Always chuckled when people say “almost a good putt” about a 20-footer that stops 1/2” in front of the hole. How is that any different to one that misses 18” long?
So good! I will definitely use that.
100%. I never hit a putt without taking a stroke or two looking at the hole. Really helps get the tempo dialed in before taking your stroke. I feel it really really helps with my speed.
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Great drill thanks for sharing!
Not sure if this is the correct place to post this (feel free to move), but here goes.
I have an old ankle/foot injury that has led to limited movement and feeling, getting worse over the years. Parenthetically, it’s cost me balance and a ton of distance since it’s painful to post on my trail foot in the full swing.
Jon, would you still recommend Aimpoint to someone like me?
I’ve attempted to sense green slopes thru my feet with very limited success.
On the flip side, my green reading has become more acute to compensate but I’d still like to improve. Any thoughts/suggestions?
Thx!
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That’s tough to say. I think a good starting point would be to get yourself a digital level, and start measuring what 1, 2, 3% slopes feel like on the green, and then test yourself. If you are really unable to get them dialed in because of your injury then perhaps it might not be a good idea for you.
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I don’t know if anyone else has mentioned this, but a good tip that I have learned along with the speed is to putt to the high end of the hole. If you try to ease it up most of the time you will fall short and break to the low side of the hole and travel away from the hole further. I will put a little more high side slope to my putt and if I hit it short it will have a better chance to stay close to the hole, and if I hit it long it will drift closer and leave me an easier putt coming back.
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One of the big mysteries of golf, how hard to hit that long putt. I say hit and hope. That is probably why I have become a good chipper as I never putt unless I absolutely have to. Even if I am only 6 foot away on the fringe or faced with downhill to the pin I always chip. If I am more than 20ft from the pin I have hit a poor pitch.
No expert, but I’d say you can learn the system (this one or any system really) in a modified way that compensated for the injury. In your case, that might mean learning to feel the slope with the good foot down with most of your weight on it and the other just lightly touching for balance.
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Prior to this season I’d really struggled on fast greens as I’d rarely played on them; so this season I’ve put a lot of effort into improving my speed control on fast greens (eg. 10 stimp or more).
And it started paying off as my distance from the hole on first putts was generally getting much closer and my incidence of 3 putts was dropping.
But, ironically, my last few rounds on slow greens I’ve struggled to keep the first putts close and have 3 putted more…
sheesh…
::sigh::
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Ooh, I really like the idea of putting to the high side of the hole. Works for every type of putt. Downhill you putt to the near edge (which is the high side of the hole) which makes you putt softer. Uphill you putt to the far side (again, the high side) which makes you putt firmer. And on side hill, putt to high side to make sure you read enough break and miss on the high side, if anything.
Mind. Blown. 
Am I the only one that does this?
Having played computer golf games and wished there was a ‘power meter’ that you could putt with in real life, I realised you could use your feet and the distance you take your putter back in relation to your back foot to pre-set distance.
So I walk from hole to ball and count the steps (not paces) and from anything between 6 and 25 I have a point to take the putter back to.
My right foot is 8 steps, just outside is 11, a bit more is 15 steps. Then you count 1000-2000-3000-4000 to keep the tempo the same, and putt. You have already adjusted for speed of green, uphill/downhill etc and all you have to do is putt like a machine.
You must NOT let any feel get involved or else you will give an uphill putt a ‘bit more’ and knock it 3 feet past. Its already been dialed in, you must be a machine, in fact its best not to look at the hole at all.
When I first sorted this out I didn’t three-putt for 4 rounds, and I only three putt now if I miss a tiddler (it doesn’t help with those) and I would say its pretty difficult to hit a bad putt using this method as long as you don’t let any feel interfere! You could misread the putt seriously as well of course, but that would happen anyway.
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Possibly, but you don’t need to practice if you do this ~
Having played computer golf games and wished there was a ‘power meter’ that you could putt with in real life, I realised you could use your feet and the distance you take your putter back in relation to your back foot to pre-set distance.
So I walk from hole to ball and count the steps (not paces) and from anything between 6 and 25 I have a point to take the putter back to.
My right foot is 8 steps, just outside is 11, a bit more is 15 steps. Then you count 1000-2000-3000-4000 to keep the tempo the same, and putt. You have already adjusted for speed of green, uphill/downhill etc and all you have to do is putt like a machine.
You must NOT let any feel get involved or else you will give an uphill putt a ‘bit more’ and knock it 3 feet past. Its already been dialed in, you must be a machine, in fact its best not to look at the hole at all.
When I first sorted this out I didn’t three-putt for 4 rounds, and I only three putt now if I miss a tiddler (it doesn’t help with those) and I would say its pretty difficult to hit a bad putt using this method as long as you don’t let any feel interfere! You could misread the putt seriously as well of course, but that would happen anyway.
Sounds good, going to try that in my practice!
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Seems like an interesting idea that could be beneficial and helpful. I feel like anything that takes your mind off of “thinking too much” is helpful. I will often putt on the practice greens with my eyes closed. I feel like I putt really well that way, because I’m not thinking about hitting the ball but just feeling the putter. I haven’t tried it in a round yet, but found it interesting to see Sergio Garcia doing it.
Yes, a lot of golfers … including myself … have worked out a calibration for themselves that correlates length of stroke - typically backstroke - to length of putt.
I emphasized that last bit as - I guess depending on your own particular putting method - going uphill / downhill, sidehill, or fast / slow, etc greens can yield an “effective” distance to roll the putt that’s different vs the actual length between the ball and the hole.
As @kerryflitter mentioned… putt stroke tempo is critical and should be as constant as you can make it, regardless of the length of stroke.
I believe it’s an important skill to develop and practice, and have been working a lot on this myself!
As an fyi, one tip I was given was…
…imagine holding the golf ball in your hand, palm up, and tossing the ball underhand to the hole…
…then use that exact same arm movement and effort with your putter…
Really liked this drill! Didn’t keep score but it was a nice practice routine for me.
I will have to try that. Two 3 putts today both lipped out so long putting was ok
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Still working on this… newest game is leapfrog… two tees about 5 feet apart, start from 10 feet out… hit the first put to the first tee, and then see how many balls I can get between the two tees… Did it today and with a number of collisions (which I counted) I got to 9… 0 collisions and I got to 3… 
Definitely a good drill and something I plan on doing more often… I also like the ladder drill of 3 one foot sections in a row… 5-10 feet need to hit the 1 foot target, 10-15 need to hit the 2 foot target, 15+ needs to hit the three foot target… I need to actually keep score on this one.
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