Your most important of all Putting Lessons?
Page With Your Community & Friends!With the golf season still a number of weeks away I would like to share one of the most valuable putting lessons I can offer any of my students….a lesson in confidence.
Give yourself evidence of improvement
The regulars here at Putting Tips will be aware that I recommend collecting essential data about your game and in particular on your putting; this data includes putts per round, single putts per round and 3 putts per round. By noting these stats you will literally be able to chart your progress and notice your evidence of improvement! While I acknowledge that other aspects of golf influence these stats, they are a still a great indicator. For example, visit the PGA Tour website and look at the putts per round stats for 2009, who do you think was leading it? You’ve got it, one Brad Faxon one of the best putters over the last decade, with an average of 28 putts in his 59 tournament rounds, this in spite of only making 5 cuts from 23 starts! So my message is simple, collect your stats, measure your performance AND measure your future progress.
Use memory to fuel your confidence
Memories play a crucial role in building or destroying confidence. Is there a golf hole at your club where you have an overwhelming feeling of dread as you stand on the tee? Perhaps you always hit a big cut or put your ball in a well placed hazard? The chances you can picture such a hole and the reason behind this feeling is MEMORY; on the particular hole in question you have no doubt hit poor shots in the past which are quite literally coming back to haunt you! So when it comes to putting this year lets use memory to your advantage. I would strongly recommend keeping a putting diary, in this diary you will record the best 3 putts (not a 3 putt!) from each round you play in vivid detail; this means everything you thought, saw, felt, and even smelt! Imagine over the coming months collecting this information, how would it feel to reflect on these successes? This diary would quite literally fuel your confidence.
Finally can I just say a huge thank you to all those who responded with posts and e-mails to my last putting tips blog, the feedback was brilliant! Once again I look forward to reading your comments to this post and I will endeavour to reply to each of you.
June 27th, 2010 at 11:22 pm
I am passionate about golf, and your post has absolutely increased my level of experience, so thanks for that!
June 28th, 2010 at 9:50 pm
Very helpful post! I just discovered your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Any way I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon.