And of course Sasho recommends a toe hang putter for heads up (mine is center shafted and face balanced).
I’m not that worried about it… Need to do my SG stats from my last round, but it was ugly.
I use a face balanced mallet for heads up putting….heel shafted double bend. Was the recommendation general or specific to your putting stroke?
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Just what sasho said worked best for heads up. I’m sure I’ll be fine.
Hey, can you do a recap of what you did to improve your putting? Any best practices, what would you do otherwise, how many times per week, any routines, etc? Thanks!
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I am not by any means a great putter. I have my ups and downs like anyone else. But if you truly want to improve… start by using your current putter and find a grip and stance that you are comfortable with and can execute a consistent stroke with every single putt. Once you find that, don’t deviate from that for a while. Consistency starts there. My first 3 lessons in my life started with putting and using 6 balls and placing them around the hole (clock drill) starting from 2 ft out and you fill the hole. You’ll probably make them all. Then repeat moving out to 3ft (where you might not make them all), then 4ft where you won’t make them all etc. As you move outward and the circle gets bigger, you want to develop a stroke and a routine that when you miss the ball only goes no more than 2 ft past the hole. So the farther out you go the harder you have to stroke your ball. The PGA pros only make 40% or so of their putts from 10ft. So that tells you just how hard putting is. Once you feel you have gotten comfortable with your routine, stroke, grip and consistency, I would head out to a couple of places and get fitted for a putter, you may change or you may not wish to also, but a good putter fitting that matches everything about YOU will help a bit (until it doesn’t… 
). As you move further out, you definitely want to figure out which is your dominate eye… I’m RH player/LEye dominant, so knowing that helps me align to my target much better. Using the wrong sight alignment of your own body can make you miss a larger breaking putt by feet, and a str8 putt by 6 inches. Proper alignment is crucial (I use a line on my ball) Once I pick out the big target (hole) I find a spot about 1 or 2 ft in front of my ball (a brown spot, or even a blade of grass) and putt to that aiming point using a stroke that will travel an appropriate distance to the hole. Before every round, I spend at least 25 minutes with that clock drill. I also practice at home using a practice mat, just to maintain the stroke. One other secret to becoming a good putter is to understand how to lag putt from distances over 20-40ft. Even though your target might be the 4 inch hole, You want to practice to a 4ft circle around that hole. Remember when I said you will probably make all of those 2 footers. Although it would be great to get fortunate to can that 25ft putt, you also don’t want to 3 putt. So yea…lots to work on there. Good Luck and I hope you can make alot more putts. Funny thing about this game, The 240yd str8 drive can be negated by you blowing a 2.5ft putt after you missed that 25ft putt. The little stroke counts the same as the big stroke! Most of all HAVE FUN!
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Ha, I’ll write some stuff up, but I’m still struggling… actually played with Jon this week! My putting was definitely the weakest part of the game.
Need to improve my concentration on putting… it’s a process.
Alright, so let’s get into the good, the bad and the ugly…
My putting has improved, but not as much as I wanted it to… so let’s talk about it!
There are basically 3 skills we need to putt well: Read, Start Line and Speed. None of those are independent of each other! You can have bad reads and a bad start line and make a putt… this gives you bad data on your putting. If you make a putt because your two mistakes negated each other, you still made 2 mistakes.
So the first key (and this is all opinion) is to eliminate the other two variables from the equation to improve… you can’t work on 2 things at once… if you want to work on speed control, it’s best to do it absent of line work or reading putts… Honestly, I’ve taken the majority of my putting work AWAY from the hole, as it can give feedback I don’t want.
I did a lot of gate drills to work on start line before I started going down rabbit holes… plenty of options here, you can always putt down a metal ruler (make sure it’s actually straight!). Tons of value in getting your start line right and consistent. I should probably go back to doing this more.
Reading greens is a more nuanced question… Aimpoint is popular for a reason, but I have some speculation that the confidence you get from using aimpoint is more important than any additional information you pick up… being confident with your putt is a huge part of putting well, as far as I’m concerned.
Speed control drills are what I spent most of my time doing… Ladder drills specifically. Just putting from various lengths, with my target expanding as I moved farther back. I have some thoughts on how to modify these for more improvement, but this might not be the place (one basic idea would be if you have 4 marks down at a foot apart, AIM at the second mark, and balls that fall short of it are in your “range” once you are outside of 15 feet).
