You're Correct!

One of the biggest challenges you face when the wind starts to blow around the golf course is trying to maintain your balance.

Many people think this is more difficult to do when making a full swing, but the fact is that when youre stood still on the putting green it becomes more important and more difficult to do. This is due to the precision you are looking for when making very fine motor skill movements as you do in the putting stroke to start your ball along a particular line.

One thing you must do in order to maintain your stability in the wind is to widen your stance, on average the width of your stance will be as wide as your shoulders. If you move both feet another 6 to 8 inches then you will become more stable. This will make it difficult for a gust of wind to knock you off balance, helping you to hit your putts more consistently in the centre of the outer face. You must, however, maintain your ball position slightly forward of centre. This is to make sure you still impact the ball just after the lowest point of your strokes arc.

There is one other factor you need to allow for when the wind blows - the possibility that the wind will blow your ball off line. This is something that rarely gets accounted for and results in many putts being missed. A constant wind will move your ball off line a little and the stronger and gustier it gets, the more you need to adjust when selecting your aim line. A great thing to do is pay attention to the bottom of your trousers. If the wind is blowing them about then you can be sure there is a distinct possibility of it knocking your putt off line too.

The narrower you make your stance, the easier it becomes to lose your balance. On a windy day, if you were to put your feet closer together, you will be more likely to be blown over by the wind. If this happened during your putting stroke then you could either miss hit your putt or miss the ball altogether.

Whether its windy or not, if you make a longer stroke than required your likely to decelerate in the forward stroke. In these tough conditions, it becomes more important than ever to maintain the control of the length and tempo of your stroke.

Changing the way you set up to your ball will make it extremely difficult for you to hit your putt out of the middle of the face and also to start your ball along your intended aim line. No matter what the conditions, you must maintain your distance from the ball and ball position if youre going to hit your putt the way you intend to.