Luckily there are usually only two reasons why you’re missing short putts – either you are not starting the ball off on the correct line (the putter face is not aligned correctly) or you are changing the line of your putt during your stroke. Below are some great golf putting tips to try and help you with short putts!

• Golf Putting Tip #1
  Practice the ‘push’ drill as much as possible – this will tell you if you are aiming the club face at the target correctly.
  If you subscribe to the “7Deadly Putting Sins” we’ll send you a free bonus lessons from our Golf Putting Lessons DVD which will show you how to do this.
  If you are missing putts when executing this drill then clearly you are not aiming the club at the hole correctly. Check your grip, alignment and ball position if this is the case. One or more of them will be causing this.
  .
• Golf Putting Tip #2
  Take a shorter back-swing than normal for short putts. This helps you accelerate the putter through the ball to get a nice sweet strike. This is one of the BEST tips for short putts.
  .
• Golf Putting Tip #3
  NEVER NEVER NEVER look at the hole – this is very likely to make you move your body (which needs to be perfectly still) and this will then make you swing along the wrong line.
  Practice short putts on the practice green with your eyes shut and just listen for the sound of the ball dropping into the hole.

Remember – it doesn’t really matter if you miss hit your drive or iron by 1 or 2 degrees, but with putting you can’t get away with it – you will miss the hole!

For a bit of fun we’ve compiled a list of our favourite golf quotes from some of the worlds greatest golfers and golf coaches.

All of them have a truth to them though, so try to remember some of them next time you are practising or out on the golf course.

Here are some of Lee Trevino’s famous funny golf quotes:

“If you are caught on a golf course during a storm and are afraid of lightning, hold up a 1-iron. Not even God can hit a 1-iron” (Don’t try this at home…)

“An interesting thing about golf is that no matter how badly you play, it is always possible to get worse”

“One of the nice things about the Senior Tour is that we can take a cart and a cooler. If your game is not going well, you can always have a picnic”

“You can make a lot of money in this game. Just ask my ex-wives. Both of them are so rich that neither of their husbands work.”

****

“No-one ever swung a golf club too slowly” – Bobby Jones

“The most important shot in golf is the next one” – Ben Hogan

“There is no similarity between golf and putting – they are two different games. One is played in the air and the other on the ground” – Ben Hogan

“Of all the hazards, fear is the worst” – Sam Snead

“A routine is not a routine if you have to think about it” – Davis Love Jr

“A golfer has to train his swing on the practice range, then trust it on the course” – Dr Bob Rotella

“When you lip out several putts in a row, you should never think that means that you’re putting well. When you’re putting well, the only question is what part of the hole it’s going to fall in, not if it’s going in.” – Jack Nicklaus

The best way to improve your putting is to get some golf putting training, but as with most things there are a number of ways to achieve this.

Firstly you can of course visit your local golf driving range or golf course and ask for some golf putting training. Not every driving range has putting facilities, but if you look around you should be able to find one. Further bear in mind that you’ll probably need the weather to be kind if the green is outdoors and putting lessons during daylight are preferable to those in the dark!

Ensure the golf professional is PGA qualified and don’t be afraid to ask. This will ensure they are approved to teach you both safely (not quite so important with putting) but also it proves they have passed stringent PGA teaching qualifications.

The next best option in golf putting training is a set of instructional DVDs or lessons downloadable from the internet. The ‘downside’ of these as opposed to one-to-one lessons with a golf professional is that he is not there to tell when you’re doing things wrong. So you need a golf training instruction program that ensures you can check you are executing the lessons / drills correctly. This is VITAL – without these you may be practicing the wrong things which could actually make things worse. Ensure the golf training DVD includes plenty of feedback tips to check you’re on the right track.

One advantage of a golf putting training DVD over a golf professional is that you can watch it over and over again at your convenience, and in the long run this makes it a much better value.

Finally there are a number of golf putting training aids available. In our opinion many of these training aids really aren’t necessary since they can be replicated by using things already at your disposal – for free! For example – to ensure you’re moving the putter straight back and through simply using a skirting board and run your putter back and forwards along it. Or you can use other golf clubs to help you work on your alignment.

Whichever golf putting training method you think is best for you, you’ve made a great decision to try and improve your putting!

During your next game of golf, calculate how many times you use your putter in your round. It will definitely be over 40% and possibly quite a lot higher, so it stands to reason that you should spend more time for your golf putting practice.

Not only is the amount of time you spend for golf putting practice is important, it’s also very important what you practice?

The key to golf putting practice is to ensure that whatever practice you do is making you develop habits. Practicing the wrongs things will make you develop bad habits which can become so difficult to ‘unlearn’.

Putting is one of the easiest parts of the game of golf to practice since you can break it down and work on one part of the putting stroke at a time and then put it all together like a jig-saw. For example you can work on your tempo just with a couple of cushions and your putter or you can work on your swing ratio with a couple of tee pegs in the green.

So – what should you practice?

