Putting – Plugged In Golf https://pluggedingolf.com Get plugged in... Fri, 30 Aug 2024 22:14:03 +0000 en-US hourly 1 The Importance of the Follow Through https://pluggedingolf.com/the-importance-of-the-follow-through/ https://pluggedingolf.com/the-importance-of-the-follow-through/#comments Tue, 10 Sep 2024 09:00:46 +0000 https://pluggedingolf.com/?p=114817 The follow through happens after the ball is long gone, so it doesn't matter...or does it? Matt explains the value of the follow through in this lesson.

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Simple Works

As a young coach – in both golf and basketball – I was preoccupied with making sure my students knew how much I knew.  I filled all the available air space with jargon and instruction, convinced that each student’s improvement was directly tied to how many words I said to them.

Now, whether I’m teaching a fourth grader how to shoot a basketball or a fifty year old how to stop slicing, I frequently pare my teaching down to this: hold your follow through.  In this lesson, I’ll explain why this simple idea has so much power.

This Lesson Is For You If:

You want to improve your swing

You have too many swing thoughts

You want to learn about your swing flaws

The Many Virtues of Holding Your Follow Through

One of the primary virtues of “hold your follow through” is its simplicity.  Every player – from the seasoned, scratch golfer to the complete beginner – understands what it means.  We’ve all seen the PGA Tour logo.  Try to look like that when you’re done.  Simple.

Relatedly, this straightforward edict acts as an eraser for the litany of swing thoughts many golfers carry around.  If you’re thinking about holding your follow through, you can’t be worried about your wrist flexion at P2.5.

By erasing swing thoughts, this phrase also relieves a lot of psychological pressure.  All those swing thoughts build up a mountain of expectations: “I need to flex my wrist at the top of the swing so that I can square the face at impact.  If I don’t, I’m going to slice it and look like a hack, oh no oh no oh no.”  It’s no wonder some players get stuck over the ball.  When I ask them to hold the follow through, I’m taking on all the responsibility for the outcome.  If they hold their follow through, they did their job.  Easy.

One more benefit is that “hold your follow through” is an external cue.  Research on motor learning shows that, across sports, people make changes faster with external cues than internal cues [learn more HERE].  External cues allow the golfer to be an athlete and accomplish the goal without micromanagement.

When I ask a player to hold their follow through, a myriad of good things tend to happen.  They usually finish on balance with a proper weight shift into their lead foot and a full turn toward the target.  Typically, they finish the swing with their club over their lead shoulder.  And, often, they do a better job of “releasing” the club face and getting it square at impact.  Pretty good for a “simple” four-word lesson.

Succeed or Learn

One of my favorite things about holding the follow through is that it gives the player feedback that’s easily understood.  All of those benefits I listed a moment ago – weight shift, full turn, balance, “completed” arm swing – come with a clear indicator in the follow through.

If the student finishes the swing standing on their trail leg, we both know they didn’t shift their weight.  If their chest isn’t pointed to the target, they didn’t turn.  If the club isn’t over their shoulder, they may have made a tentative arm swing.  All of this feedback turns into a straightforward cue for the next swing.

This is in stark contrast to most internal cues which require video confirmation.  Needing video not only delays the feedback (a killer to learning), it makes the feedback harder/impossible to get when the student is on their own.  For more on why I hate filming golf swings, click HERE.

A Cue for Your Entire Game

Finally, while the idea of holding your follow through definitely has the most dramatic impact on the full swing, it’s an idea that you can use in every part of your game.  Personally, I find it most helpful in the short game.  I tend to get “stabby” with my chips and pitches, not shifting forward and completing the swing.  Holding that unpleasant, incomplete follow through is a harsh prompt to do better.

On the green, we’re not making dramatic turns or weight shifts, but there are still lessons to learn.  If you’re trying to make a flowing, smooth stroke, you’ll want to see that follow through get the putter head well past the address position rather than stopping at impact.  We can also watch the club face and feel the pressure in our feet for clues about why our putts are starting offline.

“Hold your follow through” isn’t going to make you sound like a PhD of Golf Swing Jargon, but it might be the fastest route to better results.

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Don’t Be the Ball, See the Ball https://pluggedingolf.com/dont-be-the-ball-see-the-ball/ https://pluggedingolf.com/dont-be-the-ball-see-the-ball/#comments Tue, 16 Feb 2021 10:00:42 +0000 https://pluggedingolf.com/?p=77735 Are you struggling with your ball striking? In this short, simple lesson, Matt gives you a tip to fix it.

