Medium and Long Putts

As you’ll know if you read the Short Putts section, a putt less than 8 feet is generally considered to be a short putt, but there is really no distinction between medium and long putts.

When you are faced with a putt longer than 8 feet you need to pay attention to three vital elements:-

Pace!

Pace!

and…..

Pace!

It’s ALL about the pace on the longer putts since this will determine how much the ball turns (fast moving balls turn less) and of course how far the ball will travel. To control the pace is easy in theory – simply take a longer swing to make the ball go further! But in practise it’s very difficult, and amateurs nearly always try to hit it harder by using the wrong muscles and getting tense. Really try and work on this as much as you can. Hit lots of putts with your eyes shut, a nice soft grip (and don’t change it during the stroke!), and just feel which muscles you are using to swing the club. On every putt you should be using the same muscles to simply rock your shoulders – just vary the length of your swing to alter the pace.

It’s also very important to try and leave yourself an easy second putt if your first putt doesn’t drop, which in reality even for the professionals is quite likely! Ideally you want to leave yourself with a short uphill putt for your next putt.

On Golf Putting Lessons DVD you’ll find Maurice teaching you a lot more on how to approach the different types of putts including visualisation and how to let your brain internalise the pace. He also holes a monster putt on the very first take (honestly) which nearly cost Tim the price of a new Bugatti Veyron!

Short Putts

And where is it now? In the SAME position.

Look where Maurice's head is now.....

There is no ‘scientific’ definition of what constitutes a short putt, but the most widely accepted one is that a putt less than 8 feet is classified as a short putt. This was ‘discovered’ by a genuine ex-NASA scientist called Dave Pelz who conducted a long study and found that when a putt is longer than 8 feet, the chances of holing the putt start to fall massively, even for the professionals. Check out our golf statistics page for more interesting putting statistics…..

So – why do we make this distinction and what difference does it make to your putting?

Whatever length putt you have, the most critical element you need to focus on is always the pace. It’s not quite as crucial for short putts, but it’s still hugely important. Without enough pace your ball won’t get to the hole. With too much pace your ball can ‘sling shot’ out of the hole. Your technique for all putts should remain the same, but for short putts you should pay special attention to the following points, and this will help you hole more of those crucial putts:

Make a shorter backswing. This will encourage you to accelerate through the ball and get a good strike

Keep your head and body completely and totally still

You should never ever look at the hole – listen for the ball dropping into the hole

Holing those crucial short putts can make or break your round and can often help you win holes in matchplay situations, so practise short putts as much as you possibly can!

Maurice shows you some great practise drills to help you improve your short putts on Golf Putting Online DVD, many of which are a lot of fun!

Reading Greens

Even if you have the best putting stroke and distance control in the world, if you struggling with reading greens you simply won’t be able to hole any putts.

Reading greens is an art form in its own right, and many amateurs struggle with this part of their game. Experience will definitely help, so try to play on a variety of courses if you can.

In Europe golfers only have to be concerned with the slope of the green and weather conditions, but in America and most of the rest of the world we also have to contend with different types of grass. There are a number of types, the most common being Bermuda and Bent grass which are designed to cope with more extreme weather.

The type of grass can play havoc with reading greens because the blades of grass can affect where the balls goes. The putt may look as though it will turn from right to left, but it turns the opposite way because the grass leans that way. This is called the grain.

So – how do you see the grain?

• If the grass is shiny it means the grain is growing away from you
• If the grass is dull it means the grass is growing towards you

How does the grain affect your putt ?

• If the grain is growing to the left – the putt will turn to the left – this is also called the ‘break’
• If the grain is growing to the right – the ball will turn or break to the right
• If the grain is growing away from you -  it will make the putt faster
• If the grain is growing towards you – it will make the putt slower

And finally bear in mind that the grain direction changes during the day because it follows the sun!

Start looking at your putt even before you get to the putting green – look at the slopes on and around the putting green as you’re walking up to it. If the surrounding ground slopes from left to right, you can be 99% sure that the green will also slope from left to right to help with drainage.

Once you get onto the green make sure you look at your putt from as many angles as you can (without holding your playing partners up! ) and try to learn from other players’ putts but remember you are not allowed to stand directly behind another player when they are putting.

If you’re in doubt about which way the ball will turn, hit it straight!

Finally – once you’ve picked your line, commit to it, have confidence and trust your ability to reading greens.

If you’d like to learn more about reading greens and what other factors can affect your putt (there are more factors), check out the Golf Putting Online DVD where there is an entire lesson dedicated to reading greens with Maurice and Tim.

Putting Practise

Putting Practise

Perfect putting practise makes perfect.

Imperfect putting practise makes…… imperfect !!!

The three most important things to remember about putting practise are:-

• PRACTISE !
• PRACTISE !
• PRACTISE !

