how to putt

There are teaching pros out there who will tell you that putting is all about PGA: posture, grip and alignment. And while that is certainly true, you also see all kinds of different postures and alignments on the tour. Since the same thing is true about the "swing" it brings you to the realization that there is no "perfect swing" there is only the perfect swing for you. It's the same way with putting, while posture, alignment and grip are important for putting, you'll never be a great putter until you get speed down pat.

Our PGE acrostic is all set up. Once you get the fundamentals for those down, you still have to learn how to get the ball to the hole at the right speed. Line has to be taken into consideration as well, but learning to read greens is an art. The best way to read a green? The same way the pros do. Go out to your local course before or after anyone is on eht greens with a bucket of balls and roll them toward the hole. Tour pros roll hundreds of balls by hand and make copious notes about speed and breaks. Sorry if I just burst your bubble there, but you simply cannot merely look at a green and know what the ball is going to do until you've seen dozens of balls rolling on that particular green from every possible angle. So we'll leave line alone for now.

That only leaves speed. Speed is the most important thing when it comes to putting and it it rife with more myths than you can shake a stick at. Call it our Type A personalities. There are all kinds of colloquialisms you can think of for "coming up short" that give a very negative connotation and feeling to barely missing a putt because you didn't give it quite enough 'umph.' And it's all nonsense. I've actually heard people say "I would rather  be past the hole a foot than short an inch." Blather, all of it, why not rather leave it one inch short in any direction and have a one inch tap rather than something five or ten times longer and watch that one spin the rim as well?

So here is your exercise to work on putting speed. First, start with your five foot putts. If you can be deadly from five feet you will always know you'll rarely three putt no matter how far away you are from the cup once you get on the green. If you can pitch, chip or lag fairly close to the hole, your putting average will go way up, which will drop your score dramatically over every 18 holes.

Mastering your five foot putts will require four golf balls (though more is better). Place on golf ball behind the cup - a shade less than one ball width from the back edge. Put another ball on either side of the cup the same distance form the edge. Any ball that approaches the cup that would not hit any of these three balls will go in the hole. It has to do with the physics of round objects, but no one really cares about physics facts - as long as it helps you beat Fred the next time you play.

You can actually make a little cardboard or paper cutout that will let you place these three balls anywhere there is grass or carpet, and that's the next step. Or, you can make a sort of horse shoe shape in those dimensions to practice putting into. All you want to do is get a feel for putting toward this area and letting the ball come to rest inside of it, never past it. If your ball stops in a place where the bottom is not touching your line, it would have been a putt into the hole. Kind of amazing how big that cup really is, isn't it?

Once you get your speed down without putting at a hole at all, go to the practice green and try fifty five foot putts. You will be amazed at how many just fall gently into the cup when the speed is just right. And once you actually get onto the course, you will find that  getting your speed right on your putts will leave you with mostly tap-ins for two putts and very few three putts, shaving stroke after stroke from your round.