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The Eyes Aren’t Enough

“Keep your eye on the ball” is some of the most oft-repeated advice in golf.  Go to any driving range and you’ll hear parents telling it to children, wives telling it to husbands, friends telling it to each other.

But what if the eyes aren’t the issue?

I’m writing this very short lesson based on an experience I had at the range recently, and I hope you find it helpful.

This Lesson Is For You If

You find yourself distracted over the ball

You want to start striking and putting the ball better immediately

A Quick Experiment

Rather than spilling a lot of ink trying to explain my point, let me give you a simple demonstration you can do right now.  Read the whole paragraph, then give it a try.

Look at something stationary in your immediate vicinity.  It could be a photo on your desk, your computer mouse, etc.  Don’t move your head or your eyes.  Now, without moving, think about all the things you have to accomplish throughout the rest of your day.

Don’t Look, See

What happened?  Even though your eyes never moved – they were always “on” the object – you stopped seeing it because your mind was somewhere else.  This is what happens to many golfers over the ball.  Their head is down but their mind is thinking swing mechanics, grocery lists, work to-dos, or phone calls to return.

If your focus is not on the ball, it doesn’t really matter where you aim your head and eyes.  When I realized this, I started making a concerted effort to put my eyes and my brain on the golf ball.  I silently said, “Golf ball” to myself as I looked down at the ball before the swing.  My results improved immediately.

Like anything in golf, this isn’t a lesson to be learned once.  Maintaining focus is something that every golfer struggles with, and some days will be better than others.  But if you can make a conscious effort to put your eyes and your mind on the ball, you’ll give yourself the best chance to hit great shots.

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Are You Getting Better at Golf? https://pluggedingolf.com/are-you-getting-better-at-golf/ https://pluggedingolf.com/are-you-getting-better-at-golf/#comments Wed, 06 Feb 2019 10:00:14 +0000 https://pluggedingolf.com/?p=59698 You may be working on your game but are you getting better? It's a tough question to answer, but this lesson may help.

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Difficult Questions

Are you getting better?  How do you know?

These seem like simple questions, however in the world of golf, they’re anything but.  And the difficulty in answering these questions is why so many golfers are endlessly chasing that “miracle tip” that will “change their game forever.”

In this lesson, I’m going to discuss what getting better at golf really looks like, how to measure it, and the key to long term improvement.

This Lesson Is For You If:

You’re practicing but not sure you’re improving

You’re not sure if your swing changes are helping

What Improvement Isn’t

Improving at golf is not “taking the left side out of play.”  Every golfer hits the occasional hook or slice, top or fat.

Improving at golf doesn’t mean you’ll never shoot over 80 or 90 or 100 again.  Look at the best players in the world: one day they shoot 63, the next day they might shoot 75.

Improving at golf doesn’t mean you’ll never miss another 3 foot putt or that you will get up and down from every bunker.

What Improvement Is

Improving at golf is making your best shots a little better, making your worst shots a little more acceptable, and hitting slightly more of the former and fewer of the latter.

Golf has a wide variance.  As I mentioned above, the best players in the world see their scores go up and down from day to day.  They hit world class shots followed by stinkers.  As recreational players, our variance is even higher, and we need to accept that we’re never going to eliminate poor shots or high scores.

How to Measure Improvement

To know if you’re improving you need data, and a lot of it.  The easiest way to collect the data you need is with a shot tracker like Shot Scope.

The reason that I prefer a GPS-based shot tracker over pencil and paper is that it allows for more granular data.  You can write down “Missed Fairway” on your scorecard, but a GPS system can tell you exactly how far offline the shot was.  The “Missed Fairway” alone may keep you from seeing significant improvement.  If you miss five fairways by a total of fifteen yards, that’s great driving.  If you miss five fairways by a total of 100 yards, that’s a lot of lost golf balls.

Finally, you need patience.  Especially as you get better, improvement comes slowly and is hard to see.  A swing change may improve your driving by 10%, but if you’re shooting in the 70s, that’s not going to translate to radically lower scores.  It may not even translate to huge distance gains or a jump in fairways hit.  However, if you track your data for a month or a season, you may see that you’re taking fewer penalties, hitting fewer shots OB, hitting more GIRs, and that will let you know you’re on the right track.

