What Are The Key Putting Check Points In My Setup (Video) - by Pete Styles
What Are The Key Putting Check Points In My Setup (Video) - by Pete Styles

What are the key set up check points that you should run through when you’re putting? Now I think we all are aware that in our full swing, the set up is vitally important, the grip, the stance, the posture, that can all affect how we hit those perfect drives. But it’s exactly the same in putting. That if there’s mistakes in your set up then there’s going to be mistakes in your stroke which ultimately will result in some messed putts. So here’s a couple of really crucial things I want you to check for in your golf set up when you’re putting. First thing is going to be the width of the stance. Now we want a comfortable wide stance, we don’t want to go so wide that we’re off balance, but likewise we don’t want to come in so narrow that we don’t have any stability. So its round about shoulder width, it’s probably slightly narrow than you would do for a full iron, but round about the same width that you would pitch from. That’s how wide your feet should be.

I’d also encourage you to have your feet facing straight forwards so not having your feet penguin footed out to the side like this, but nice and straight forward. When in position the golf ball just like a sick sign just slightly ahead of Santa so it’s position just to the left of Santa for the right handed golfer. The club then sits nice and flat on the floor with the shaft pointing again just left of Santa. So it’s not back here pointing back behind my zip, it’s not too far forward likewise; it’s in a good position there. And then try and have my eyes directly over the top of the golf ball. so from this angle I sat up, my eyes are directly over the top of the golf ball, so from this angle I set up, my eyes are directly over the top of the golf ball, my shoulders are pointing down my target line nicely, on line to the camera there nice and neutral over the top of my feet. That then encourage me to make a straight back and straight through stroke, nothing’s really deviating off the straight line. If I have my shoulders off line, my feet off line, I could be causing myself lots of different problems with the alignment of my putting. The last thing that we then want to check on is making sure that we’ve got the grip in a nice position. So when we’ve everything nicely set up on a line carefully, but then take the left hand over the top and the right hand underneath. Now I would encourage you to not link your fingers together here so we don’t have the fingers linked together, we have them unlinked. Then the right index finger can point down at the ball, and the left index finger could point down over the finger nails towards the ball. And in that position with that good quality set up, I feel like everything is nice and stable, my hands are splinting the club nicely into my arms, so when my arms move, the club moves, and there’s no excessive flicking, there’s no excessive knee action or leg action, and I’m certainly not turning with my body to look where I’m going. Everything is nicely back and through with a nice neutral set up. Those are the set up check points I want you to improve on to improve your putting. 2014-10-10

What are the key set up check points that you should run through when you’re putting? Now I think we all are aware that in our full swing, the set up is vitally important, the grip, the stance, the posture, that can all affect how we hit those perfect drives. But it’s exactly the same in putting. That if there’s mistakes in your set up then there’s going to be mistakes in your stroke which ultimately will result in some messed putts. So here’s a couple of really crucial things I want you to check for in your golf set up when you’re putting. First thing is going to be the width of the stance. Now we want a comfortable wide stance, we don’t want to go so wide that we’re off balance, but likewise we don’t want to come in so narrow that we don’t have any stability. So its round about shoulder width, it’s probably slightly narrow than you would do for a full iron, but round about the same width that you would pitch from. That’s how wide your feet should be.

I’d also encourage you to have your feet facing straight forwards so not having your feet penguin footed out to the side like this, but nice and straight forward. When in position the golf ball just like a sick sign just slightly ahead of Santa so it’s position just to the left of Santa for the right handed golfer. The club then sits nice and flat on the floor with the shaft pointing again just left of Santa. So it’s not back here pointing back behind my zip, it’s not too far forward likewise; it’s in a good position there. And then try and have my eyes directly over the top of the golf ball. so from this angle I sat up, my eyes are directly over the top of the golf ball, so from this angle I set up, my eyes are directly over the top of the golf ball, my shoulders are pointing down my target line nicely, on line to the camera there nice and neutral over the top of my feet. That then encourage me to make a straight back and straight through stroke, nothing’s really deviating off the straight line. If I have my shoulders off line, my feet off line, I could be causing myself lots of different problems with the alignment of my putting. The last thing that we then want to check on is making sure that we’ve got the grip in a nice position.

So when we’ve everything nicely set up on a line carefully, but then take the left hand over the top and the right hand underneath. Now I would encourage you to not link your fingers together here so we don’t have the fingers linked together, we have them unlinked. Then the right index finger can point down at the ball, and the left index finger could point down over the finger nails towards the ball. And in that position with that good quality set up, I feel like everything is nice and stable, my hands are splinting the club nicely into my arms, so when my arms move, the club moves, and there’s no excessive flicking, there’s no excessive knee action or leg action, and I’m certainly not turning with my body to look where I’m going. Everything is nicely back and through with a nice neutral set up. Those are the set up check points I want you to improve on to improve your putting.