Hold the Finish to Improve Your Putting, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
Hold the Finish to Improve Your Putting, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles One thing that I see or had classed as very detrimental to someone’s putting stroke is that eagerness or the want to follow the ball, to watch what the ball does or to relax away from their putting stroke as soon as they’ve hit the ball. Sometimes when we’re hitting full shots we encourage you to hold that finish position all the time the ball is in the air actually until the ball lands. And it’s a similar approach when you’re putting. I would encourage you to make a good solid set up, nice back swing, hit the putt then let the head look but then stay in this position for most of the time the ball takes to either wander towards the hole or actually drop into the hole. What we wouldn’t want to do is have somebody that watches the putter when it moves or watches the putter in the follow through particularly turning the shoulders, moving the body out of their good putting alignment or even this kind of hit then just stand there and see whether the ball goes in. It doesn’t give the body enough discipline to kind of keep nice and consistent. So a good solid set up every time, a good solid backswing every time, hit the putt then let the eyes look and watch it drop into the hole. Nick Faldo often talk about the fact that on good putts he never actually saw the ball go into the hole at all, he just listened for it to go in, whereas I can guarantee most club golfers they want to really watch that ball go in because they’re desperate to see if it goes in. And that probably means that they missed more putts often resulting in a pull where their shoulders are turning too fast. So next time you’re putting, get yourself set up in a nice position, nice little back and through stroke, hold the finish then have a look and see whether the ball is going in. And if you can see in my follow-through position still the club hasn’t move, my shoulders hasn’t move, it was just my head that look, but everything else stay really still, really stable and that’s a great tip for more consistent putting. 2012-06-07

One thing that I see or had classed as very detrimental to someone’s putting stroke is that eagerness or the want to follow the ball, to watch what the ball does or to relax away from their putting stroke as soon as they’ve hit the ball. Sometimes when we’re hitting full shots we encourage you to hold that finish position all the time the ball is in the air actually until the ball lands. And it’s a similar approach when you’re putting. I would encourage you to make a good solid set up, nice back swing, hit the putt then let the head look but then stay in this position for most of the time the ball takes to either wander towards the hole or actually drop into the hole. What we wouldn’t want to do is have somebody that watches the putter when it moves or watches the putter in the follow through particularly turning the shoulders, moving the body out of their good putting alignment or even this kind of hit then just stand there and see whether the ball goes in. It doesn’t give the body enough discipline to kind of keep nice and consistent.

So a good solid set up every time, a good solid backswing every time, hit the putt then let the eyes look and watch it drop into the hole. Nick Faldo often talk about the fact that on good putts he never actually saw the ball go into the hole at all, he just listened for it to go in, whereas I can guarantee most club golfers they want to really watch that ball go in because they’re desperate to see if it goes in. And that probably means that they missed more putts often resulting in a pull where their shoulders are turning too fast.
So next time you’re putting, get yourself set up in a nice position, nice little back and through stroke, hold the finish then have a look and see whether the ball is going in. And if you can see in my follow-through position still the club hasn’t move, my shoulders hasn’t move, it was just my head that look, but everything else stay really still, really stable and that’s a great tip for more consistent putting.