Stroke it Straight to Make Left-to-Right Putts (Video) - by Pete Styles
Stroke it Straight to Make Left-to-Right Putts (Video) - by Pete Styles

Now somebody far clever than I am has worked out that most people when they are faced with a big breaking putt they will miss the putt on the low side of the hole as in it will curve too much and dive underneath the hole. Now one problem with this is maybe you are not allowing enough break in the first place, the other issue is making the right stroke. So let's imagine that I have got a putt that’s going towards the camera this way but then will breakaway to my right hand side. Now as I line this up, I want to line everything up towards the camera and then make a nice smooth even stroke that finishes at the camera, but because the hole is over to my right hand side the natural tendency we see a lot of people do when they make this putt is take a stroke and then finish with the putter open to the right hand side, like they are trying to guide the ball down towards the hole this way, that’s why the putt starts further right then it should and we will miss on the right hand side.

So let's work on this side with our putting strokes that every putt you ever hit is a straight putt, all you have to do is pick a line then you hit a straight putt, so we don’t ever want to see you kind of guiding the ball down to a right hand putt this way or pulling the ball into a left hand putt this way. If you have picked the right line in the first place all you need to do is make a perfectly straight roll set the ball off over your marker and then let the green take it’s natural course and break into the hole. So when you line your putter from the back and you looking at the green reading skills and you are setting up, try and pick a little point along the line that you could aim at, now it doesn’t want to be too far away, because if picked something too far away, you will never actually get the ball out before it breaks, so pick something that maybe just three or four feet in front of you, little spec on the green if you can, then set up to that, making sure that that’s all you really focused on that’s all you are really looking at, that’s where I am going to hit the ball over, once I have set it up on that line then it can breakaway to the hole, but every putt you ever hit on the green is a straight stroke, never pushing, never pulling, never trying to guide the ball to the hole. And if you are missing putts on the low side of the hole every time consider that maybe one of your faults improve that you will improve your scores.

 2012-07-12

Now somebody far clever than I am has worked out that most people when they are faced with a big breaking putt they will miss the putt on the low side of the hole as in it will curve too much and dive underneath the hole. Now one problem with this is maybe you are not allowing enough break in the first place, the other issue is making the right stroke. So let's imagine that I have got a putt that’s going towards the camera this way but then will breakaway to my right hand side. Now as I line this up, I want to line everything up towards the camera and then make a nice smooth even stroke that finishes at the camera, but because the hole is over to my right hand side the natural tendency we see a lot of people do when they make this putt is take a stroke and then finish with the putter open to the right hand side, like they are trying to guide the ball down towards the hole this way, that’s why the putt starts further right then it should and we will miss on the right hand side.

So let's work on this side with our putting strokes that every putt you ever hit is a straight putt, all you have to do is pick a line then you hit a straight putt, so we don’t ever want to see you kind of guiding the ball down to a right hand putt this way or pulling the ball into a left hand putt this way. If you have picked the right line in the first place all you need to do is make a perfectly straight roll set the ball off over your marker and then let the green take it’s natural course and break into the hole. So when you line your putter from the back and you looking at the green reading skills and you are setting up, try and pick a little point along the line that you could aim at, now it doesn’t want to be too far away, because if picked something too far away, you will never actually get the ball out before it breaks, so pick something that maybe just three or four feet in front of you, little spec on the green if you can, then set up to that, making sure that that’s all you really focused on that’s all you are really looking at, that’s where I am going to hit the ball over, once I have set it up on that line then it can breakaway to the hole, but every putt you ever hit on the green is a straight stroke, never pushing, never pulling, never trying to guide the ball to the hole. And if you are missing putts on the low side of the hole every time consider that maybe one of your faults improve that you will improve your scores.