Putting Advice

As the British winter continues for the foreseeable future I have been lucky enough to spend the past 7 days out at Taba Heights Golf Resort in Egypt where I hosted our annual Tournament & Tuition week. The golf course is stunning with views across to Jordan and Saudi Arabia and with temperatures typically in the mid 20’s this resort is a perfect destination for a golf….it was heaven!  

Over 30 of our students travelling with us to take part without exception they all struggled early in the week to adjust from the relative poor greens of the UK to the fast dry greens of Egypt. Of course as golfers we know what happens once we either 3 putt or miss a couple of short putts……the post mortem begins and this is when things can really turn bad.

So during the week I worked very hard on 3 core aspects on the greens.

PUTTING TIP 1 - MANAGE YOUR EXPECTATIONS! You can just imagine how missing a couple of short putts and then following this up with a 3 putt or two could make you feel…but hang on a minute EVERYONE is finding the greens tough. All of a sudden you begin to realise that if you can just manage to keep your head while those around can’t you could be in with a shout! I think the majors in golf reflects this, where as a par score in a regular tour event is often not good enough to compete, par can be a fantastic score in any of the 4 majors.

PUTTING TIP 2 - VISIT THE RIGHT WEBSITES IN YOUR MIND! All too often a few failures on the green cause a player to react with typically destructive phrase such as “God I’m an awful putter” or “That was THE WORST stroke I have ever made”. Just imagine if there was a website for each of these phrases, www.godimanawfulputter.co.uk or www.thatwastheworststrokeihaveevermade.co.uk What sort of pictures, images and feelings do you think you would see??!! It doesn’t bear thinking about!! So remember there is a string of pictures and feelings in your mind behind every statement you make, perhaps next time golfers should consider an error as just a blip or a hiccup rather than a DISASTER!! www.thatwasahiccup.co.uk is not such a bad place to be! By the way don’t even think about clicking the above www. addresses to see if they really exist!

PUTTING TIP 3 - GET YOUR ANGLES RIGHT AT ADDRESS FOR A SOLID CONTACT! 

Too many golfers tend to set up with some really poor angles at address, see opposite, especially in the left and right arms. What I always like to see in the set up is a “preparation for the task in hand” which in this case is making an impact to the ball! In the picture opposite notice how the right arm looks relatively straight by comparison to the left. Typically golfers who address their putts this way tend to have the concept of keeping the putter in line with the ball, and being very sqaure and balanced at address. All this set up leads to is a stroke where the body initiates too much of the movement with the putter almost being dragged away from the ball.

 

What I prefer to see at address is the “preparation” to strike your putt!

Here you can see the shape of the arms is more matched, with the wrists and hands in neutral to each other. This now completely changes the sequence and allows players to get the putter moving more freely without it being dragged by the body. This all leads to a far more solid contact and better distance control on your putts. So if you feel that you do not control the distance on your putts and suffer from an un-solid feel then try this today and enjoy the benefits!

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Tags: Better Putting, Putting Instruction, Putting Tips

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 12:19 pm and is filed under Fast Greens, 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.