Pete Styles – PGA Teaching Pro

So in this last little mini-series, we’ve talked about how we shouldn’t focus on keeping the head rigid during the golf swing. The head should be stable but it shouldn’t be rigid and it should be allowed to move a little bit to facilitate a big full swing, a powerful swing. But there’s one area where the head should stay perfectly still. And the club I’m holding is a pretty big key to this.

So on the putting green, we do want your head to stay as still and as stable as possible. There is no reason for the head to be moving at any point during a putting stroke. It can only cause bad things. It can only cause bad pace control, bad alignment and bad striking. So the head should stay absolutely perfectly still during the putting stroke.

The putting stroke should be very much a shoulders-based motion. The legs are going to stay still and the head is going to stay still. And you can check this yourself by just setting up, as I am here, rocking the club backwards and forwards, making eye contact with the mirror and then looking in the mirror at what’s behind your head and make sure your head is not swaying as the putter goes backwards and forwards.

One key element where a lot of golfers make a mistake with this putting stroke, they practice like that in front of the mirror and all goes great until they’ve actually got a hole to putt and then their head moves far too quickly, almost as soon as or even before they’ve hit the ball because they’re eager to see the result. So we get this effect, the golfer sets up, everything looks good in the practice stroke, head stays perfectly still and we set up to the ball and as soon as the ball is hit, the head’s gone and the golfer is looking to see whether it’s gone in the hole or almost too eager to see whether it’s gone in.

And if the head moves too early, potentially lift the shoulders too and the shoulders change position and then the ball can be pulled or pushed. So a golfer holds loads and loads of putts in practice, really solid putting strokes, gets on the golf course, suddenly the putt matters – birdie putt matters, the head goes and the ball has missed left, right, long or short because the head movement is too severe.

So Nick Faldo always have this tip that he passed on to anyone that would listen which was this idea that you should listen for the ball to go in the hole rather than turn your head to see whether the ball has gone in. So we’re going to set up, stroke the ball towards the hole, keep looking down and listen for it to go in.

If it’s a short putt, you might just catch out the corner with your peripheral vision, but you’re not turning your head to center your eyes. You’re stroking and then listening for it and when it gets towards the hole, maybe just have a little turn of your head, but when it’s out of range, not when it’s right here in front of you. So on a short putt, listen for the ball to go in, that should minimize the head movement on the putting green.