As much as I preach the importance of the short game I have yet to provide any tips.  That is until now!  Today I will talk about technique and the stroke itself so that you can go out and make more putts and shot lower scores.  What’s also exciting is that this will be my first video lesson.

Technique

I am about to post a video of what your setup and stroke should look like if you were to stand directly to the side.  You can check your own technique and stoke by looking up at a mirror or if you have your own camera, by taping yourself.  I will post a second video of what your setup should look like from behind.

The ideal setup for putting is for your arms and shoulders to create a “V” like in the photo below.

Photo of my setup with “V”

With this setup the idea is to simply rock your shoulders back and forth so that the putter head acts as pendulum.  I have created a picture below to show you how a putting stroke should work.

The thick black line represents the putter at address before any stroke has been made and the red lines are the actually the full putting stroke from back stroke and follow through.  You simply want to keep putter head swinging back and forth much like this pendulum.  The tempo of the stroke must remain the same throughout and I suggest slowing the speed of your stroke down so it’s smoother making it much easier to stroke putts off the middle of the putter face.  Many putts are missed due to poor contact on the putter face and slowing the speed of your stroke down should help with that.  Notice how I keep mention “stroke” instead of “hit” when referring to putting.  You want to have the feeling of stroking your putts rather than hitting them.  It’s a putting stroke and not a putting hit!

The best way to achieve the pendulum act is to simply rock your shoulders back and forth keeping any wristy or arm movements out of the stroke altogether.  Here is a video of what a sound putting stroke should look like.

Notice how everything is still and that just my shoulders and arms are swinging the putter back and forth.  Also note that the tempo in my stoke is the same all the way through.  Most players have a tendency to decelerate their speed as they are about to hit the ball.  This happens because they’re afraid of the outcome and we all know fear kills everything!

Now I will talk about where your eyes should be as you’re addressing putts.

At the beginning of this video I am standing too far away from the ball so that my eyes are inside the ball (meaning in between the golf ball and my body) rather than directly over the ball.  A great test to see where your eyes are is to address a putt and then drop a ball from your eyes.  This will tell you where your eyes are in reference to the ball.  As you can see in the video when I do this the ball lands directly beside the ball I am about to putt therefore I know my eyes are directly over the ball.  With this camera angle you can see that during all three putts my eyes are directly looking over the ball so that I can see my putting line perfectly.

This last video looks at ball position.

I switch between playing the ball in the front, back and middle of my stance in that order.  When I stoke the putts I do the same.  I like to play the ball in the front of my stance (closer to my front toe) so that I hit the ball on the up swing of my putt.  I have seen great putters play the ball at some different places in their stance that it really comes down to personal comfort.  Just note when playing around with ball position to see the ball rolls.  If it’s bouncing alot rather then rolling then you should look at changing the position.

I hope this video lesson helped everyone out and that you are able to learn better with a visual footage.

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