Pete Styles – PGA Teaching Pro

If you need a little bit of help and assistance in improving your putting, particularly from the long range, here is five superb tips that I am sure will improve your putting game. The first one is when you arrive at your putt, make sure you read the green successful. We see a lot of golfers on the TV, they bend down, they give a little bit of this behind the ball and then stand and hit it. What you don’t see, is that golfer has probably done a lap or two laps around the putt, sort of stalking the hole of the green, looking at the put from side on for pace, also looking from the backend of the putt, looking back. So he can see the whole length of the putt, so what we see is just the last little bit before he steps to hit it. But these players are having a good look around the green, they are also getting their caddy to look around the hole of the green with them, before they are actually prepared to hit that putt.

The next thing I think would really help you is from a long range and here we are talking 15 to 20 feet and further away focused purely on distance control. From 15, 20 and 30 feet, we are not really interested in getting the ball in the hole, getting the ball in the hole is nice, it’s almost a bonus if it goes in. There is so many other factors that affect whether it goes in, that’s a bit of bonus. And what you need to do from that distance it take two putts and no more, so distance control is the biggest factor from that. You very rarely 3-putt, if you get the distance control right, so when you are at a longer range, focus on the length of your stroke, rather than just hitting it hard at the hole. Next, when you are putting, I would like to make sure that you are always accelerating with your putting stroke. We don’t really ever want to see the club slow down as it hits the ball. So we talk about maybe a one-third back and a two-thirds through or a quarter back and three quarters through, whichever way you visualize this, just make sure that the club is accelerating and it comes through to the hole.

And it’s not decelerating and stopping, so it’s just generally back and pushed through to the hole with a nice accelerating type of action. Another thing I think can really help, particularly with your judgment of distance is the feeling that you are not going to hit the putt. We don’t really hit the ball when we are putting, we stroke it towards the hole. So we stand behind the putt, visualizing the shot and we just think about stroking it into the hole and it’s never a hit feeling, it’s just stroking it into the hole. And I think that’s going to give you much better control of your putt. And the last thing that I think would help, particularly on your longer putts is visualize the ball rolling towards the hole, sort of always imagine it, how it’s going to role, how it’s going to curve, almost imagine the sound of if it dropping into the hole, imagine it from start to finish.

Focus on how you would line up, you cannot see the ball curving, it’s going to go out here, it’s going to go round that little spike mark, it’s going to turn, it’s going to drop into the hole. And I am going to walk after and pick it up, if I can visualize that stroke, right the way through and see how it’s going to curve, I have a lot more confidence about stepping up and hitting that putt with a confidence that it will go in, rather than standing over and thinking, I don’t know how this one is going to miss, I just know it’s going to miss. And then again I go ahead and miss it. So if you can factor in all those five different areas into your putting game, particularly from long range, I am sure your putting will improve, you will have more confidence and ultimately your scores will come down.