Most amateur golfers spend far too little time working on their putting and short game. And ironically putting is such an easy part of your game to work on. All you need is a flat piece of carpet and you can work on many parts of your putting – all from the warmth and comfort of your home!

Also very importantly you need to practise the right things that will engrain good habits into your putting stroke, and for this you need feedback to prove to yourself that you are executing things correctly, such as:-

• Have you aligned your club face correctly?
• Do you have the ball in the correct position?
• Are your shoulders aligned correctly?

Without this feedback you are quite likely to repeat faults during your putting practise which will soon become habits, and this is fatal. It’s SO hard to unlearn faults once you’ve grooved them into your swing!

Maurice takes you through some fantastic and FUN putting practise drills on the Golf Putting Online DVD, most of which you can work on at home. They all provide you with instant feedback so you can be sure you’re on the right track to grooving a perfect putting stroke.

For the putting practise sessions you’ll need two blow up cushions, a lip salve, and a glass of red wine.

Cheers!

Putting Stance

How you stand when you putt (your putting stance) is trying to achieve two key things which will move you another step closer to being a great putter.

• Your putting stance must provide you with a solid platform. Unlike your power swing (driver and irons), during your putting stroke there should be absolutely NO body movement at all.
• Also the correct putting stance ensures that you can swing your arms correctly which in turn will ensure you deliver the club head to the ball on a straight line.

There are many other elements of your putting stance that are important and will help turn you from a good putter into a great putter including:

• How far over you should bend (this is critical)
• What angle should your neck be in relation to your spine
• How your weight should be distributed. From a front to back perspective your weight should be distributed 50/50. From a left to right view you should spread your weight 60/40 – 60% being on your left foot for a right handed golfer
• How far apart your feet should be to give you that solid platform you need. And remember – if it’s really windy you need to get your feet really wide to help you stay stable in the wind
• How relaxed or tense you should feel when you putt. This is really difficult to show you, but on the DVD Maurice shares a great tip to help you with this!

As a final tip to improve your putting stance, try putting with your eyes closed and without a ball, and really focus on your body movement. There should be absolutely none, and you’ll be surprised how much more you can feel when you do this practise drill.

Of course there is a whole lot more great content on the Golf Putting Online DVD with entire lesson dedicated to getting you into the perfect putting stance with easy to follow examples with Maurice. And for the putting stance lesson, don’t forget your blindfold!!

Golf Psychology – it’s all in the mind!

Golf Psychology will help you control your state of mind under pressure

Golf psychology is such a huge subject that we could easily build a whole site just dedicated to golf psychology, and here we are only scratching the surface. But it can make a HUGE difference for golfers of all abilities – if you commit to working at it.

Golf is a very unique game in that in a typical four hour game of golf, only a very small proportion of this is actually spent taking shots. Between shots your mind can wander, and if you’re not having the best of rounds quite quickly your chin can literally go down which can put you in a very negative emotional state for playing golf. This is not ideal!

Golf psychology helps us control our emotions, which in turn can help us control our physical bodies. This can affect all parts of your game, but is particularly important when you are putting since the smallest of changes can cause you to miss.

Try to memorize the following key golf psychology points and then build them into your game. They are all key points that will steadily make you a better and more consistent putter:

• Have a strict and consistent routine before every putt. When you’re faced with a real pressure putt, don’t change anything in your routine. Don’t take an extra practise swing, don’t have another look at the hole – just repeat your consistent routine
• Remember – you are trying to hole every putt
• Once you have read the putt and picked your line, commit 100% to it
• Think about the things you can control. You can control your routine. You cannot control the condition of the greens
• Remember some good putts that you have holed in the past and this will give you confidence
• You must realize that missing putts is part of golf and always ask yourself, “what can I learn from that putt?
• Visualize yourself having success
• If you have been struggling with your putting tell yourself that you are learning to become a good putter as this is more believable than telling yourself that you are already a good putter
• Stay in the present moment. Don’t think about the last putt that you missed, or the tee shot you’ll be facing after this putt – stay in the present

Finally try this little exercise next time you play a round. When you’re walking between shots, try to NEVER look down – always keep your chin up and look ahead not down at your feet. You’ll find it surprisingly difficult, but it can help keep you in a much more positive state of mind which is crucial in golf.

As mentioned, we’re only really scratching the surface of golf psychology here, but you’ll find a wealth more fascinating information on our Golf Putting Online DVD. Let our resident Professor Maurice Campbell (KRF – Keen Rugby Fan) show you how to control your breathing and build a rock solid pre-shot routine that will ensure you never crack under pressure!

Basic Putting Stroke

Now you’ve got that perfect putting grip (with consistent grip pressure – remember!), ideal stance, great alignment, spot on ball position and you’ve just run through your preshot routine, now you’re standing over the ball and ready to putt!

During the actual putting stroke, there are still some key factors you need to master to ensure you make the best of your great set up.

