Make More Putts with These 3 Tips

Putting accounts for about half of all strokes taken in a round of golf, so statistically it makes sense to focus on even strokes if you want to lower your score and make a big break this season.

Luckily, there are just a few things you need to know to improve your stroke, enhance your feel, and eliminate the three-putt. Check out our guide below to improve your putting and discover your true potential.

Check your settings

One of the best things you can do when you get on the practice green is check your settings. It gives you a good foundation and increases your chances of hitting the ball consistently every time.

In a video for Titleist, eight-time PGA Tour champion and Rory McIlroy's putting coach Brad Faxon said this is one of the keys to his focus with his students. one.

So what does a good address location look like?

According to Faxon, every great putter has four things in common:

1. Correct posture and body alignment

Faxon divides body alignment (which you can check in a full-length mirror) into two parts: lower body and upper body.

To achieve proper lower body alignment, Faxon requires the ankles, knees, and hips to be approximately the same width and in line with each other. He explains that the narrow stance helps encourage this arrangement.

He said that to maintain good upper-body alignment, he likes players' noses, shirt buttons and belt buckles to be in a straight line.

2. The center of gravity and ball position are tilted slightly forward

“Most of the best putters in the world have a little more weight on the left or front side,” Faxon said.

He said, imagine you weigh 55-45. It's not a huge difference, but it's enough to allow you to move your putting level through impact.

“You want more weight and pressure to the left,” Faxon says. “If you go too far forward, you might fall. If you go too far back, you might crash.

As for ball placement, Faxon says to hit the ball slightly inside your front heel.

3. Keep the forearm at right angles to the target line

One setting key Faxon mentioned is to keep your body at right angles to the target. You can practice setting the square by placing the alignment rod parallel to the target line. This will allow you to check if your knees, thighs, hips, and shoulders are square.

Don't stress if you're not a perfect square. Faxon says to get as close as possible, but there's one area you should focus on the most.

“It's great if your knees, thighs, hips and shoulders are all square,” Faxon says, “but my favorite thing to see is forearms square to the target.”

“To me, it gives the putt the opportunity to be the most repeated putt,” Faxon said.

4. Correct distance from ball and eye position

Faxon says the last thing all great putters do is maintain the correct distance from the ball and have the correct eye position — which you can calibrate using a putting scope.

To check your distance and eye position, Faxon recommends holding a mirror down at right angles to your target line. Now, place a ball on the mirror and set it.

Faxon explains that your eye position should never stray away from the ball. Ideally, your eyes will be on the inside of the ball and parallel to the target line, or on top of the ball and level with the target line. Experiment with different eye positions to see what feels best to you.

Using 60-40 technology

A huge misconception that golfers have about putters is that they need to accelerate at impact. This belief often stems from a fear of slowing down the putter, and often results in players taking a short to long shot.

However, research (below) by Joe Hallet and Joe Plecker, two golf top 100 coaches, proves that accelerating the ball or going from short to long is actually bad for you .

You can watch Hallet and Plecker explain their findings in depth here, but their research shows that hitting the ball from short to long can actually cause acceleration instability, which can reduce speed and putting surface control, and even lead to player development Out Oops.

Instead, Hallett and Plec say the 60-40 technique, or a longer backstroke and shorter straight stroke, is the way to go. Their research shows that when players switch from long to short shots, their acceleration is less erratic, minimizing clubface rotation at impact and increasing speed control.

To try it out, place two tee boxes into the ground to mark the length of your shot. One should represent the length of the backstroke, which should be two-thirds of the length of the straight stroke. For example, if your backstroke is six inches, your straight stroke should be about three inches. It may be helpful to mark your ball locations to calculate the distance of each ball.

Now, place the ball parallel to where you set your shot. Retract the putter and stop the backstroke at the corresponding tee. From here, let your putter “drop” into the ball and stop straight on the front tee.

Hit a few shots this way and you should start to notice that your putters are a few inches away from each other. And, over time, you should make more consistent mid-face shots, allowing for better distance control and improved feel on the greens.

Learn to read green

The right setup and solid shots will take you a long way, but if you want to become a truly great putter, you have to learn to read the green. This super simple method from Carly Schneider can help.

To use Schneider's method, just ask yourself two questions:

Uphill or downhill?

Is it moving to the left or to the right?

You can answer these questions by looking at your putter from the side, the other side of the hole, or even using a handy green reading book – just remember to check that they're allowed at any events you might be attending .

When you understand the contours of the green and how they will affect your putts, you'll make your putts closer to the hole and reduce those pesky three-putts.

practice, practice, practice

Now, I know I said there were only three keys, but in order to become a great putter, you have to put all of them into practice. There are tons of helpful drills that can help you control distance, lock in short putts, and even feel more confident on those tricky sliders.

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