Take the Panic Out of Short Putts (Video) - by Pete Styles
Take the Panic Out of Short Putts (Video) - by Pete Styles

If you ask most experienced golfers which is their most feared shot in golf, a lot of them will tell you it’s the three to five foot putts on the putting green rather than the 35 of 40 foot putts on the putting green. And really this comes down to expectations from 30 to 40 feet away the expectation is just to get it close and then I can tap it in the expectation is not to get the ball in the hole if it goes then that’s the bonus, but from 3, 4, 5 feet away the expectation is it should go in. And then every time you miss the putt at least a little bit of mental scar tissue that the next time you get 3 or 5 foot putt there is a risk that you will miss that one purely because you are thinking about the last time you missed one. So we want to try and develop a routine that enables you to hit these 3 or 5 foot putt really consistently quite firmly, quite aggressively and hopefully the more you hold the more confidence you develop in your stroke.

One of the biggest problems with these putts is sort of lack of positivity, not concentrating enough on accelerating through the putt but trying to dolly it in thinking too much about the result and not enough about the process. So once you have wade up the break of the putting you lined up nice and carefully, the putting stroke then needs to be nice and short, nice and firm through. If you can think about one third back and two third through, so a slightly shorter backswing and a accelerating follow through that would encourage you to hold a lot more putts, rather than having let's say two thirds back and then one third through because you get scared of it you didn’t want to hit it too hard. So just think about adding a practice putt, one thirds, two thirds, one third, two thirds almost feel like nice popping stroke, you pop it forward into the hole and then as long as you picked a good consistent line that you are not going to vary and try and guide the putt into the hole, nice little one third two thirds and pop it in, keep the head really still keep the body and the hips really still and just let your stroke work, focus on the process and not the actual result. And hopefully that will help you hold the dreaded three and five foot putts.

 2012-07-12

If you ask most experienced golfers which is their most feared shot in golf, a lot of them will tell you it’s the three to five foot putts on the putting green rather than the 35 of 40 foot putts on the putting green. And really this comes down to expectations from 30 to 40 feet away the expectation is just to get it close and then I can tap it in the expectation is not to get the ball in the hole if it goes then that’s the bonus, but from 3, 4, 5 feet away the expectation is it should go in. And then every time you miss the putt at least a little bit of mental scar tissue that the next time you get 3 or 5 foot putt there is a risk that you will miss that one purely because you are thinking about the last time you missed one. So we want to try and develop a routine that enables you to hit these 3 or 5 foot putt really consistently quite firmly, quite aggressively and hopefully the more you hold the more confidence you develop in your stroke.

One of the biggest problems with these putts is sort of lack of positivity, not concentrating enough on accelerating through the putt but trying to dolly it in thinking too much about the result and not enough about the process. So once you have wade up the break of the putting you lined up nice and carefully, the putting stroke then needs to be nice and short, nice and firm through. If you can think about one third back and two third through, so a slightly shorter backswing and a accelerating follow through that would encourage you to hold a lot more putts, rather than having let's say two thirds back and then one third through because you get scared of it you didn’t want to hit it too hard. So just think about adding a practice putt, one thirds, two thirds, one third, two thirds almost feel like nice popping stroke, you pop it forward into the hole and then as long as you picked a good consistent line that you are not going to vary and try and guide the putt into the hole, nice little one third two thirds and pop it in, keep the head really still keep the body and the hips really still and just let your stroke work, focus on the process and not the actual result. And hopefully that will help you hold the dreaded three and five foot putts.