The most important ones are:

• How you should swing the putter. Of course this sounds simple, but you need to ensure you are using the shoulders to swing the club. This will give you consistent distance control and won’t break down under pressure.
• Your body and head should remain perfectly still during the putting stroke, and we’ve got some great putting drills in our practise lessons to help you with this. One great tip we can give you now is to NEVER look at the hole when you putt. Just listen for that ball dropping into the hole – it’s such a sweet sound when you hear it!
• TEMPO, TEMPO, TEMPO. Watch any of the golf professionals and you’ll see how consistent their tempo is. It doesn’t matter how long a swing they make, the tempo is the same and this gives them consistency.
• Ratios. If you swing the putter back 2 feet on the backswing, you should swing it at least 2 feet through after you strike the ball. It’s ok for you to have a slightly longer follow through than your backswing, but it must never ever be shorter since this will mean you are probably decelerating the club head which will give a poor strike.

On the Golf Putting Online DVD Maurice will show you a fantastic putting drill to help you work on your tempo and rations all in one simple drill. This will improve your putting stroke, guaranteed! For this lesson you’ll need to sneak a couple of cushions off the sofa!

Ball Striking

How to find the sweet spot

You must still remember the first time you swung a golf club and with the slightest of apparent effort absolutely nailed it and the ball flew for miles and miles ??? This is when you’ve struck the ball with great timing and right out of what’s called the ‘sweet spot’.

Every single golf club has a sweet spot, including your putter, but when you are putting clearly you’re not trying to hit the ball as far as you can.

However, striking your putt out of the sweet spot will help you with the most crucial part of putting, and that is consistent distance control, or pace.

To check how consistent your strike is, next time you are practising, don’t aim for an actual hole, but hit (say) 4 or 5 putts with exactly the same length swing at the same tempo. If your strike is consistent (and you’re using the same type of golf ball !), every putt should roll the same distance, give or take an inch or so. If not you need to work on your strike !

Unfortunately there’s more to a great strike than simply hitting it out of the sweet spot. If only it were that easy !! Over and above finding the sweet spot you also need to perfect your tempo and ensure the putter is still accelerating when you strike the ball.

On our DVD Maurice will show you how to find that sweet spot every time and teach you the characteristics of a great strike!

Ball Position

Perfect Ball Position

If you’ve read the previous posts (putting grip, stance, alignment), you should be getting the message that each part of the putting stroke is as important as the other, and that if you have not got every element correct then you’re unlikely to become a great putter.

Your ball position is the next important part to add to your great putting grip, solid stance and perfect alignment. Unlike the full swing, the ball position for a putt never changes. When your ball position is correct it ensures that you strike the ball consistently on a slight upstroke. This is to ensure you do not impart any back spin on the putt which makes the ball grip the grass and gives you very inconsistent distance control. If the ball is too far back, in extreme situations it can actually make the ball jump off the green for a split second or you can catch the putting green first and then fluff the putt completely.  On the other hand if the ball is too far forward you might ‘thin’ it and not hit the ball out of the sweet spot.

Also if your ball position is wrong you’re much more likely to start the ball off on the wrong line and you’ll automatically try to compensate for this and ‘steer’ the ball which will again lead to inconsistency.

Getting the ball position right is not difficult, but you need to check it once in a while to ensure you haven’t slipped into any bad habits.

On Golf Putting Online DVD you’ll find a simple and 100% reliable way to check your ball position is correct, and a great drill that Maurice demonstrates to ensure you get your ball position spot on every time!

Putting Grip

The Putting Grip

Your putting grip is the first crucial element that you need to get right, and it’s worth checking it from time to time to ensure you haven’t slipped into any bad habits.

A good putting grip will help you master two most vital parts of becoming a great putter:

• It will ensure you deliver the putter head at exactly right angles to the path of the putt. Remember – whatever the putter head does, the ball will do!
• Since your putting grip is the only contact point with the club it provides you with feedback from which you can learn the feel. From this you can learn the most important part of putting – controlling pace.

Unlike your power grip (woods and irons) which is very much in the fingers, your putting grip should be in the palms of your hands to ensure there is NO wrist movement.

If you’ve watched some golf on TV, you would have seen a number of different putting grips employed by the pros, but all of them have some things in common – the basics.

Whichever putting grip you choose to use you need to ensure you have got the basics correct, including:

• Where the putter lays in your hands
• How your hands are aligned on the putter – the palms should be facing each other just like you clap, and your thumbs should be pointing straight down the putter grip (which should be flat on the front to help you)
• Your putting grip pressure – but what is even more important is maintaining the same putting grip pressure throughout the stroke (try practising with your eyes closed to help you work on this)

Golf Putting Online DVD will help you master all of the above and a whole lot more to ensure you’ve got the perfect putting grip with easy to follow exercises. Oh – and don’t forget to bring your toothpaste!

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