot point and which hand is your 'dominant' hand. Golfers will either be right hand dominant or left hand dominant when putting, to find which one is your dominant hand, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITRaVI6lDPE. This is important because it will tell you what pivot point you should be using and which hand could have more pressure when gripping the club. This video is also quite compelling because it stresses that you should simplify the stroke by keeping your wrists, hips, sternum and shoulders quiet. So to learn to swing back and forth from one pivot point, the one arm drill in this video will help you to sense what your stroke should feel like,
g. How to release the club. "Let your putter hang down". At address the golfer should have high hands or bowed wrists https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aseMERb7sHk. Incidentally if you practice putting with one hand your putter will hang down naturally and your wrists will be in this bowed position. Line up shaft with your forearms and make a lot more putts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5EYvtFisr0
h. Forward press while putting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcKWby0SUFM. A slight forward press helps to give top spin to the ball, in fact Jordan Speith does it and he is one of the best putters on the tour, but too much of a press however, will lead to misalignment and other problems, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5Gr6Bn7na8. Brad Faxon said the forward press is the trigger that gets the good rhythm going for him right away.
i. Tighten you stroke, face rotation, and arm connection to your body to stabilize your putting stroke https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgWl2GlywxQ. Experiment with varying degrees of arm pressure or 'connection' against the sides of your body (i.e. 2 on 10 scale or 7 on 10 scale, you can also experiment by having different pressures for each arm) and see which combination or variations gives you the best results.
j. Maintain the magic triangle and do not let the left arm break down https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIsNEiDn8cM .
k. Balance and weight distribution in your stance. You should experiment with weight placement in your stance. Do you get better results when you are evenly balanced or do you get better results if your weight is heavier on one side of your stance. In this article the author says there should be more weight over on your forward foot in your stance and lists several reasons why it gives you a better putting stroke, see http://swingstation.com/putting-balance/. One of the greatest putters of all time Ben Crenshaw had a 60/40 weight distribution with more weight over on his left foot.
l. Make sure that your stance is solid and that you are not swaying when you putt, often times beginners will move their left knee and sway to the right when they take the putter back and will sway forward on their putting stroke. If you want to set your legs, keep your knees still and prevent from swaying, then you could try taking a wider stance and bow your knees outwards.
m. Poor putters use their wrists to putt, instead keep them quiet and let your core initiate the putting stroke, since your arms are connected to your body they will simply follow this action.
n. Do you have the yips? Here is a putting visualization technique from Nick Faldo (who learned it from Jackie Burke) called the thumb pointing drill, see http://www.golfinstruction.com/golf-instruction/putting-drill-thumb-pointing-10882.htm.
o. RELIEVE TENSION and PERFECT YOUR BACKSTROKE: One of the other big mistakes poor putters make is that they are too tense when putting or are too 'stroke conscious' and will try to manipulate the stroke. If you get stroke conscious especially when watching the putter go back then you may be missing too many short putts. To relieve this tension in your putting stroke, try looking at the hole and not at the ball, professional golfer Jordan Speith did this for his short putts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NY1TxgvFZ4. This method allows for of a more natural stroke and release and less of a mechanical or manipulated one. I have tried this in the past but I didn't have the confidence that the ball would hit the target line when I was playing a round, so what I experimented with was to look at the hole on my backstroke but before the head would strike the ball I would turn my head and look at the ball, this gave me more assurance that I would hit the right line. Another method to relieve tension in the arms and get a smoother back stroke is to tap the putter head on the ground before putting (Greg Norman did this), after you set up for your putt, tap the bottom of the putter to the ground couple of times, I have tried this in the past as well and I seem to have gotten better results using a slow and longer up and down tapping motion instead of faster shorter taps, tapping does relax your arms and you will find that the backstroke becomes much smoother and tension free, https://thesandtrap.com/forums/topic/41391-excellent-putting-tip-for-a-smooth-take-away/. This may sound a bit off in left field I know but if tapping it this way does not work for you, try this: When you bring the putter head back above the ground by about half an inch (after your tap) simply go into your backstroke from this elevated position and complete your putt, I experimented with this before and it did seem to work well for the shorter putts, naturally I was on the practice green so it is not battle tested, if any of you have other putting tips that have worked for you please share your story with us.