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The Ugly Secret to Golf Improvement https://pluggedingolf.com/the-ugly-secret-to-golf-improvement/ https://pluggedingolf.com/the-ugly-secret-to-golf-improvement/#comments Tue, 16 Oct 2018 09:00:50 +0000 https://pluggedingolf.com/?p=50627 Are you searching for the key to getting better at golf? The answer is here, but you may not like it.

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The Magic Word

One word can explain why some people are successful at golf, finances, weight loss, and virtually any other endeavor you can think of.  And it’s ironic that golfers overlook it, because it’s one of golf’s favorite words.  In this lesson, I’ll tell you what that word is and how to use it to improve your game.

This Lesson Is For You If:

You want to improve any aspect of your game

Consistency

Consistency is the magic word.

Imagine two people, Tom and Jerry.  Tom takes a walk before work and again in the evening.  He eats in moderation, occasionally having some alcohol or dessert.  Jerry is sedentary except on Tuesdays, when he works out in the gym for two hours.  He shovels down plates of food, except on Thursday, when he eats nothing but broccoli and chicken breasts.

Who’s going to be healthier: Tom and his consistent small efforts or Jerry and his feast-or-famine approach?  Obviously, the answer is Tom.

Think about someone who spends too much money.  If, on Monday, they brown bag their lunch, skip the trip to the mall, stay off of Amazon, but go back to their old habits on Tuesday, will their debt evaporate?  Of course not.  Good financial health is a matter of doing the right things, even in very small doses, every single day.

I could create scenarios in any other facet of life, but I trust that you’ve gotten the point.  Every day that you do something positive, you make progress.  Every day that you do nothing, you get further from your goals.

Find Ways to Practice

I hear the push back already.  “I can’t get to the range everyday.”  “I’m busy.”  I get that.  We’re all busy, and unless you have Tiger’s backyard, practicing is inconvenient.  Don’t focus on what you can’t do, figure out what you can do.

One of the best things I did in the past year was to make a club I can swing in my living room.  I bought an old demo 7I, cut it to a length that I could swing in my house, and threw a grip on it.  Now I can work on my swing while I watch my kids or talk to my wife.

Another easy thing to do is putt.  You can putt on your carpet, buy a putting mat, or use a putting trainer.  It doesn’t matter what you’re doing, so long as you’re doing something.

Chart Your Efforts

Jerry Seinfeld has a “productivity hack” that I think everyone should adopt.  He has a calendar, and when he’s done his writing, he marks the day with a big red X.  He’s said that once the streak grew to a couple weeks, he felt the pressure to keep it going, and it motivated him to write, no matter what.

You can use this same idea to make sure that you get a little golf in everyday.  Whether it’s a full range session, some slow motion swings, or just five putts on the carpet, every day that you work on your game puts you one day closer to being the golfer you want to be.

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How to Pick a Putter https://pluggedingolf.com/how-to-pick-a-putter/ https://pluggedingolf.com/how-to-pick-a-putter/#comments Tue, 11 Sep 2018 10:00:05 +0000 https://pluggedingolf.com/?p=55486 Picking a putter can be confusing, but if you follow these steps, you'll be on the path to choosing the right one for your swing.

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Selecting the Perfect Putter

By: Bruce Rearick and Matt Saternus

When you’re going to the store to pick out a putter, what are you looking for?  Are you searching for a particular brand?  A head shape?  A finish?  A certain feel?

In this lesson, Bruce Rearick of Burnt Edges Consulting will lay out what he views as the most important elements of a putter so that you can put the right one in your bag.

This Lesson Is For You If:

You’re wondering if you have the right putter in your bag

You’re interested in getting a new putter

You want to know why your putter does (or doesn’t) work

#1 – Length and Lie

This is the least sexy part of the putter buying process, but it’s critical that you get it right.  The wrong length or lie will put you in a position where you don’t see the line accurately, and it’s all downhill from there.

Think of it like buying clothes.  Finding your size isn’t the fun part, but what’s the point of buying a great shirt that doesn’t fit?

#2 – Toe Hang…And Then Some

The next step is figuring out what putter design fits your stroke.  The most important element is the distance from the shaft axis to the center of the face, which is largely – but not completely – reflected in the toe hang.

Toe hang will also be impacted by the location of the COG relative to the putter face.  If you have a mallet with a COG far from the face, it will have less toe hang than a blade with a COG near the face.

