Entries Tagged as 'Putting'

The Way To Mend Divots In Golfing

If you have played a round of golf, whether you are a newbie or not, you know that each player has damaged a tee box, fairway or putting green at some point. As you swing thru the ball, golf clubs dig into the ground, making what is referred to as a divot. A golf ball that lands on the green also makes a ball mark on the putting surface. While playing on the course, as a common pleasantness and to keep the course in excellent condition, it's really important that players fix the damage they do while golfing.

Plenty of new and experienced players don’t know the way to correctly repair a divot. When you play on the course, you should mend whatever damage you cause on the course as well as you can to maintain the course in fine condition and allow the players behind you to play on the best surface as possible.

Tee Box Divots

Most tee boxes have sand boxes located along the edges to help repair damaged tee boxes. The sand box is a mixture of sand and grass and permits the tee box to re-grow the missing grass and level the surface once it’s placed in the divot. Dig out the sand and cover the divot. Press down on the sand so it’ll stay in play and level it off so it's an even level with the rest of the tee box grass.

Fairway Divots

Fairway divots are also increasingly frequent in the most important landing area of the surface. Bottles of sand are usually provided for and are attached to golf buggies so you can make these repairs. The first thing you need to do to mend these divots is to retrieve the first slice of grass that you cut out when you made your swing. After retrieving the mass of grass, you need to place it into the divot. Speckle a little sand over the top of the divot and press down with your foot to secure it prepared. Make sure the clump of grass and sand is at a level with the remainder of the playing surface. If nevertheless , you are not able to find the gob of grass you sliced out of the fairway, then just fill the divot with sand and press down with your foot until it is on a level with the rest of the playing surface. Refill the sand bottles with additional sand on the tee boxes or at the turn.

Ball Marks on the Green

Fixing a green ball mark is totally different from fixing a tee box or fairway divot. A ball mark fix tool is needed to make these repairs on the green. This device looks like a two-pronged fork, and it is specifically used to mend divots on greens.

Insert the ball mark mend tool at a 45 degree angle into the edge of the divot. Gradually push forward and up on the repairer so the grass on the green is on a level with the rest of the green. Utilising the tool will raise the divot barely higher than the green, but by carefully patting that area in place with the head of your putter, you can put it in level with the rest of the surface. If you can’t cover the whole ball mark with grass and there are still dirt marks in effect then place some sand on top of the divot and press it in effect. You would like to make the putting surface as smooth as possible for the other golfers playing behind you.

A seasoned golfer knows that a better conditioned golf course is a course that is easier to play on. If you do not fix the ball marks you cause on the putting surface, the tee box or the fairways, then you risk the other players behind you having a more difficult time playing the game. It may just be a case of pleasantness, but keeping the course in good shape is one of the first sides of golfing etiquette that can keep the game fun and enjoyable for all.

Enhance your game with our golf swing tips provided at Easy Pars. We have everything from the full swing to how to putt in golfing to help you lower your scores.

Less Popular Tips In Reading Greens

The golf course in itself plays a part in how your ball travels to the hole. Putting greens are never a perfect surface and even the best manicured courses will have imperfections that supply a direct influence on how your ball will roll to the hole. To build upon how you read golf greens, ensure you take as many into account as possible:

Divots – These are the marks due to ball coming onto the green and making an indentation in the surface. Although golf etiquette demands that golfers repair their ball marks, other players have a tendency to forget and even though they actually did attempt them, may not do so in the right way. Making an attempt to fix a ball mark yourself is a great idea if you see one in your path. If you do not see one that your ball rebounds over that causes the putt to travel off line you want to just deal with it and push on.

Dead Grass – While there won’t be a manifest dead patch on the green most of the time, there’ll be little spots that are barely obvious. If you are putting over this surface, possibilities are it will roll differently than when its gliding over the live stuff.

Length of Grass – Most golfers know that longer grass means putts will roll slower, but it also means the putts should have less break. If you do not trust me roll a ball across your desk and see how much it waffles as it starts slowing down. The more grass means the more friction that reduces gravity’s effects on your ball.

Moisture – If you are playing after a rain or the presence of dew you will notice a repercussion on speed and roll of the ball. You’ll see a “rooster tail” of the water flying up after the ball travels across it. This normally requires a touch more speed to be placed on your putts.

Grain – This is something you have to watch for especially on Bermuda grass greens, the direction of the grain can influence speed and break.

Wind – On most days the wind has an especially minor effect on your putts, but especially gusty days can really swing your putts off line. Do not worry about playing the wind as it comes in gusts. If you play the wind and hit a great putt but the wind stops blowing, you will be worsened that you missed.

By factoring all of these into your green reading, you should be able to make more of your putts. As a greenhorn, if your problem isn’t in knowing where to hit the ball and how hard, then you might have a problem with the mechanics.

Learn more golf tips for putting when you visit Easy Pars. Our staff will teach you how to golf and lower your score.

The Right Way To Lag Putt To Get Rid Of 3 Putts

To eliminate 3-putting from your game, you need to know to how to lag putt. A lag putt is a stroke you make where you intend not to make the putt, but to get it sufficiently close to the hole to make an easier and makeable second attempt. With lag putts it’s alright to leave the putt short of the cup. This is because of the fact that your most important effort is on getting the ball on the precise distance to the hole, and not hitting it firmly enough to offer you the highest chance of making the putt.

When to Lag

Before starting working on your lag putting, it is imperative that you know what your baseline is by doing a putting test. Any test should analyze how well you make putts within 20-feet, but you must also observe your capability to control the distance of your putts. Keep control of the distance of your putts over the next 15-20 rounds that you play, and if you miss, monitor how far away from the cup your second putt is hit from. You may then be able to see a pattern where your lag putting will start to show weaknesses.