NOTE: The problem with tapping your putter behind the ball is that you grounded your club while addressing the ball so if your ball should move there would be a one stroke penalty.
p. Consider switching to a heavier putter to smooth out your stroke and use the bigger muscles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR6LiSrlJT8 .
q. Keeping your eye on the ball when you putt. A good drill is to place a coin under the ball and putt, making sure that you look at the coin after you putt the ball.
CHANGE HOW YOU HOLD THE CLUB: You can also experiment with the cross hand grip, claw grip or the ten finger grip and see whether these will work for you https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz72fdK_ti4. Some golfers will switch to fat grips on their putter shaft, for pros and cons using this type of grip, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR3xttKp2es.
AN UNCONVENTIONAL PUTTING SETUP AND STROKE WITH BULLS EYE ACCURACY: One of the best putters that I had an opportunity to play with on more than several occasions was a 3 to 4 handicapper, he had a very unusual and unconventional putting setup and stroke. I have never seen or met anyone else that putted like him so I must assume that his putting was self taught, but boy did it work. At setup he would hang his arms straight down to the ground fully extended but instead of having his hand pointing down towards the ground in a slightly bowed position to grip the handle of his putter, his hands were cocked slightly upwards as his putter shaft angled out away from him. His hand were close to his belt buckle. Because of this setup the heel of the putter was on the ground while the toe was angled up towards the sky. His arms were held firmly together (he had a very narrow and tight magic triangle) and both arms were in front of his chest and firmly connected to it, now this is where it gets slightly unreal, instead of using the traditional pendulum stroke where one would rock one shoulder up and the other one down, and then vice versa, he used a horizontal torso rotation (like turning the round dial on your stove top from off to on, then from on to off, or swiveling in a chair) his arms simply followed this body rotation and this was his putting stroke, so it was the rotation of his body core that squared the club face at impact, there was no independent arm movement or deliberate arm stroke into the ball. The length of his back stroke was also shorter than his forward stroke.
Here is my take on how he was able to putt so accurately using this method, the connection of his armpits to his body was quite tight and so was his grip pressure, I think all of his connections were about a 7 or 8 (in fact the firmer the better) since everything had to be locked and solidly in place, this frame allowed him to use a core body rotation to swing and square the club as if automatically at impact, and because there was so much mass behind the stroke he only needed a short back stroke. Rather than stroke the ball, he tapped or punched the ball to the hole. Because of his set up his eyes were not over the ball but rather far away and I doubt that he had much top spin on the ball, but since he was so deadly accurate and could hit a ball on a straight line every time, who really cared? Because of this body rotation the club head did not travel back and forward on a line but it did so on a noticeable arc just like how a outer edge of a door swings in relationship to the floor, he used a Ping Anser putter which is toe weighted (toe weighted putters are suited for the arc putting stroke) and he also took the putter back and forward low to the ground. I also noticed that he would ram his putts into the hole so rather than the let the ball fall over the front lip and into the hole on its last rotation, it would usually hit the back of the cup then fall in, because of the speed of his ball he would also hit the ball through most breaks when putting. Although I am more of a straight down the line putter and like to putt with more feel, I did try his method on the practice green and noticed that I got better results when I rotated my body around my posted left leg (one axis).
This golfer was so good at putting that he rarely missed putts from six to eight feet away, in fact I don't recall ever seeing him miss a putt from four feet away, making those putts under pressure was automatic for him, it was like throwing baseballs into a basketball net. There must be something to say about being locked into a frame like that and having less moving parts, instead of feeling pressure when he stood over the ball hoping that he wouldn't miss the putt, I am sure that he felt every putt was an opportunity for him to sink it into the hole, because of this putting prowess he scrambled well and always made several birdies every round. This is why putting is so very important if you want to lower your handicap, as they say, drive for show and putt for dough.
This content is seen at http://golfingtips4free.blogspot.com/p/putting-for-consistency-and-spinning.html
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