You're Correct!

One of the most important areas of putting is to make sure that in your set up you have your eyes positioned over the top of your ball.

This position will see you looking directly over the same vertical plane as both your ball and your aim line. This position will also see your line of sight in a straight line to your target.

There are a couple of different ways for you to check the position of your eye line at address, so lets take a look at how you can check to see if youre looking at your putts from the right position.

Drop the ball

This is the simplest test you can do to check your eye line is directly over your ball and aim line. All you need to do is take a spare ball and take your address position as normal. Keeping your trailing hand on the putter, take your spare ball and put it directly under the eye that is closest to the hole. Now just let go of the ball and see where it lands. Ideally, you want it to land directly on top of your ball. If it lands inside your ball then you just need to move your feet that little bit closer the next time you set up. If it lands over the far side then you need to move back a little bit.

The putting mirror

A popular training aid used by many of the worlds best players when practising is a putting mirror which shows you exactly where your eyes are looking at address. Many of the mirrors have lines to show you if your shoulders are square also, but being able to see if youre looking along your aim line is the best way.

Now if your dont have a mirror or dont want to invest in one then there is an alternative for you. All you need is a brand new blank CD. Turn the CD over so the mirror side is facing you. Take a marker pen and a ruler and then draw a line right across the disc. Now place your ball in the hole in the disc and take your address position, here you can check to see if your eye line is over your ball and aim line.

If you stand closer to the ball at address you would have to just look straight down to have any chance of looking over your aim line. You would also then struggle to move your putter at all because your hands would actually be resting against your body. This would mean your stroke would have to move back away from you and back across the aim line at impact.

The taller you stand, the closer to the ball you need to be. This has a massive impact on both your eye line and also the path that your putter can take. You really need to be moving away a little and tilting over more from the hips in order to get your eyes over the ball.

The flatter the lie angle of your putter, the further away you will have to stand. This may not be a bad thing if the lie angle was more upright as you could tilt forward and get your eyes over the ball, but a flat lie would see you stood taller and with your eyes quite some way inside your aim line.