The Strategy Of Not Leaving Putts Short (Video) - by Peter Finch
The Strategy Of Not Leaving Putts Short (Video) - by Peter Finch

When faced with putting, well putting through a stage where you are leaving putts chronically short, you need to develop a little bit more of a strategy about what you want to be seeing with your putts. Now on this particular putt, it’s got quite a few different kind of facets to it. Because it's kind of on an up slope and it’s going uphill. It’s breaking around to the left-hand side, where there is no kind of option here to hit it softly. If I want to get it up to the hole I have got to hit this pretty much as hard as possible. Well not quite hard as possible, I don’t want to be hitting into the forest behind the green.

But what I can do is I can start to use a little bit more of the drills that you've seen throughout this video series. So the first thing that I can do is I can look at this break and I can assess it and I can know it's coming in from the right-hand side. And then I could start to imagine that little bit of a kind of a zone behind the hole where I want to hit it to. I could imagine that kind of target behind the hole that I want to go to. And what I'm actually going to do with these kind of couple of putts is I'm going to come pretty much halfway between where my ball is to where the hole is. I am going to imagine that target just after the hole and I'm going to try and get a sense of what it would be like to hit that putt from halfway. Then I am going to come back to this ball and I'm going to get a sense of how hard I’d have to hit it to get it be on the hole. And you should notice when you do that, a real distinct difference between that length of putt and this length of putt. If you're making a similar length of stroke, you are not really committing and focusing on the line and the length that you want to be achieving. So I've done that intermediate putt. I’ve kind of moved on to this back foot. And first of all I'm going to focus on that zone behind. So I am imagining that zone behind the actual hole. I'm going to try and land it in there. Oh that line, not bad but it’s in the zone. Now the second putt, I can use a very, very similar kind of technique as far as assessing the line, and assessing how far I need to hit it. But on this one, I'm just going to pick a point a little bit further on to the right behind the hole. Again just behind, I do not want to be leaving this short, and then actually committing to that putt. It’s a little bit bottom, the strike wasn't quite right. Oh just about level. And if you’ve actually watched the first video on this, you'll know the strike is king for speed. So that one there came a little bit more out the bottom of the club and it lost its speed as it went off the green. But if you are looking for a way to stop leaving these putts chronically short, go through that routine. Use those drills. And then when you are actually on the course, use your imagination to try and commit it in the ball after the hole. 2016-06-07

When faced with putting, well putting through a stage where you are leaving putts chronically short, you need to develop a little bit more of a strategy about what you want to be seeing with your putts. Now on this particular putt, it’s got quite a few different kind of facets to it. Because it's kind of on an up slope and it’s going uphill. It’s breaking around to the left-hand side, where there is no kind of option here to hit it softly. If I want to get it up to the hole I have got to hit this pretty much as hard as possible. Well not quite hard as possible, I don’t want to be hitting into the forest behind the green.

But what I can do is I can start to use a little bit more of the drills that you've seen throughout this video series. So the first thing that I can do is I can look at this break and I can assess it and I can know it's coming in from the right-hand side. And then I could start to imagine that little bit of a kind of a zone behind the hole where I want to hit it to. I could imagine that kind of target behind the hole that I want to go to. And what I'm actually going to do with these kind of couple of putts is I'm going to come pretty much halfway between where my ball is to where the hole is.

I am going to imagine that target just after the hole and I'm going to try and get a sense of what it would be like to hit that putt from halfway. Then I am going to come back to this ball and I'm going to get a sense of how hard I’d have to hit it to get it be on the hole. And you should notice when you do that, a real distinct difference between that length of putt and this length of putt. If you're making a similar length of stroke, you are not really committing and focusing on the line and the length that you want to be achieving. So I've done that intermediate putt.

I’ve kind of moved on to this back foot. And first of all I'm going to focus on that zone behind. So I am imagining that zone behind the actual hole. I'm going to try and land it in there. Oh that line, not bad but it’s in the zone. Now the second putt, I can use a very, very similar kind of technique as far as assessing the line, and assessing how far I need to hit it. But on this one, I'm just going to pick a point a little bit further on to the right behind the hole. Again just behind, I do not want to be leaving this short, and then actually committing to that putt.

It’s a little bit bottom, the strike wasn't quite right. Oh just about level. And if you’ve actually watched the first video on this, you'll know the strike is king for speed. So that one there came a little bit more out the bottom of the club and it lost its speed as it went off the green. But if you are looking for a way to stop leaving these putts chronically short, go through that routine. Use those drills. And then when you are actually on the course, use your imagination to try and commit it in the ball after the hole.