Natalie Adams – PGA Teaching Pro
If you are going to become a really good Putter and take far fewer shots around the green, it’s really important and absolutely crucial that you learn to hit the ball from the Sweet Spot on the Putter Face. So Sweet Spot is directly in the centre of the Putter Face and it’s in the absolute middle of that Putter Face. And any ball that’s struck from here will have maximum feel and maximum accuracy. As you start to strike from closer to the toe or the heel of the club, it affects your accuracy, because if the ball is struck from – towards the toe of the club, as the ball gets impacted by the Putter Head, it slows this area; the toe area for the putter down, but not the heel. So the effect is as the Putter strikes the ball off the toe, the heel continues to accelerate at the same speed it was moving at while the toe starts to decelerate from the impact and it twists the Putter Face. So opens the Putter Face up and it makes the ball go to the right and the opposite happens from the heel, if this area of the Putter Face is impacted into the ball, the toe will continue to move at the same speed and it will close the clubface now and hit the ball over to the left.
So hitting from the centre of the clubface Sweet Spot really does help you get a much more accurate shot because, because you hit from the middle, neither one end nor the other accelerates past from the impact. So the Putter Head keeps moving with the face square to the target. The other thing to say as well is that if you hit the ball from off-centre, not from the Sweet Spot, it lessens the distance that you’ll hit the ball. So you’ll tend to find that if you hit from off-centre, you’ll get a Putt that finish shot to the hole. So here’s a great drill to help you ensure that you are finding the sweet spot much more frequently. If you set up ready to put, and place your Putter next to the golf ball, just take two other balls and place one just on the outside of the toe and one on the outside of the heel as well. And now we are just going to work on hitting the ball from the middle of those two other balls, if you are tending to hit more off the toe, as you swing back in, you’ll catch the inside ball and if you are tending to hit more off the heel, you’ll tend to hit the outside ball. So just work on hitting without – and removing the middle ball without the other toe. That will get your hitting much more from the Sweet Spot, you’ll get a much more consistent connection and you’ll find that you really improve your putter. 2014-04-11 Natalie Adams – PGA Teaching Pro
If you are going to become a really good Putter and take far fewer shots around the green, it’s really important and absolutely crucial that you learn to hit the ball from the Sweet Spot on the Putter Face. So Sweet Spot is directly in the centre of the Putter Face and it’s in the absolute middle of that Putter Face. And any ball that’s struck from here will have maximum feel and maximum accuracy. As you start to strike from closer to the toe or the heel of the club, it affects your accuracy, because if the ball is struck from – towards the toe of the club, as the ball gets impacted by the Putter Head, it slows this area; the toe area for the putter down, but not the heel. So the effect is as the Putter strikes the ball off the toe, the heel continues to accelerate at the same speed it was moving at while the toe starts to decelerate from the impact and it twists the Putter Face. So opens the Putter Face up and it makes the ball go to the right and the opposite happens from the heel, if this area of the Putter Face is impacted into the ball, the toe will continue to move at the same speed and it will close the clubface now and hit the ball over to the left.
So hitting from the centre of the clubface Sweet Spot really does help you get a much more accurate shot because, because you hit from the middle, neither one end nor the other accelerates past from the impact. So the Putter Head keeps moving with the face square to the target. The other thing to say as well is that if you hit the ball from off-centre, not from the Sweet Spot, it lessens the distance that you’ll hit the ball. So you’ll tend to find that if you hit from off-centre, you’ll get a Putt that finish shot to the hole. So here’s a great drill to help you ensure that you are finding the sweet spot much more frequently. If you set up ready to put, and place your Putter next to the golf ball, just take two other balls and place one just on the outside of the toe and one on the outside of the heel as well.
And now we are just going to work on hitting the ball from the middle of those two other balls, if you are tending to hit more off the toe, as you swing back in, you’ll catch the inside ball and if you are tending to hit more off the heel, you’ll tend to hit the outside ball. So just work on hitting without – and removing the middle ball without the other toe. That will get your hitting much more from the Sweet Spot, you’ll get a much more consistent connection and you’ll find that you really improve your putter.