Ultimately, I think my technique has improved… but my mental approach still isn’t there… I’m writing something now on my personal blog about the changes I am going to try to make… but basically, I am not concentrating correctly on making putts… It’s a big focus for me over the winter. I’m honestly not sure exactly how I’m going to do it, but I’m going to start with tempo work (tour tempo has been purchased) but the problem is more when I’m on the course…
I’ve seen decent results when I use THe Stack’s putting feature and it certainly doesn’t carry over to the course, so there is an issue in my mental approach on the greens. I’ll get it sorted out, hopefully.
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Place your approach shots closer to the pin, that will improve your putting average.
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The more you make the putts , the more you will make them. Even at times one has to brain wash themselves (lie to themselves if necessary). As Nicklaus said that he had never missed a 5’ putt, which we all know it’s not the truth. But the important part is, he really believes that he had never missed a short putt.
Let me repeat, I don’t consider myself a great putter. That said, I’m better than everyone in my group who are in the 12 - 15 HDCP range. I’m down to a 7cap now. So I should be better than them. Where I am light years ahead of them is execution of the 3-4 footers. I make almost 90% of them. I did make several changes throughout the summer to really improve which was squaring my stance and implementing the Stricker method. It has definitely freed up my shoulders. My grip has not changed, but grip pressure has changed, I was having issues with (on occasion) my left wrist completely breaking down. I also work very hard on trying to give myself more uphill leaves so I can hit the back of the cup on the short ones as much as possible. The 4 ft circle on the longer putts has really worked for me. Although I am trying to make putts, I also know what the expectation is for me from like 10ft which is maybe 30% if I’m lucky. However, being able to walk and chew gum at the same time…putting my ball from 30ft into a 4ft circle is very doable. It starts to get a little more dicey further out from there, but it’s still a reasonable expectation. I find that I can make probably 99% of putts from 2ft if I take my time and line them up and go through my routine. I miss a few of those when I just take a slap at the ball, which I don’t ever do when I got money on the line. I was taught to read greens, which is different than reading putting lines… You need to start with slope and grade… You know you can look at a green and see how it will break in general just looking at the grass around it especially if there is rough or a bunker, right? Knowing your Eye Dominance will really help with alignment… speed of the green, well if the practice area is the same as the rest of the greens it’s easier, but you gotta hit the practice green before you go out… and of course there is always Mother Nature to mess with you even more. Grass, sun, time of day, etc… You know like when Faldo, Immelman or Azinger says…look at the shine! I read your post 3 times, I’m trying to see where your issue is as you kept saying speed control… Is the issue 3 putting from short distance, is the issue trying to read the green, you are just not going to make alot of putts (as an amatuer) from 10 ft… 2 to 3 outta 10 from 10ft is very, very good. I believe if you adjust your personal expectation of what you expect to make, and make the target 4 ft instead of 4 inches (still trying to hit the Bull’s Eye) you will probably find , you are better than you think.
It’s mostly mental… my stroke is decent, I just lose concentration and hit bad putts.
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I guess I’m asking what’s your definition of a bad putt? Like I said above, Even from 2 ft, if I take a slap at it, because my partner said it’s good, I suck. If I go through my routine, I will make 99% of 2 fts, 96% of 3 fts, 85% of 4 fts, Then it gets progressively worse from there. How Do You Stack Up by Handicap? But I’m right there, actually a titch better than where I’m supposed to be. Believe me, I’m trying to make everything, I’m just no longer expecting to. I definitely don’t beat myself up over missing putts; I do beat myself up over deviating from my routine. I never thought about concentration and focus. BUT… especially playing on a course I don’t play often, I really pay attention to reading the green. Once I do that and I get a good idea of slope and greenspeed, I will pick a line, I will focus on a point in front of my ball on that line. If I roll my ball over that spot, I’m happy, made the putt in my mind, I did all I could. On Longer putts 10 ft on out…I focus on that 4 ft circle large target and try to hit the 4" BullsEye". After that, it’s all routine, That routine is my security blanket. I never deviate from it, if something bothers me, I start that routine over again. Putting, Chipping, Full shot etc. You can set your watch by it. 12 seconds on a full shot. 20 seconds on a pitch or chip, 22 seconds on a putt. I am a very deliberate player. My partners have timed it… so whatever you want to call it… I can converse, I can joke, I can watch birds, make fun of people whatever… Once it’s my turn, for that short period of time everything is shut down until I have played my shot, I don’t look up, I make myself still. I pull the trigger, then I’m fooling around again!
