Pete Styles – PGA Teaching Pro

How can you improve your inconsistent putting? Again it’s a question that I get asked time and time again by golfers that come in for lessons. They are quite happy with the way they putt one round and the very next round they putt completely differently. Maybe even hole to hole, on one hole they hold a 25 footer right across the green, on the next they take four putts to get the same distance. And it’s the inconsistency that gets frustrating to golfers, and again I feel there are two main issues that would cause inconsistency; either lack of proper technique or lack of proper practice.

So let’s address the technical aspect first. Most inconsistent putters are over using the small muscles and moving too many different parts. So by that I mean they are probably using their hands too much or they are probably involving their whole body too much, so when you’re next on the practice putting green or even if you can’t just practice in front of a mirror, make sure that when you’re setting up, you have a good grip and when you rock backwards and forwards you keep the triangular — triangular action of your shoulders and your wrists very, very still and when you rock backwards and through with no excessive moving parts. So we’ll go backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards, nice and smoothly.

Then also look in the mirror to make sure your knees aren’t overly involved, if the knees are involved in this, again we’ve got some problems there. So we want a very consistent stroke that comes back and through nice and smoothly, very few moving parts and really just rocking from the shoulders not using the hands too much. And if you can groove a more consistent stroke, that would be great. The next thing to come to be a more consistent putter is better more consistent distance control in your practice. So when you go out on to the practice putting green, don’t just focus on holding putts every time. Focus on improving your distance control, maybe line up from 20 feet away from a hole and don’t think about getting the ball in, just think about getting it up towards slightly beyond the hole, close enough that you’ll be able to guarantee the second putt. Because I can promise you this, you are three putting on the golf course, because your distance control is poor, not because your accuracy is poor. You’ll be hitting putts that are online but short, or online but too far, so improve your distance control that will bring your scores down with your putter.

Now make sure you’ve allowing yourself plenty of practice time for your putting. If you feel putting is the biggest part of your game in terms where you’re weak, it wouldn’t be worth to say, let’s do 50% of your practice time with the putter. Keep the other aspects of your game ticking along, but spend 50% of your time focused on your shortest club and that’s probably the club that you use the most and probably the club that’s costing you the most shots.