Putting Advice

With another wet and wild British winter well and truly set in I thought I would give you my top 5 rules to follow when putting in windy conditions. I’m not sure about my subscribers in europe but anyone based in the UK will be able to benefit from these in their very next game!!

Rule 1; whilst this may be a relatively obvious piece of advice make sure you widen your stance in order to stabilise yourself against any strong gusts of wind. The precision of any stroke will be serverley affected if you are literally being blown around.

Rule 2; combined with rule 1 make sure you angle yourself over the ball more than usual i.e. get lower. By doing this you will again increase your protection from the wind, a good idea as you do this is to move your hands down the grip.

Rule 3; Long flowing strokes are going to be far more affected in the wind so I would recommend using a shorter, firmer action. This concise action will also require less movement and keep you compact during your stroke.  

Rule 4; Golfers are always prepared to allow for the wind in their long game yet completely overlook this factor when they reach the green. YES the wind can and will affect your ball on the green! 

Rule 5; Finally and perhaps most importantly you must mange your expectations. For example, in the summer when the greens are true and you can feel the sun on your back, a 5 foot putt up the hill is one many golfers expect to hole. However faced with the same putt on a windy day, this straight forward putt suddenly becomes the equivalent of a black run on a ski slope! As golfers miss a few putts they generally begin to doubt their strokes, question their green reading and shortly after even question their right to play the game!!  The fact is you are going to miss more putts in bad weather BUT remember this will be happening to your fellow competitiors too, so keep a calm head, your mindset in neutral and just deal with the outcome of each putt.

Please post your comments below and let me know what works for you in windy conditions.

Tags: putting in the wind, putting in winter, Putting Instruction, Putting Tips

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 6th, 2009 at 9:41 pm and is filed under Mindset, Putting Instruction, Putting Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.