#3 – Swing Weight

Everyone has had the experience of picking up a putter and sensing, “Hey, this feels good.”  You were likely reacting to the swing weight.  The swing weight is, in simple terms, how heavy the club head feels.

Bruce’s recommendation is to start with a swing weight that matches your sand wedge – likely something around D6.  If you need to release the club more, you can go to a lighter swing weight.  Conversely, a heavier swing weight will slow the club’s release.

If you like a putter but don’t like the swing weight, you can modify it fairly easily.  Adding weight to the head – whether with adjustable weights or lead tape – will raise the swing weight.  If you add weight to the butt end, you will reduce the swing weight.

#4 – Total Weight

While swing weight gets a fair amount of attention in putting, very few people consider the overall weight.  Bruce views overall weight as being key to distance control.  Try matching the overall weight to your tempo.

If you’re an uptempo player, you may find better success with a putter around 500-515 grams.  Players with more methodical strokes can get into the 550-575 gram range.

#5 – Grip

Finally, you should consider the grip shape.  Bruce’s emphasis here is to pick a grip that works with your source of motion.  Don’t pick a grip to “fix” your stroke.  If your stroke is powered by your hands, choose a smaller grip like a PING Man grip.  For the shoulder-driven stroke, a big SuperStroke grip can be a good choice.

Conclusion

Hopefully following these five steps makes the process of choosing a putter a little less daunting and a lot more successful.  If you have any questions, please post them below, and we’ll try to help you out.

For more information on selecting a putter – and how to use it – check out Bruce Rearick HERE.

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Putting: Start With Makes https://pluggedingolf.com/putting-start-with-makes/ https://pluggedingolf.com/putting-start-with-makes/#comments Tue, 30 May 2017 09:50:50 +0000 https://pluggedingolf.com/?p=38893 Upgrade your putting warm up with this simple tip from Matt.

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Let’s Make a Bet…

I don’t know you, but I’d like to make a bet with you: I bet that I know how you start your putting practice.  Don’t believe me?  That’s fair, I’ve never seen you before, I couldn’t possibly know, but let me try anyway:

You toss three balls on the green, roughly 20 feet from the cup, and smack them all at the hole.  You rarely, if ever, make one.

How’d I do?

How Did I Know?

For 99% of golfers, I just described their pre-round putting warm up, and putting practice, to a T.  How did I know?  I pay attention.  I’ve watched hundreds, if not thousands, of golfers do this.  You know what else I know?  Most of these guys stink at putting.

What You SHOULD Do

Instead of starting out with putts that you have a very small chance of making, you should start out by making a lot of short putts.  And when I say short, I mean really short.

I like to start out by making at least 6 putts of a foot or less.  From there, I’ll back up and make another 6-10 from 2 or 3 feet.  Then I’ll make some 4 footers before I work on longer putts to get a feel for speed.

Why?

I’ll answer your question with one of my own: Do you want to practice making putts or missing them?

I want to see the ball go in the cup as much as possible.  I want to hear it rattle into the hole.  I want to feel the positive emotions that go along with making a putt.

I DON’T want to start my day by watching the ball burn the lip, by blowing a 20 footer 6 feet past, or by having my “friend” ask me, “Which hole were you going for?”

The power of putting positive images and feelings into your brain cannot be overstated, especially on the putting green.

A Basketball Analogy

I had the great fortune of watching JJ Redick practice nearly every day of his college career (for those who don’t follow basketball, JJ is one of the best shooters in the history of the game).  A lot of people would assume that a great shooter like that would walk into the gym heaving up threes.  Those people would be dead wrong.  JJ started practice by walking right to the front of the rim and making 10 or 20 inside of 5 feet.  Why?  He wanted to see the ball go in; he wanted that positive image in his mind.

It’s probably not a coincidence that you could tell that same story about countless other great shooters: Larry Bird and Reggie Miller, to name two.

So the next time you head to the practice green before your round, don’t warm up like everybody else; warm up like JJ, Reggie, and Larry.  All those short putts you make will give you a better chance at connecting when you do have to make one from downtown.

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Stop Leaving Putts Short https://pluggedingolf.com/stop-leaving-putts-short/ https://pluggedingolf.com/stop-leaving-putts-short/#comments Tue, 25 Apr 2017 09:00:12 +0000 https://pluggedingolf.com/?p=34448 Tired of seeing putts miss short and right? Matt has a simple fix in this lesson.

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Stop Leaving Putts Short

Stop Leaving it Short!

If you’re missing a lot of putts short and to the right, it may be because you’re too excited to hit the next putt.  In today’s tip, I’m going to suggest that you focus on posing your follow through so more putts find the bottom of the cup.

Putting Lesson_0053

Who This Lesson Is For:

Players missing putts short and/or to the right.

Players with “jabby” putting strokes.

Putting Lesson_0056

The Tip

This tip couldn’t be more simple: hold your follow through.  That’s it.  This simple idea will help you swing the putter more smoothly, make better contact, and get the putter face squared to the target at impact.

Why It’s Important

Lots of golfers (including yours truly, some days) want to recoil the putter immediately after impact.  This leads to a jerky rhythm that makes it hard to control your speed, not to mention inconsistent contact and face angles.

Putting Lesson_0059

Drill #1

Set yourself up with a straight putt of 4 to 8 feet, something you can consistently make (using a chalk line or raised string is fine).  Keep making putts with a focus on holding your follow through until the ball is in the cup.

You may find that you’re hitting these putts with a lot more pace than usual.  That’s normal, and it tells you that you’ve been “pulling back” on these short putts.  Keep holding your follow through, and think about taking a slightly smaller backswing to dial in the speed.

Putting Lesson_0064

Drill #2

Set up to a putt of at least 30 feet.  Strike the putt and hold the follow through until the ball stops rolling (hopefully in the bottom of the cup).

Again, you may start out by hitting some putts well past the hole.  This is a good thing; it tells you that you’re starting to strike your putts solidly.  Work on dialing down the backswing and keep holding your follow through.

Kobe Bryant

Mental Imagery

You can add a positive mental aspect to these drills and your on-course putting.

Think about some of the big putts that Tiger Woods has made in his career.  If you pull up some clips on YouTube (the “Better Than Most” putt, for instance), you’ll see that he holds the follow through until the ball is long gone…then raises the putter in the air in celebration.  Put yourself in his shoes.  See yourself holding the follow through as the ball tracks to the hole…then give yourself a nice fist pump!

If you want to go outside of golf, there are plenty of other sports where holding your follow through is a trait of the greats.  Think about a 3-point shooter holding his right arm up as he runs down the court after hitting a big shot.  Think of the hockey player that just fired a shot past the goalie.  Think of the baseball player admiring a ball hit so far it should have a stewardess on it.

Whatever gets you into a positive, confident place and keeps you focused on holding that follow through is great. Tiger Woods Putting

Final Words

When I work with younger players, I’ll often ask them to hold their follow through so I can take a picture.  If you employ this tip and work on these drills, you may putt so well that someone will want to take your picture on the putting green.  Hold that follow through and say cheese!

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Practice Golf All Year, Everywhere https://pluggedingolf.com/practice-golf-year-everywhere/ https://pluggedingolf.com/practice-golf-year-everywhere/#comments Tue, 29 Nov 2016 11:00:31 +0000 https://pluggedingolf.com/?p=33522 Don't let your game rust in the off season. Work all your game indoors, all year, and everywhere.

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There Is No Off Season

Winter is here, so most golfers are hanging up their sticks until spring.  The problem is, you can’t expect next year to be your best ever if you’re taking three or four months off.  In this lesson, I’m going to discuss a number of ways you can beat the winter blues and hit 2017 running.

If you’re one of the lucky few who gets to golf twelve months a year, you can apply these ideas to get some practice done indoors or when time and space are limited.

Full Swing

There are three potential hurdles to working on your full swing indoors.  I’ll address each one individually with suggestions for training aids and ways to work around them.

Golf Swing Right Now_0013Tour Striker Educator (10)

Problem #1: No Room to Make a Swing

This is the most common issue, since most ceilings are too low to accommodate an adult swinging a golf club.  Even if you have the ceiling height, it’s rare to have the square footage needed to swing without hitting something.  Here are some workarounds.

Golf Swing Right Now –  This training aid is much shorter than a standard club, allowing you to swing it inside.  It also has a flexible shaft that helps you to build a nice transition and good sequencing.  Pair it with Tour Tempo for a really powerful combination.

Tour Striker Educator – Even if you can’t make a full speed swing, you can attach the Educator to a wedge and work on having your desired wrist angles and arm positions.  What I love about the Educator is that it works to fix a wide variety of swing flaws.

Super Speed Golf_0069Tour Striker Smart Ball_0061

Problem #2: No Way to Hit a Ball

If you have high ceilings and lots of floor space, you may be able to swing a club, but hitting a ball may result in a broken window.  Here are some training aids that you can use without damaging your home.

Flat-Tee – These are designed to be used on the course, but they’re also one of the best indoor training aids I’ve used.  With a small bagful, you can set up drills to control your low point and strike location (heel/toe).  Stack three or four and try to pick one off at a time.  Set them up just outside the heel and toe of the club and swing through without disturbing them.  For even more ideas like these, you can check out Adam Young’s excellent The Strike Plan.

Super Speed – One of the most beneficial things you can do in the off-season is gain club head speed.  Super Speed training clubs are one of the best ways to do that.

***Use code SATERNUSJAN21 at checkout to save 10%

Tour Striker Smart Ball: Another one of my favorites from Tour Striker, the Smart Ball allows you to get feedback on your swing without hitting a ball.

flat-tee_0060

Problem #3: Hitting Into a Net

For people in the first two groups this hardly seems like a problem, but indoor practice doesn’t give you the feedback of a range.  Here are some ways to make hitting off a mat into a net more beneficial.  Again, the training aids mentioned above will also work well if you’re in this group.

Flat-Tee – Incorporate a golf ball into some of the drills mentioned above to get great feedback on your swing.  You can also use Flat Tees when hitting off mats to simulate hitting off a short tee.

teeclaw_0036

Tee Claw – One of the worst parts of hitting off mats is being stuck with rubber tees.  They’re never the right height, and changing them is a pain in a rear.  Tee Claw allows you to use the tees you actually use on the course which makes your practice more realistic.

Finally, I strongly recommend Adam Young’s The Strike Plan.  This set of video lessons is full of drills that will improve your ball striking, and many don’t require you to see ball flight to be effective.

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Short Game

If your short game needs attention, many of the concepts and training aids mentioned above will work.  In particular, I would suggest working with Flat-Tee to control low point and strike quality, with a ball or without.  I also recommend Tour Tempo and the Tour Striker Educator.

Putting Fork (3)

Putting

Regardless of how small your living space is, you have room to practice putting.  Whether it’s on carpet, a mini putting green, or in your bath tub, rolling a few putts every day adds up.
My favorite indoor putting aid ever is the Putting Fork Pro.  This trainer doesn’t care how you swing the putter, only that you roll it perfectly straight.  My putting is never better than when I’m using the Putting Fork consistently.  A Putting Fork can be hard to find, so you can set up a similar drill with Flat-Tees or spare golf balls.

Two other training aids that have applications for putting are Tour Tempo and the Tour Striker Educator (is it any wonder why they’re both “Training Aids That Work”?)

bob-rotella-books

The Mental Game

The final, and most overlooked, way to practice in the off season is to work on your mental game.  This can take many forms, but I’ll suggest two:

Bob Rotella Books – The books by Dr. Rotella are some quick, easy reads that I’ve found very helpful.  They’re the type of books that can be easily summarized, but the value is in reading the message over and over in different contexts with varying examples.

Play golf in your mind.  It costs nothing, space isn’t an issue, and the pace of play is phenomenal.  Pick a course you’re very familiar with – the more vivid your imagination, the more impactful this will be.  Use this as a chance to embed positive images and to think through the course management decisions you normally face on the course.

Get to It!

I hope you find these suggestions to be helpful.  If you have any questions or suggestions about finding ways to practice in the off-season, please post them below.

Click here to view the embedded slideshow.

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Play More Break, Make More Putts https://pluggedingolf.com/play-break-make-putts/ https://pluggedingolf.com/play-break-make-putts/#comments Tue, 13 Sep 2016 10:00:14 +0000 https://pluggedingolf.com/?p=9091 Are you tired of watching your putts dive below the cup? In this lesson, Matt offers a drill to help you calibrate your reads and make more putts.

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Putting Aim_0035

Stop Missing “Low”

There’s a reason that missing on the low side is known as missing on the amateur side: most amateur golfers read too little break in their putts.  In this lesson, I’ll show you why you’re probably not playing enough break and how you can change that and make more putts.

This Lesson Is For You If:

You struggle to read greens

You miss your putts on the “low” side

Aiming at the Apex

The Lesson

The lesson here can be summed up in one sentence: “The apex is not the aim point.”

Apex of the Putt

Let’s start by defining those two terms.  The apex of the putt is the high point of the break (see the picture above).  The aimpoint is the spot that you’re aiming at.

