Natalie Adams – PGA Teaching Pro
Here we are going to look at the best way for you to handle pressure when you’re facing putts. Pressure is just really something we assign to a particular situation and we all feel pressure in different ways. If you think how you approach a three or four foot putt when you’re on the practice green, when nobody is around, when it doesn’t really matter, you’ll just knock that ball into the hole, but all of a sudden when you are on the 18th green you’ve got the putt to save par or to break your record score, your lowest score you’ve ever shot, there’s people watching, its to win the match, all of a sudden it seems to become more important and the pressure builds on us and it can affect the stroke. But really to deal with pressure you need to handle the putt in exactly the same way and forget the situation that you’re under. Pressure really is just a state of worry and to stop you going into that situation where you’re worrying about the outcome, you’re going to use your routine to help you handle the pressure, handle the situation.

So, routine is absolutely; key and routine needs to be really consistent, so whatever you do when you’re holing that three or four foot putt you need to replicate that when it matters and you want to do it on demand. So use your routine and get you’re routine into a situation where you’re focused on the task at hand which is to get the ball into the hole and you’re not focusing on any distraction. So, things that will help you get the ball into the hole; first of all read the green, crouch down behind the ball, look at the slope, decide if there’s any break on the putt at all. Secondly, to help you; hole this putt you’ve got to aim the putter Face correctly to allow the ball to travel down the target line.

So, you’ve decided where the target line is, you’re aiming the putter Face down the target line, now take a practice putt and work on tempo. Really have consistent, good tempo so that you’re not speeding up under the pressure which would make you jerk the putter towards the ball and miss the putt. So, you’ve read the green, you’ve practiced the stroke, you’ve got the feel for the correct tempo to use, now walk up to the ball, aim the putter face correctly down the target line and now set yourself up correctly.

Once you have done that, just really focus on hitting the ball with good tempo, the correct speed, along the target line and you’ll hole the putt, no problem. And with practice – if you practice that routine so that all you’re focusing on is the target line and the speed you want the ball to move down the target line, you’ll teach yourself to focus on what will help you achieve holing the putt rather than allow you to get distracted onto other things and the pressure will get to you and you’ll end missing the putt.