David Gil, golf professional at Club La Cañada, shows us the most common problems when putting and how to solve them.
The putting stroke is the most decisive on the course, with an average percentage of use of 40% per round of golf. It is clearly the club we use the most. In my previous articles I have not devoted much time to it and that is why in this issue and as a continuation of my previous article dedicated to it, I will try to increase the information given about this stroke.
I will also talk about the most common mistakes we make on the course with the putt and, as always, I will give you the necessary advice to practice them and improve them with a series of exercises.
The most common mistakes with the putt:
– Poor strength control
– Poor fall reading
– Lack of strength
– Negative thoughts
– Poor tee line
– Poor impact (toe or heel of putter)
– Always practice to the hole and not to a smaller target.
STANCE WITH THE PUTTER
As always, everything starts with a good stance, and with the putter it will be no different. The putter is a club that allows for many different types of stance. We see every day, even Tour players, putting on the ball in many different ways. This is also because in the market we can find a great variety of models in putters, with different inches in length, with different models of grips and with shafts set centrally on the head of the club or set back at the heel.
Therefore, I will give you the most classic formula to position yourself on the ball. But for me the most effective, starting from a putt 35 inches long:
1.- The inclination of the body and position of the ball
Legs slightly bent with the weight always on the left side. The ball should always be slightly forward of your body axis.
2.- Eyes should be over the ball
Take a ball in your practice, put it at eye level, release it and check if it lands on the ball on the ground. If it does, your tilt is perfect.
3.- The grip
Keep your hands solid so that your wrists remain steady throughout the movement. We have many types of putting grips, but the function of all of them is the same.
4.- The putting swing
It will always be short. Work more with the speed and not with the length of the movement.
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THE MOST COMMON FAILURES
Force control
This failure is very common and is sometimes caused by practicing before going out in the putting area shooting the holes.
There is a psychological side to the issue. When we practice to the holes, it ceases to matter if we fall short or overshoot, which makes the green speed factor take a back seat.
Exercise
You have to place three balls at different distances from the edge of the green, first looking to be in a flat place and then, if the practice area allows it, look for ascending and descending slopes, without hole; just try to leave the ball close to that place. This way you will only be concentrating on the strength and speed of the green.
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Misreading the drops
The misreading of the drops is something that happens to all golf players, but we have to work so that the ball in case of failure is behind the hole and does not pass in front of it, having lacked strength or direction. The fact of not giving enough fall is a very common failure in which we would have to work with this exercise.
Exercise
Place a stick on the ground, try to keep the ball on a putt from right to left on the right side of the stick and as close to it as possible.
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Lack of strength
Falling short of the hole can be caused by several factors:
-A poor quality of the impact (I explain it later, in the bad impacts section)
-Error in the speed of your swing. For this issue I advise, apart from the exercise, to work with tools such as a specialized mirror for the practice of putting, which will help us to work on the length of the movement.
Exercises
Practice a lot of putting on uphill slopes and with distances between 4 and 8 meters, always trying to go beyond the hole.
-Put a limit of maximum one meter past the hole. Your balls should always be between the hole and the boundary mark.
-Use the putting mirror.
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Negative thoughts
This is a very important aspect to avoid. Sometimes the pressure we put on ourselves makes the stroke more complicated. For this I will give you two tips:
Exercise
1.- Before each stroke on the course and especially on short putts, place yourself behind the ball, each swing you make will be an example of your stroke on the ball and imagine the ball rolling towards the hole. That way you will be much more confident on the ball.
2.- Before you tee off, on the practice green, put the ball less than one meter from the hole and hit several shots from that distance. You will go to the course with much more confidence after hitting several shots.
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Bad tee line
This is a technical factor that, like the previous ones, is very important. We will be able to aim and read the drop perfectly, but, if when hitting the ball it does not go in the chosen direction, the shot will not go in.
This failure can be caused by the line of our swing or because the clubface arrives open or closed.
Exercise
We are going to work it to adjust it to perfection by placing two tees as a goal with the opening of the width of our putt at less than one meter, without any objective, only to put the ball between the two tees.
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Bad impacts
As in the long game, with the putt we will have to ensure good impacts so that the ball:
-Rolls enough
-Goes out in the right direction
-Spin without spin
That is why not hitting in the center of the putt or in the center of the ball can cause us some unexpected surprises.
Exercises
To hit the ball in the center of the putt
Glue a coin with tape paper in the center of the club head, this will help you to concentrate on making a much more controlled swing both in length and speed. The results will be very positive if you manage to do this on a regular basis.
Tape a coin to the center of the putter face. Hitting in the center will be the only option with this drill to get a straight stroke.
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To hit the ball in its center
Place a ball marker behind the ball and try to hit it without removing it. This will cause the impact
to occur slightly above the surface, the exact location of a good putting stroke. The ball will roll much better if you can do this.
Practice always aiming at small targets
Practicing at the hole is fine: that’s what you will do in the field. But if we talk about practice, always try to place smaller targets.
Exercise
Place a tee several centimeters from the center of the hole. This way, if you get used to doing it in your practices, the mistakes will be smaller. The fact of practicing at smaller targets helps a lot to your concentration and will take a lot of pressure off you on the course.
I hope that after this article and with these exercises you will improve your results on the green and enjoy better results in your games and tournaments.
On this occasion I would like to thank the Club de Golf La Cañada, where the photos for this article were taken, and congratulate the entire team for their beautiful course, which they maintain in spectacular condition throughout the year.
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