How to Aim Your Putter (Video) - by Pete Styles
How to Aim Your Putter (Video) - by Pete Styles

Now as with any golf shot, alignment is really crucial. On a green we don’t hit putts particularly far, so your alignment isn’t going to cause the ball to veer off line and veer off the fairway or anything like that. Your margin there is also a lot smaller, you’ve only got a 4.5 inch cup to aim for, so we have to be really accurate with our alignment. Now aligning a putter is actually easier than most of the clubs because it’s got the straight line right on the back so you can position that straight line right over the top of the golf ball, line your feet and your shoulders up, not pointing in exactly the same direction as that but certainly pointing parallel to that line. Pointing everything parallel with that line we then have a nice straight back and straight through motion.

The other important factor to note is we don’t always aim dead straight to the hole. I see a lot of golfers that would aim everything at the hole, then if they see that the putt has a curve or a break to it, they’ll actually compensate for that curve or break by manipulating their stroke either pulling it for the left to right or pushing it for a right to left. And that’s not very good because then you have to change your stroke pattern to achieve that. What we’d rather you did is standing behind the ball, look at your target line, work out which way it’s going to break and then pick a point up on the hill where you think it will break from and aim directly at that point. You’re not really aiming at the apex of the curve, you’re aiming up on the left hand side where you think the ball will curve in from, hitting along that line.

If you aim at the apex of the curve, by the time the ball has already reached the curve, it will have dropped well below the apex. So don’t pick a point that’s halfway to the hole, pick a point that’s quite close to you, maybe even just a fourth or two put in front of you, a little spot on the ground or blade of grass or a blemish and then aim right over the top of that blemish, hit the putt nice and evenly over that blemish, the ball will roll away curving as it does and hopefully you’ll get better alignment on your longer putt as the ball rolls around and drops into the hole. So while you’re only hitting the ball a short distance, make sure your alignment on your putt is really good and useful. Make sure the line on the back of the putter here points exactly where you want the ball to start it’s rolling motion and then take a practice swing back and through with a straight alignment aid and then back and through keeping the alignment aid still pointing exactly where I want that ball to go. And if you look at the website Thomasgolf.com all of their putters featured, they painted the alignment lines on the back of their clubs and I think those putters are really useful to help you get the alignment of your putt better.

 2012-06-07

Now as with any golf shot, alignment is really crucial. On a green we don’t hit putts particularly far, so your alignment isn’t going to cause the ball to veer off line and veer off the fairway or anything like that. Your margin there is also a lot smaller, you’ve only got a 4.5 inch cup to aim for, so we have to be really accurate with our alignment. Now aligning a putter is actually easier than most of the clubs because it’s got the straight line right on the back so you can position that straight line right over the top of the golf ball, line your feet and your shoulders up, not pointing in exactly the same direction as that but certainly pointing parallel to that line. Pointing everything parallel with that line we then have a nice straight back and straight through motion.

The other important factor to note is we don’t always aim dead straight to the hole. I see a lot of golfers that would aim everything at the hole, then if they see that the putt has a curve or a break to it, they’ll actually compensate for that curve or break by manipulating their stroke either pulling it for the left to right or pushing it for a right to left. And that’s not very good because then you have to change your stroke pattern to achieve that. What we’d rather you did is standing behind the ball, look at your target line, work out which way it’s going to break and then pick a point up on the hill where you think it will break from and aim directly at that point. You’re not really aiming at the apex of the curve, you’re aiming up on the left hand side where you think the ball will curve in from, hitting along that line.

If you aim at the apex of the curve, by the time the ball has already reached the curve, it will have dropped well below the apex. So don’t pick a point that’s halfway to the hole, pick a point that’s quite close to you, maybe even just a fourth or two put in front of you, a little spot on the ground or blade of grass or a blemish and then aim right over the top of that blemish, hit the putt nice and evenly over that blemish, the ball will roll away curving as it does and hopefully you’ll get better alignment on your longer putt as the ball rolls around and drops into the hole. So while you’re only hitting the ball a short distance, make sure your alignment on your putt is really good and useful. Make sure the line on the back of the putter here points exactly where you want the ball to start it’s rolling motion and then take a practice swing back and through with a straight alignment aid and then back and through keeping the alignment aid still pointing exactly where I want that ball to go. And if you look at the website Thomasgolf.com all of their putters featured, they painted the alignment lines on the back of their clubs and I think those putters are really useful to help you get the alignment of your putt better.