Putting Tips DISTANCE CONTROL Introduction The Monty Move Distance, The Putter & The Ball The Pop Putt, The Panic Putt & The Pro Putt Applying The Pro Putt Muscle Memory PERFECT LINE Introduction Eye Position Ball Position Hand Position Body Alignment The Grip Forward Press The Takeaway Summary

DISTANCE CONTROL

Applying The Pro Putt

You've probably had lots of golf putting tips and golf instruction that did nothing but confuse you. When you practice using the ball to control the pace of a putt you're not worried about lifting your head, jerking your hands, stabbing, yipping, coming up short, blasting the ball off the green or any other common fault. In fact you'll find that a pro putt is an unhurried series of actions that consistently achieves near perfect results.

Once you become accustom to seeing the putter and ball traveling in unison you need to know how to apply that relationship to putting on a regular green.

First select a 30ft putt on grass or carpet, set up normally and raise your putter up to eye level. Then drop the putter down so that you can look over an horizontal putter face to your target (just like aiming a rifle). Lower the putter back down to an address position and take it up to level with the target again without a backswing. Do it a few times while asking yourself one simple question. Is the speed of the putter over the ground faster, slower or the same speed you want the ball to travel?

As soon as you identify the speed you want the ball to travel, begin testing to find a backswing that allows you to achieve the speed you want. When you expect to see the putter and ball traveling together all you need to do is get the putter to the target to get the ball to the target.

In your practice stroke you should look for the amount of backswing necessary to allow you to swing the putter smoothly up to a position that is square, on line and level with the target. Repeat the practice stroke until you're confident that the speed of the putter head over the ground is the same as the speed at which you want to the ball to roll.

With a synchronized stroke, you can expect the ball to behave as if it were stuck to the putter face, so when you're confident that the pace of the putter is right and your backswing is the right length, you can step up to the putt and as long as you keep the putter and ball stuck together like glue you'll begin to rapidly absorb information.

Confidence in your stroke will rise because each time you putt the ball will go exactly where you hit it and that's when you'll realise that putting is not a mystery but rather a predictable and controllable relationship between two objects. If only all golf instruction were so simple.