With putting the first thing you need to be confident of is that you can hit the ball at your intended target. If your intended target is not right, that’s a different issue! But that can be addressed later.

To do this you first need to work on short straight putts and ensure you can hole those up to a length of around 8 to 10 feet. And to hole these you need to work on drills that will ensure your alignment is correct – both your body and your club face alignment.

Work on really short putts to start with, and as you get better at these, start to move away from the hole. If you start to miss, move nearer the hole again.

After this you can start to work on other drills as you get further away from the hole including tempo, ball position and then start working on the next most crucial factor – pace.

Much of learning to hit putts with the correct pace comes from experience, but you need to ensure you are controlling the pace of your putts in the correct way – otherwise you will experience inconsistent results.

Finally you need to practice putting under pressure – if you can perform well under pressure you’ll have a HUGE advantage over other players. For this you need to work on your psychology and practice drills that simulate the pressure of a real game.

You’ll find separate lessons on the golf putting lessons DVD covering golf putting practice drills, how to control pace (under short, medium and long putts), psychology and another lesson on how to read greens.

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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!

But how do you improve your golf, and what is the definition of improving your golf?

Improve Golf By Improving Your Putting

Is improving your golf about:-

• Driving the ball further?
• Hitting the ball straighter?
• Getting out of the bunker first shot every time?
• Recovering from the rough?

There are many ways to improve your golf, but the one thing every golfer wants to do to improve their golf is

HIT LOWER GOLF SCORES and IMPROVE THEIR HANDICAP

To do this you need to analyse your game to spot your weak spots. There are lots of ways to do this, but here are some really useful ones:-

• How many fairways are you hitting?
• When you chip or pitch, how often do you get the ball within 8 feet of the hole?
• How many putts are you taking on each green and in total?
• What percentage of shots are you hitting from within 100 yards?
• How many greens are you hitting in ‘regulation’?
  I.e. If you hit the green on a par 3 with your tee shot, that is hitting a green in regulation. For a par 4 you need to hit the green in two shots to count it as hitting the green in regulation.
  *** Make sure you take your handicap into account when calculating this! ***
• Once inside 30-40 yards, how many shots (including putts) do you take to hole the ball?

What the vast majority of golfers find is that by far the highest percentage of shots is hit from within 100 yards, and certainly for beginners and higher handicappers.

And now think about how much time you spend working on this part of your game?

If you really want to improve your golf you need to work on your weak spots. Hitting the ball another 10 or 20 yards isn’t really going to improve your golf if you are then going to keep taking another three, four or more shots to get the ball into the hole!

If you find that your putting is the weakest part of your game (and MANY amateurs do), you’ve come to the right site. It might not look as impressive as blasting a 300 yard drive down the fairway, but what counts is your score, not how far you hit it!

So start improving your golf by improving your putting game!

The answer is – all of them can work, but none of them on their own will make you a better putter over-night. Ask anyone who’s played for a while and they’ll confirm this.

There are different golf putting tips for different putting problems including:-

• Missing short putts (less than eight feet)
• Inconsistent ball striking
• Poor or inconsistent distance control

Here are a few golf putting tips that will help you in the above situations, but we’ve saved THE VERY BEST GOLF PUTTING TIP until the very end…….

Golf Putting Tips For Short Putts

If you are missing short putts, there is usually a simple reason – either you are not starting the ball off on the correct line (the putter face is not aligned correctly) or you are changing the line or your putt. Here are some great golf putting tips to try and help you with these tricky little putts!

• Golf Putting Tip #1
  Practice the ‘push’ drill as much as possible.
  If you are missing putts when executing this drill then clearly you are not aiming the club at the hole correctly. Check your grip, alignment and ball position if this is the case. One or more of them will be causing this.
• Golf Putting Tip #2
  Make a shorter back-swing than you normally would for short putts.
  This will make you accelerate the putter through the ball to get a nice sweet strike. This is a GREAT tip for short putts.
• Golf Putting Tip #3
  Never EVER EVER EVER look at the hole.
  If you do – you are likely to move your body and therefore change your alignment.  The best tip to help you with this is to practice short putts on the practice green with your eyes shut and listen for the ball dropping into the hole. This will also help you keep your body absolutely still.

Golf putting tips for inconsistent ball striking

There can be a number of reasons why your putting stroke is giving you inconsistent ball striking, which in turn normally leads to poor distance control (although there can be other reasons for poor distance control ). Try these putting tips and see which ones can help you:

• Golf Putting Tip #1
  Check your ball position.
  It should be beneath your left eye (for a right handed golfer), and it needs to be in the same position EVERY time. Put the ball where you normally would. Then take another ball and hold it over your left eye. Now drop the ball from your eye. It should hit the ball you placed on the ground. If it’s not in the correct position sometimes you may hit ‘down’ on the putt or even ‘up’ on the putt giving you an inconsistent strike.
• Golf Putting Tip #2
  Make sure your grip pressure is consistent.
  Your putting grip pressure is important, but even more important is that your putting grip pressure doesn’t change during the stroke. If this changes during the stroke you are more than likely to get an inconsistent strike. So work on this practice without a ball initially and with your eyes closed and make some practice strokes just focusing on your grip pressure – you will feel if it is changing during your stroke.