Why are they not the same?  Because although the break that we see comes in the later parts of the putt, the ball actually starts breaking as soon as it’s struck.  That means that the apex of the putt is well below the point that you should be aiming at.

Putting Aim_0038

The Drill

To break the habit of aiming at the apex, you need to see a “higher” target line.  This is going to take some repetition.

Go to your putting green and find a 10-15 foot putt with substantial break.  Using either a string (elevated or not) or some tees, mark a starting spot and define your aim point.  Hit some putts and check the result.  If your aim is good for your speed, go ahead and make a lot of putts.  Focus on how “high” the target is.  Then find a new breaking putt and repeat.

Be sure to work on putts that are right to left and left to right, uphill and downhill.  Make note in your mind of which putts are farthest from your natural aiming tendencies.

As you work on this drill more, you’ll see your green reading improve along with your ability to control speed, hit your lines, and make more putts.

Click here to view the embedded slideshow.

 

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The Problem with Putting Practice https://pluggedingolf.com/the-problem-with-putting-practice/ https://pluggedingolf.com/the-problem-with-putting-practice/#respond Wed, 08 Jul 2015 11:00:22 +0000 https://pluggedingolf.com/?p=16893 Most golfers aren't getting better at putting because they're practicing wrong. Break out of that group and start making more putts with this simple lesson.

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Putting Practice

You’re Doing It Wrong

As I’ve discussed before, most people practice putting by throwing down three balls and whacking them all at the hole from 10-20 feet.  There are a lot of reasons why this is bad, but here’s the one I want to focus on today: it doesn’t help you diagnose your problems.  If the ball goes in, you’re happy, but when you miss you don’t usually know why.  Was it a bad read?  Bad speed?  Bad start line?  You need to practice in a way that lets you work on each element independently.

This Lesson Is For You If:

You want to improve your putting

You want to get the most out of your time on the putting green

Three Key Factors

The three things required to be a great putter are speed control, correct reads, and starting the ball on your intended line.  The problem is that it’s often difficult to know which pieces you’re good at and which pieces you struggle at.  To diagnose your strengths and weaknesses, and improve them, you need drills that isolate each factor.

Putting Practice_0057

Speed Drill

Set up a box with tees, as you see above.  The size of the box should be based on how good you are at distance control, but you can start with one that’s roughly 3 feet squared.  Step back to anywhere from 10 to 50 feet or more and try to putt balls into the box.  At first, it’s ok to hit multiple putts from the same distance, but, as you improve, you should make the drill more game-like by putting with just one ball and switching distances for each putt.

Putting Practice_0068

Line Drill

Most people think that working on making putts is the same thing as practicing hitting your line.  It’s not.  Most putts are not straight which means that you can make putts without hitting your line perfectly.

To really work on hitting your lines, you’ll need to set up a chalk line, ball gate (as above), or use a training aid like the Putting Fork.  There’s nothing wrong with also seeing the ball go in the cup, but the key element is getting the ball through the tees or keeping it on the chalk line.  While doing this drill, make sure to hit putts with different amounts of speed – it’s easy to control the face on a four footer, less so on a forty footer.

Putting Practice_0074

Read Drill

This is the most ignored component of putting, largely because it can be hard to work on.  If you want to work exclusively on reads, you’ll need a ball rolling device like The Perfect Putter.  This will allow you to see how different lines work with different speeds.

If you don’t have a ball roller, you can use a chalk line or ball gate to learn about reads.  On a breaking putt, snap a chalk line on what you believe is the correct line.  Hit some putts on that line and see if your read is correct.

One final drill for learning to read greens is to make the same putt in multiple ways.  Find a putt with a good amount of break and make it on the straightest line with maximum speed, the highest line with minimal speed, and something in between.

Bonus Tip

Forget about what your stroke looks like.  Would it be nice to have a beautiful, flowing, even putting stroke?  Sure.  Does having that “ideal” stroke mean that you’ll make more putts?  Absolutely not.  Stop wasting time trying to force your stroke onto a “perfect” arc or a straight-back-straight-through path.  Work on the things that matter: controlling speed, controlling the putter face, and making great reads.

Putting (4)

Conclusion

Before you head to the putting green for your next practice session, get a clear idea of what you need to work on and how you’re going to do it.  By isolating the weakest part of your putting and improving it, you’re guaranteed to have more putts finding the bottom of the cup.

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