You're Correct!

Whenever you hit a golf ball, the position of the club face at the moment of impact has the greatest impact on the initial starting direct of your ball, and the same can be said when it comes to putting.

If you are looking to become more accurate with your putter, starting the ball along your intended aim line is critical. This means that when it comes to your stroke, you really need to be focused on the position of the face at impact.

Due to the fact that golf is a game played from the side, if you try to make a straight back-straight through putting stroke, your putter face will want to look to the low side of your aim line at impact unless you consistently make a compensatory move to keep the face square to the aim line. One of the best ways to see if your putter face is in a square position at impact is the two tee drill.

Next time youre on the practise putting green, place your putter head on the ground so that the sole if completely flat. Take two tee pegs and place one approximately half an inch inside the face from the toe and the other tee half an inch inside the face from the heel. Place a ball in the centre of your tees with around a third of the ball putter face side and two thirds hole side.

Make your putting stroke. As you come into impact, you will strike the ball before your putter face hits the tee pegs. Pay attention to the way you make contact with the tees. If the toe of your putter hits the tee first then your putter face will have been closed to your aim line at impact. If you hit the heel tee first, your putter face would have been open.

Practise hitting lots of putts until your putter face hits both tees at the same time. This will tell you that your face is square to your intended aim line at impact. You will start to become more accurate with your putts.

It is possible to have your putter face square to impact even if your trail hand flips under to hit the ball with more over spin. The problem is your ball will be out of control. Even if it looks like it is going into the hole, it will be more likely to hit the back of the cup and bounce away due to an excessive speed.

Letting your eyes follow the roll over your ball from impact to its final resting place will only lead to you becoming inconsistent the longer the length of your putt. This is because on shorter putts, you can see the hole out of your peripheral vision so your upper torso will remain stable, but as the putt gets longer, your upper torso will tend to move earlier than impact causing you to lose accuracy and control.

Acceleration in the forward stroke is essential to being a good putter, but if your tempo is not the same in both directions then your speed control and accuracy will suffer. A stroke that has the same tempo back an forth naturally accelerates in the forward stroke yet if you intentionally try to speed up then it becomes harder to keep the face square to target.