2 Key Putting Tips

I have been working on my putting for sometime and have come down to 2 key ways I suggest you practise with.

Let's start with long putts. The chances of making a putt over 20 to 40 feet is slim. Thus, it is important that you are able to lag it close. Go to the practise green and take 20 balls with you. Put the first 10 balls with your usual style to a target about 30 feet away. Take the next 10 balls and do the same thing; only this time, do it with out looking at your putter or ball. Instead, look only at the hole. You will be surprised at the results. The putts you made without looking at the ball were close and tracked more online. Guess what, your eyes actually told your hands what to do.

Now that you have practise lag putting without looking at the ball, we need to look at how you can bring this to the course. While making your practise stroke, feel like you are making you putt without looking at the ball. Swing the putter back and forth till you feel that you have the right momentum to bring the ball to the hole. This will help you greatly with your lag putts.

Next comes the testy and nerve wrecking 3 footers. For months, I panicked when I stood over a 2 footer. Till my friend Moose offered some great advise. He suggested that my focus should be to have a square putter face at impact. Do not try to stroke the putter as you do on the long putts. Your stroke would be more like a gentle jab to keep the putter face square. This worked wonders for me. You should give it a try.

Hope the above helps you with your putting. And my last advise is that nothing is more powerful than your ability to visualise :)

Quiet Eye for Better Putting

Yup. Finally something about putting. So what is the secret to good putting? I will safely tell you it is not the latest putter that the size of a baseball. And honestly, I don't even care how you grip it.

Picture this for a moment. How would you throw a golf ball to the hole from 20 feet aware? Chances are you just throw it without any thought. Did you look at your hands? Probably not. So the question is why do you focus so intently on your putter head when you are making a putt?

This brings me to Quiet Eye. Dr Joan Vickers from the University of Calgary is an expert in this area. I'll spare you the details. But the following is an excerpt from Dr. Vicker's article in 2004 in Golf Digest.

HOW TO DEVELOP YOUR QUIET EYE
A Quiet Eye routine on straight, flat putts has the following characteristics that you can learn. Repeat this on each putt.

* FOCUS ON THE HOLE: As soon as your putterhead is set behind the ball, pick a specific location on the hole where you want the ball to go, such as a blade of grass or a small feature on the front of the cup.

* 'SEE' THE BALL GO IN: Look at this location for about two seconds, and visualize the ball going into the hole.

* SCAN FROM HOLE TO BALL: Smoothly shift your gaze without interruption from the target to the back of the ball. Your gaze should move calmly and efficiently.

* EYE ON THE BALL: Fixate on the back of the ball, and imagine just the right contact of the putterhead on the ball. Picture a line through this contact point to your spot on the hole.

* STAY STEADY: Maintain a Quiet Eye on the one spot on the back of the ball during the backstroke and forward stroke and through contact. Don't peek! Only after you've done this, take a look at your ball going in the hole.