The Real Secret To Excellent Putting

By Jack Moorehouse

Putting represents almost half of the strokes played during a round, so anything that improves your putting—whether it’s taking golf lessons or practicing golf tips provided by a professional—improves your scores and your golf handicap. Just think how many putts you make in a typical round, without three-putting a hole.

One way to fine tune your putting is improving control of your speed. In many ways speed is the single most critical factor in sinking a putt. A long putt could be dead-on and still not go in if your speed is off.

Key Factors in Precise Putting
Good putting, as I emphasize in my golf lessons, starts with a good pre-shot routine. The preparation for a putt, whether you’re facing a short or a long one, should always follow a fixed routine. Most players who have high and medium golf handicaps don’t have a fixed putting routine.

Address is also a factor. Everybody addresses a putt in the same way, especially when it comes to standing over a putt. If you stand hunched over the ball, like Japan’s Isao Aoki, instead of erect, your stroke resembles that of a pendulum, straight back and through. If you stand erect, like Curtis Strange, your stroke moves slightly inside going back, then returns straight through “impact” and on towards the target.

Another factor in good putting is technique. Nick Price is one of the tour’s top putters. His technique is based on a locked left wrist and a shoulder dominated stroke. Price’s putterhead still faces the initial line of the ball well after impact. Curtis strange keeps his wrists firm and uses a pendulum action controlled mostly by his shoulders. Both players keep their eyes focused directly over the ball when putting.

Another important aspect is movement. Aoki brings the head of the putter back into a square position at impact, while his head has remained perfectly still throughout the putt. The slightest head—or body movement—during your stroke can cause you to miss a putt. A good putter remains motionless even after a ball is struck, as I’ve often written in my golf tips. As with other golf shots, the club’s position at the end of the stroke is a good indicator of the shot’s success.

Controlling Speed is the Key
To really fine-tune your putting stroke, you need to control speed. Producing the correct speed is one of four crucial skills needed to be a good putter, the other three being reading the putting line, aligning the putter, and executing the moment-of-impact factors. Improving any one of these three factors improves your putting. Improving all four improves your putting dramatically.

Ultimately, however, speed is a key factor. The ability to control putterhead speed translates into the ability to control ball speed, and ultimately, the ability to make more putts. If your control isn’t what you want it to be or has diminished, this drill that will help you learn to better control speed.

Find a hole on the practice green that requires a flat, straight putt. Place a sand wedge perpendicular to the line of the intended putt. Place the club’s face down and the narrow part of the shaft in front of the hole, just at the cup’s edge.

Now putt the ball from three feet or so. Hit the putt so that the ball hits the shaft, pops into the air, and falls in the hole. If you decelerate the putterhead through the stroke, the club stops the ball from going in. If you accelerate through the stroke, the club drives the ball over the shaft and in.

In addition, narrow your focus when putting. Instead of concentrating on the hole, zero in on an imperfection at the back of the cup or a mark on the inside of it. Then stroke the putt toward that spot.

When putting on the course, visualize the wedge’s shaft in front of the hole. Visualizing fosters acceleration and focuses you on the putting process, not the outcome, helping you sink more short putts. This in turn boosts confidence and cuts strokes from your golf handicap, so work on this drill to improve control of your speed and keep the other putting factors in mind when practicing.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros.” He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.