Almost all the top golfers could turn their focus/concentration on like flipping a switch. Except for Ben Hogan who will not even take the slightest risk of breaking his focus during a tournament play.
Thus they say he was cold, icy, and unsocial. It was all about how important the tournament play was to Hogan. Anyone went through what he did before he made a stand on the Tour will act the same way. Back then, it was life or death, playing for limited price money they did back then.
Had they had the luxury of some rich backers throwing away free money then, there wouldn’t be such intensity fighting for the survival on the professional Tour.
It takes practice, but not that difficult to switch off the focus and joke with your playing partners and the switch it back on within a few seconds when you stand over the golf ball.
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100%.
I’m working on it.
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Ok now I see what you are talking about. Yesterday, I did not make 1 birdie putt and did not strike my irons particularly well. I had 1 horrible 3 putt, blowing a 25 ft 15 ft past and did not make the comeback. I did however, make 2 outta 3 sandies from 8 and 12 respectively. I had 2 unbelievable flops that got inside a foot for bogey, (so tap in 1putts) and converted 4 more from 6-8ft for par or bogey. The rest were standard 2 putts, from 15-30ft, that were cozied up for tap ins, they did not go past but 1-2ft. Wasnt a great round and did not break 80. (81). I do have a question, it sounds to me that you are really focusing on your mechanics, especially practicing. I have no doubt that you know what you are doing by now and are probably a very good roller of the rock, even though your stats do not reflect that. Are you, or do you think, when you are playing a round, you are getting lost in your mechanics and just not trusting all the work you have put in and not enjoying the fruits of your labor? In other words trust your process, read it, roll it, hole it! In the words of Eddie Lowery when you are playing. You’ve done it thousands of times, Right? Like me, I worked very hard on my driver mechanics, and when I hit a bad shot, (I am still learning this) accept it. You are going to hit a bad shot! I get on the next tee and start to think about mechanics and that exacerbates things. I hit another duck! I find that just focusing on my target, relaxing and just swinging, I can hit the ball 235-255 keep it in play because I did put in the work and my mechanics are solid. Trust your hard work. If the issue is reading the green, thats just reading a book. Reading a line well thats what separates good putters from great putters, sometimes you see that clearly, and sometimes you don’t,
Strengthening your physical and mental state will help you to adapt to the demand for switching the focus off/on quicker.
Some say meditation will help to focus. This needs time and practice to see any effect, but a very good mental exercise.
I ran my kids through martial arts training when they were younger. Not to learn how to fight or defense, but to learn the discipline and train to be focused. The benefit followed them through their education and beyond. The exercise was also beneficial to grow the kids’ physical stamina.
A healthier body will support a better mental state.
I know we can not be perfectly healthy, especially when we are getting up there with aging. Do the best we can with what we have, just like the game of golf.
We will, enjoy this game much more if we are in better shape physically and mentally.
One other thing is to lay off ( minimize) the alcohol intake. It can turn on you if abusive amount was consumed. Not only bad for your liver and joints, it is also not healthy for your concentration/focus.
Have your vision checked annually, it has everything to do with our game of golf.
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I’m almost 3 years sober, so that helps!
I think I need to dive back into meditation… it certainly checks the box I want to check.
My “season” starts again in March, basically… I have 4 months to grind my mental approach. I’m going to try to make it inform everything i do when I practice…
No just banging balls this year… everything will be built around strengthening my mental game.
I think it has a ton of potential, I’m just not sure how long it will take to harvest that potential.
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There will always be room for improvements.
Make sure you have your vision checked. I had learned that our vision has a very important roll in our mental state.
Alcohol is fine with moderation, but as anything else, too much of a good thing will turn on you. The issue will be able to to stop at a couple of brews per day. Lots of report with the effect of excessive consumption of alcohol on inflammation of muscle and joints.
Beware of practicing deep meditation, it’ll actually be harmful if not done correctly.
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Perversely, miss more greens if you want less putts in total. This is why stats on their own, without context are weak. As you rightly point out, if your approaches are on the green but a long way from the hole…loads putts! But does it make you a bad putter or just a poor iron player?
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