How to Putt Out of Your Dreams from Long Range

The approach shot you just hit lands softly on the green just like you planned. You walk up to the green to find your ball just 25 feet from the cup.

With the putter in hand, you roll the ball 10 feet past the cup.  Ah, @#$%^!

Bad putting comes from a lack of proper routine and prioritizing your practice correctly.

Maybe you don't know you should have a routine or you've heard you should but don't know what to do.

Let’s go over developing a routine and how to execute it.

The general approach for developing a routine is only six words.

See it. Feel it. Trust it.

This routine is from the book, 7 days in Utopia. This is a very meaningful and powerful book and its overall approach to the mental game within the pre-shot routine works.

See the shot happen. Feel the swing and the club in your hands. Trust that you can execute the shot (That is a 30,000 foot view of the book).

If you haven't read the book 7 days and Utopia, you need to. It is a must read for every golfer. Put it on your list, go buy it, read it and reread it. It will change the way you look at the game and it's a very fast, entertaining, fun, read.

Here are some more specifics on developing your routine…

On the green, consist of starting out by marking your ball. Place a coin or similar object behind the ball and pick the ball up. Make sure the ball is clean. From there, read the green and see the ball go in.

Walk halfway to the hole between your ball and the hole. Make some practice strokes while you look at your target. Feel the stroke a few times from halfway and then walk back to your ball and make some more practice strokes while looking at your target.

Then, step up to the ball, set up, and stroke it in.  

Here is a specific drill to help with your lag putting…

Practice the ladder drill. The ladder drill consists of three balls.

Place one ball each at 20, 30 and 40 feet. Find putts that are uphill, downhill, breaking to the left and breaking to the right.

Stroke the putt from 30 feet, then 20 feet and then 40 feet. This will help to refine your feel and teach you to lag the ball closely to the cup with greater precision.

Be sure to go through your full routine on each putt. To complete one cycle of the ladder drill, be sure to have 10 minutes (3 putts from 20, 30 and 40 feet each respectively on putts that are uphill, downhill, breaking left and breaking right - that is 12 total putts).

Happy putting :) 

Any comments, questions or suggestions for topics are welcome; enter them in the comment box below. Your topic might be the next post! 

For more, visit http://www.gibbsgolf.com 

The Dreaded 3 Putt

You’re on the green in regulation for the first hole of the day. You lineup your putt and end up leaving it five feet short. You miss the five footer and are disgusted. You walk off the green with the bogey knowing one slipped away.

Now on the second tee frustrated, you swing a little harder and send the ball out of bounds. You make triple bogey and then shoot 52 on the front nine all because the three putt on the first hole of the day.

Sound familiar?

It's embarrassing to miss that second putt from short range. Why does this happen?

3 putts occur because of a poorly executed routine.

The average three putt occurs between 30 and 40 feet. From this range, you need to have one goal in mind - get inside of 3 feet for your second putt.

Here's a technique for eliminating the three putt –

Read the green from back to front and left to right to get a general idea of the slope of the entire surface of the green. Then, (this next point cannot be stressed enough to almost every student, even the low handicap ones) look from the perpendicular low side of the target line at the intended line of the putt.

For instance, if the putt goes uphill from south to north and breaks west to east you need to stand on the east side of the green and look to the west at your line (re-read that sentence again and be sure you understand it because this is the point that tour players spend the majority of there time reading the green from). This will show you how up or down the slope is, plus any additional depressions or undulations missed from looking at the putt from another angle.

And on the physical putting routine…

Once you have read the green, walk halfway between the hole and your ball.

Look at your target and make some practice strokes continuously while you are looking at your target.

Now step back to your ball and do the same thing again. Make three or four continuous practice strokes while looking at your target.

Step up to the ball, set up to your target and stroke it in the hole.

For more, visit http://www.gibbsgolf.com