Did you know that about 40% of the total strokes you’ll make during a round of golf are putts? It’s true—and that’s why having an effective putt is so important.
There is a common phrase used in professional golf. It says: You drive for show, but you putt for dough.
Professional golfers know how important the putt is; they also understand that to the outsider looking in, putting may not be exciting and interesting to watch, but putting accurately makes for some exciting and interesting wins.
Most golfers enjoy putting and they don’t look at working on their putting game as a chore. They know that putting makes up nearly half of the game and for most beginning golfers, they find that putting is a lot easier to master than swings. In addition, most golfers find that after mastering the putt their long shots soon improve.
Putting Mechanics
The posture you should have during putting is generally the same as when you are executing a full golf swing. You want your back straight. The only major difference is that you will want more flex in your knees during a putt—and your stance can vary from being shoulder length wide, or you can have your feet almost together.
As for your arms and shoulders, you can have them bent or straight when you are putting.
In order to reach your goal of making a successful putt, make sure your arms maintain their position throughout the putt. So, if you putt with your arms bent, keep them bent and don’t change their angle during your putt. Likewise, if you putt with your arms straight, keep them straight throughout the putt.
Place your ball opposite your left heel and keep your hands at least level with the ball. If your hands are a bit ahead of the ball, that is fine, but they should never be behind the ball. Try out different putting grips until you find one you are comfortable with.
When you are putting, think of your arms as a clock pendulum. Nothing moves on your body but your shoulders and arms. Your hands, wrists, hips, and legs don’t move.
There is no weight shifting during putting.
When you putt, never take your eyes off the ball and don’t track your putter with your eyes.
Beginning golfers can build up their putting confidence pretty fast with practice.
Reading a Putting Green
Reading a green is simply looking over the area and deciding how you need to putt the ball from its present position so it will roll and end up in the cup.
Many golfers liken reading a green to imagining water flowing on the green toward the cup. If you can imagine how water would flow over a putting green from where your ball is located, you can quickly learn how to read a green and see how your ball will travel. Just like water, your ball will go from the high side of the putting green to the low side of the putting green.
After you’ve determined the high and low side of the putting green and the way your ball will roll toward the cup, get behind the cup and squat down so you’re looking through your ball to the cup. This will enable you to see any slopes so you can choose a target line for your putt. For instance, if you feel the slope may make your ball go a little to the left of the cup, choose a target line that will take your ball a bit more to the right.
After you’ve determined the target path you want your ball to go on, you will have to figure out how hard to putt the ball. Because you can’t see the cup when you are putting—because your eyes are to stay on your ball—it’s a good idea to do a few practice putts while you are looking at the cup. This will give you good depth perception and enable you to estimate how hard your putting stroke should be.
Finally, most successful golfers will look at the cup and then take their putting shot within five seconds. It may seem a bit awkward to do this, but with practice it will get easier and become second nature to you. Have you noticed how the pros will look at the cup, then their ball, then back to the cup a few times? They do this to keep their depth perception accurate.
After you’ve putted around on the greens a while and seen how the ball reacts, you’ll be able to read greens successfully. Don’t be too hard on yourself if you make mistakes in reading the green. Everybody does it and like most everything in golf, it takes practice, practice, and more practice.
Putting Tips
While every golfer is different, here are some putting tips that can help any new golfer:
Many beginning golfers don’t understand why they don’t putt straight and it’s simply because they don’t make contact with the ball at the middle of the putter. Just like the long shot, you will have to practice your putting swing to make contact with the ball exactly in the middle of the putter. Until you are able to get your putter to make contact with the ball in the proper place, your putting will suffer because your ball will not roll straight.
After you’ve learned how to consistently hit the ball with the center of the putter, you need to work on properly targeting the hole so the ball rolls towards it. Aligning yourself properly and targeting can take a bit of practice, but once it’s learned it will stay with you. The great thing about learning this skill is that it can be practiced most anywhere—home, office, backyard, etc.
If your ball isn’t making it to its target you will need to work on properly accelerating the club head. Many new players will inadvertently slow the putter down right before it makes contact with the ball. This is wrong. You should be accelerating the club head when you come in contact and strike the ball. Simply being conscious of this can work wonders and help you stop from slowing down your putt.
A good exercise you can do virtually anywhere—at home or at the office—is to place a coin on the ground and work on putting to the coin three times from one foot out, two feet out, and so on. Anytime you miss the coin, you have to start over. This exercise builds your concentration, focus, and small distance putting skills.
A good exercise to train you to keep your eye on the ball is to place a coin on top of your ball when you are practicing. Your goal is to keep your eye on the coin until you see it land after the ball has been struck.
To practice your long putting game, go to a practice green and set a golf ball right next to the fringe, or the area where the putting green ends and the higher grass begins. Next, walk about twenty paces away, which will be about 50-60 feet, and put a golf tee in the ground. Your goal is to putt as many golf balls as you can to the target ball next to the fringe without going into the fringe.
As mentioned, most beginning golfers find they can master putting easier and faster than they can the golf swing. Don’t become so focused on practicing your swing that you neglect your putt. When putting practice gets tedious, just remember how important it is to your overall score. After all, your putting may be what wins the round.