Natalie Adams – PGA Teaching Pro

If you find that when you’re out in the golf course you’re pulling all your putts and it’s costing a lot of shots, then this is a great tip to help you hold more putts rather than pull them. So if we look at what a pulled putt is, it’s just purely a putt that misses on the left of the target. And it’s caused by the Putter head moving to the left of the target line once you’ve hit the golf ball, rather than it moving directly down the target line. So as the Putter moves to the left or to the inside of the target line, and the Putter face rotates and also aims left, the ball just hit straight left to the target line and you now pull a putt or miss the putt to the left.

So to correct that, we need to get the putter swinging straight down the target line and make sure that we keep the face aiming straight down the target line as well. Now there are two things to check for before you try this drill.

First of all, check your ball position. When you putt you need to have the ball in the center of your feet, because that allows your shoulders to be aligned correctly. And if your shoulders are aligned correctly and they’re parallel to the target line, you’ll be able to follow through along the target line a lot more. So if I deliberately set up the ball too far forward or too far to the left of center, in my stand Tee so the ball is opposite my left foot, you can see that as I set out to ball, my shoulders have rotated and now my shoulders are now aiming left of the target. So as I swing through, I’ll tend to follow my shoulder line and I’ll pull the Putter head onto the inside of the target line. And that’s going to get me to pull the putt if the Putter face is pointing the left as well.

Secondly, check your eye position, because if your eyes are too far over the ball so too far on this side of the ball, it will tend to make you swing the Putter away from your body on your back swing. And then you’ll pull it into yourself to try and get back to the ball as you putt and that’s going to make you follow through again on the inside of the target line and with the putter face pointing to the left again, you’re going to pull the putt. So check that your eyes are directly over the ball or just on the inside of the golf ball and that will help you create a much straight back and straight through stroke.

So with the ball in the center of the feet and the eyes correctly positioned over or just inside the golf pole, what I would do now is place an alignment pole on the floor or another one of your golf club and use the shaft of the golf club to just swing the Putter head along. And make sure that you half your follow through to the far side of that position. So you can see the Putter head is on the far side of that alignment pole and I know I’ve hit the ball nice and straight, because the Putter face is pointing that way. If I pull the putt when I’ve hit the ball, I would finish with the Putter head over directly on top of the alignment pole or to the inside of it. So just make sure you swing and keep the heel on the far side of that alignment pole. It will straighten up your putts and you will no longer be pulling the putts.