Golf putting tips for poor or inconsistent distance control

This is probably the most common putting problem amateur golfers face. A lot of this can be down to lack of experience with reading different greens under different conditions, but this can only be learned through playing and learning.

However there are some other reasons other than simply lack of experience which can cause you problems. Here are some more great golf putting tips for you to try which we hope will help you.

Firstly make sure your ball striking is consistent with our last set of golf putting tips. Then try the following Golf Putting Tips:

• Golf Putting Tip #1
  Always make your back swing and follow-through the same length (or a slightly longer follow though is OK). Without this you will be accelerating (or decelerating) the putter head at different rates. Practice this by setting some tee pegs into the green and then work from the centre of them ensuring you touch both tee pegs.
• Golf Putting Tip #2
  Ensure your tempo is CONSISTENT.
  This is probably one of the most crucial elements to ensure your distance control is consistent. If you swing the club at different speeds you will of course end up with different results with each putt. A great golf putting tip to help you with this is to place two cushions on the floor at home and simply hit each cushion in turn like a pendulum or metronome. Change the distance between the cushions and repeat. Each swing will take slightly longer, but ensure you move the putter at the same speed back and through on each practice stroke.
• Golf Putting Tip #3
  Control distance by changing the length of your swing, not how hard you hit it.
  This sounds simple doesn’t it, but it’s one of the toughest parts of the putting stroke to get right, and even harder under pressure!
  The best putting tip to help with this is to 100% relax the muscles in your arms and keep them relaxed. Then simply rock the shoulders back and forth varying the length of the swing to control the distance. Don’t be tempted to grip the putter at the last second and ‘hit’ it with your arm muscles! Trust your swing and let the putter head do the work……

And now for the BEST GOLF PUTTING TIP of all

GO TO YOUR LOCAL GOLF PROFESSIONAL AND ASK FOR A PUTTING LESSON!

We encourage you to purchase Golf Putting DVD from our online store in combination to a few face to face putting lessons with your local golf professional

Have you ever had putting lessons?

not suggesting you need a dedicated putting coach – your local PGA golf professional will be able to coach you to a very high level.

One of the great things about golf putting lessons is that the improvements often happen much more quickly than in the ‘main’ golf swing. This is partly because amateur golfers actually know surprisingly little about putting, but it is also because with putting there are far fewer moving parts in the swing.

Due to this another good way to take golf putting lessons is with some instructional golf DVDs. Since one of the main aims of putting is to stay as STILL as possible during the stroke you can work on this yourself by looking in a mirror for example. If you have a good quality DVD the putting lesson will include drills that give you instant feedback, and the great thing about putting lessons on DVD is that you can watch them over and over again. Golf professionals can teach you all there is to know about golf, but it’s not easy to remember everything that’ s covered in a lesson so being able to replay them is a great advantage.

If you are the beginner, we highly recommend you to start with by subscribing to “7 Deadly Putting Sins” Video Lessons on your right hand side and they are FREE!
Once you learned the basics you can then progress to Golf Putting Lessons DVD

We also offer 2 DVDs + E-Book instant download PACKAGE for just $77
CLICK HERE for more information

But just what does make Augusta such a difficult course?

Primarily it’s the greens, but not simply the speed of the greens – the contours are also very important (but difficult to see on TV) and flag positions (which remember change every day in a pro tournament).

The speed of putting greens are measured by a device called a ‘stimpmeter’. In very simple terms this is a ramp that green staff roll a golf ball down, and it ensures that the ball is rolling at 6 feet per second when it leaves the end of the ramp. This is performed on as flat a part of the green as possible, and the speed of the green is then defined as how far in feet the ball rolls. Green staff use this to ensure each green on the course is of a similar speed, not simply to measure how fast they are.

Most amateur golf courses will range from 4.5 feet (slow) to 8.5 (fast) and this depends on how short the grass is, how dry the greens are etc. A professional golf tournament will have green speeds between 6.5 (slow) to 10.5 (fast).

At Augusta the typical green speed is between 12 and 12.5, and can sometimes get even faster if they let the greens dry out (weather permitting)!

Very importantly though is where you hit your ball onto the green at Augusta. With greens this fast, if you are facing a downhill putt, once the ball is rolling it’s literally impossible to stop it once it starts rolling and has some momentum. In extreme circumstances the ball can even run off the green and back down the fairway (which is also cut quite short) or even into water on a number of greens!

This is one of the main reasons that experience counts at the Masters. Knowledge, particularly on the greens, is crucial.

It’s also one of the reasons it’s one of the most exciting and fascinating golf tournaments to watch, and can often make golf professionals look like the majority of golfers – amateurs!

Flyover video tour of “Augusta National Golf Club