Beginner Golf Putting: How To Putt in Golf? (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles
Beginner Golf Putting: How To Putt in Golf? (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles

Here’s a little introduction to proper putting. Putting is a massively main part of the game when you play the golf course, but it’s not necessary the glamorous part of the game. It’s not about hitting the golf ball with all your power as far as you can, but it probably accounts for round about 40% of the shots that end up on your scorecard. So, it’s a massively underrated part of the game by most people.

When you are putting, the key to being a good putter is to only ever take two putts. Your first putt on the green to get the ball close to the hole and your second putt to get it in. If you are trying to be too aggressive with your first putt and you’re always trying to get your first putt to go in the hole, the risk is, that you would then miss your next putt and then you’ve taken three putts or God forbid four putts. So, try and always aim to take two putts; your first putt goes close, your second putt goes in.

The putting technique that you need to use is very different from your full swing technique because it isn’t at all about how much power you can create, it’s much more about how much control. Control of your line but also control of your distance. So, when we set up to the golf ball, our set up reflects, how much control we actually need. We have quite a narrow stance, with the feet facing straight forwards, a little bit of knee flex and try and hang your arms quite straight and straight down, place your left hand for the right-handed golfer on the top of the grip and your right hand underneath, but this time there is no need to link the fingers together, we can actually make a little bit of a different grip. Here I’d like you to take your bottom hand and point the index finger down towards the ball and the club head, and take the index finger of your top hand and just lay it over those fingers there, either over the finger nails or around them, but I’m going to place mine over the finger nails.

And a grip of that nature or something similar to that is encouraged because it will tell your hands that your hands need to do a different job. The normal grip you create is encouraging your hands to release and to work and that’s the last thing you really want in a putting stroke. So, your putting stroke should be fingers down, sorry your putting grip should be fingers down to remind you in your stroke that your wrists are going to stay quite still.

One of the biggest and most common flaws we see in putting is using the wrist to flick and that’s not going to be good because it can’t give you the right level of control, control of your distance or control of your line, so it’s much better if you’ve got your fingers down to rock your shoulders nice and evenly. And you will see in this putting stroke here that my knees are quite still, my hips, my chest, my head all very still. The only real thing that’s moving is just my shoulders, rocking backwards and forwards and if you can feel that your shoulders rock to give you control of how far the club goes and how straight the club goes, that will definitely make you better putter.

If I want to hit the ball further on the putting green, I simply make a longer backswing and the longer follow through and that would generally encourage me to hit the ball harder and a shorter putt likewise a shorter backswing and a shorter follow through. We don’t want to get to a position where the swing is always the same length on a one putt you hit it, on another putt you tap it, that’s very, very difficult to control. So it’s a change of your grip, a change of your stance.

The ball position can sit very slightly ahead of center that would fine and you can have a little practice putt to the side of the ball, just gently rocking the club backwards and forwards, line yourself, make sure the club is pointing in the right direction, look towards the hole, work out how hard you want to hit it, back to the ball, tap the golf ball towards the hole and then hopefully that putt would go in or close to the hole and the next one can tap in for my two putts. Take two putts, your scores will improve.

 2012-08-02

Here’s a little introduction to proper putting. Putting is a massively main part of the game when you play the golf course, but it’s not necessary the glamorous part of the game. It’s not about hitting the golf ball with all your power as far as you can, but it probably accounts for round about 40% of the shots that end up on your scorecard. So, it’s a massively underrated part of the game by most people.

When you are putting, the key to being a good putter is to only ever take two putts. Your first putt on the green to get the ball close to the hole and your second putt to get it in. If you are trying to be too aggressive with your first putt and you’re always trying to get your first putt to go in the hole, the risk is, that you would then miss your next putt and then you’ve taken three putts or God forbid four putts. So, try and always aim to take two putts; your first putt goes close, your second putt goes in.

The putting technique that you need to use is very different from your full swing technique because it isn’t at all about how much power you can create, it’s much more about how much control. Control of your line but also control of your distance. So, when we set up to the golf ball, our set up reflects, how much control we actually need. We have quite a narrow stance, with the feet facing straight forwards, a little bit of knee flex and try and hang your arms quite straight and straight down, place your left hand for the right-handed golfer on the top of the grip and your right hand underneath, but this time there is no need to link the fingers together, we can actually make a little bit of a different grip. Here I’d like you to take your bottom hand and point the index finger down towards the ball and the club head, and take the index finger of your top hand and just lay it over those fingers there, either over the finger nails or around them, but I’m going to place mine over the finger nails.

And a grip of that nature or something similar to that is encouraged because it will tell your hands that your hands need to do a different job. The normal grip you create is encouraging your hands to release and to work and that’s the last thing you really want in a putting stroke. So, your putting stroke should be fingers down, sorry your putting grip should be fingers down to remind you in your stroke that your wrists are going to stay quite still.

One of the biggest and most common flaws we see in putting is using the wrist to flick and that’s not going to be good because it can’t give you the right level of control, control of your distance or control of your line, so it’s much better if you’ve got your fingers down to rock your shoulders nice and evenly. And you will see in this putting stroke here that my knees are quite still, my hips, my chest, my head all very still. The only real thing that’s moving is just my shoulders, rocking backwards and forwards and if you can feel that your shoulders rock to give you control of how far the club goes and how straight the club goes, that will definitely make you better putter.

If I want to hit the ball further on the putting green, I simply make a longer backswing and the longer follow through and that would generally encourage me to hit the ball harder and a shorter putt likewise a shorter backswing and a shorter follow through. We don’t want to get to a position where the swing is always the same length on a one putt you hit it, on another putt you tap it, that’s very, very difficult to control. So it’s a change of your grip, a change of your stance.

The ball position can sit very slightly ahead of center that would fine and you can have a little practice putt to the side of the ball, just gently rocking the club backwards and forwards, line yourself, make sure the club is pointing in the right direction, look towards the hole, work out how hard you want to hit it, back to the ball, tap the golf ball towards the hole and then hopefully that putt would go in or close to the hole and the next one can tap in for my two putts. Take two putts, your scores will improve.