If you won’t test yourself on your present abilities, then you can use the statistics of a standard bogey golfer. 4% of putts can be made of 15 feet away, however the probability that you 3-putt this at this distance is at least 10%. Thus if you eliminate both the one putt and the three putt then you’d be in a position to come out ahead 6% of the time. Use the 15 foot putt as a baseline till you can supply real on-course statistical data that you can 3-putt at a low % from this distance.

Golf professionals also have their cut off somewhere, and outside of 30 feet, it’ll be very difficult to put the ball into the hole. However putting it in three tries is an infinitely simpler task to do. Regardless of who you are and how much practice you put in, it is extremely recommended that you target trying to get the ball as near to the hole as possible , instead of making an attempt to make it for all 30 foot putts.

Practice

To improve your lag putting, I suggest some practice drills that you can do. Line up tees three feet apart starting at 15 feet and moving back till 42 feet. Place four tees round the hole about 3 feet from the cup, forming a circle. Cycle thru each distance, targeting ensuring that your putt is left within the circle around the hole. If you hit all three putts within 3 feet, move on to the next distance. If you are unable to get one within three feet, then try again and move back to the starting point.

Learn how to putt with the help of Easy Pars. We have golf tips to help every level of player.

Why Utilize The Pendulum Putting Stroke

Whether or not you are a fan, an enthusiast or a competitor of the sport of golf, you’ve probably heard of the term putting and the requirement for the stroke to be like a pendulum. What does this mean you may ask? Well the pendulum putting stroke is when you power your stroke using your shoulders and you keep your arms, hands and wrists still. Those body parts shouldn’t be used to provide power to the ball because the little muscles are tricky to control, particularly under pressure.

How far you take the putter back will be the gauge for your speed control. Use the same speed on your putts so that the quantity of time you need to take the putter back and the time of your downswing is always the same on your putts, whatever the distance of the putt. What this implies is that the putter will move down quicker if you take it back further.

Using the pendulum stroke when putting implies you follow thru after your putt at the same length, or maybe a tiny bit further than how far you take the putter back. By following thru further than your backswing you ensure you are picking up speed thru the impact with the ball. This way you do not have to push yourself to accelerate thru impact, you can do it naturally.

You may wonder why folks may claim that this is the best method of putting, this is because it’s the simplest to repeat. It’s quite simple you can reliably produce the same stroke time and time again. The more repeatable the stroke is, the more likely you’ll be to hit the putt how you need to. The simpler the stroke the less compensations you have got to make to get the ball started on line, which increases your odds of hitting the ball where you are aiming.

The proof of the successfulness of this technique lies with some of the finest putters in history. Fellows like Dave Stockton, Bob Charles, Loren Roberts and Phil Mickelson all kept their hands, arms and wrists out of their putting strokes. If you would like to become a good putter you need to learn how to use the pendulum stoke. It isn’t difficult to learn and it’s totally easy to repeat the stroke time upon time. These tips will indeed help you whether or not you feel the pressure of winning a bet with your buddies or playing a slow game with nothing on the line.

Jamie Faidley offers golf putting tips on a frequent basis at Easy Pars. If you are needing to learn how to golf or you would like some quality content for your website then contact him immediately there.

Putting Test To Gauge Your Skills

You could think that because you are practicing you are already able to improve your putting, but how does one truly know if you are improving? If you play lots of golf, then you almost certainly do not track the quantity of putts you hit. Whether or not you do, I’m not sure if you are able to track the distance of the putts that you hole out.

So , how good of a putter are you? To find out how good you are, keep track of how many putts that you take from different distances, and how many of those you really make. You may also track how bad you miss a putt with the distance from the hole your next putt is.

From inside of 3 feet, most players can convert well. To figure out how well you putt from different distances, you have to track your putting through about 15-20 rounds of on the course during play. This way, you are able to have real course conditions on how correct you were from different lengths. Then by working on the proper method using our putting tips, you’ll be able to track your improvement.

If you would like to meticulously get a feel of how you are putting is right now from different distances, then you can try this putting test on the putting green.

1. Find a straight putt you can extend out to about 20 feet.

2. Spot the locations of 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, and 20 feet employing a tee.

3. Go in order stroking one putt from 3, 9, 6, 18, 14, 4, 20, 8, 12, 5, 10, 7,and 16 feet.

4. Repeat this order 10 times, recording the quantity of hole outs from each distance.

You may want to randomize your distance instead of just going in order so that you can account for the change in distance. You’ll be able to find a groove to your game if you are ready to hit 10 putts from three feet then 10 putts from 4 feet. This however does not truly simulate on-course conditions accurately.

The share of the putts you make should be a little higher than what you see on the course. All of these putts will be straight, so you do not have to account for any slope. Another thing you do not have to stress about is making the putt coming back, this will permit you to concentrate more into ensuring you get the ball to the hole and give it an opportunity to go in.

After the 15-20 rounds on the green, you are then capable of finding the percentage of makes from each spot that’ll be a baseline to check at a later time. This will help you know if the practice time you have been putting in is working and if it has led to you making more of your putts.

Jamie Faidley writes about putting tips and everything golf. If you would like articles on how to golf for your website contact him at Easy Pars.

Putting With Body Movement Only

Body putting is a stroke which has been gaining some traction lately. At a forum one time, I read a post detailing body putting. Basically this stroke uses the big muscles of your body while keeping your arms and hands quiet. The end of the club would extend toward the belly button or very close to it and the position of the ball would go one inch forward from the middle of your position. The path of the stroke would follow the body so it won’t be close to a straight back and straight thru type of motion. The putter’s arm should then be placed strongly against the body.

The guide on the length of the putter was found that a 6 foot tall person would typically need a 46 inch putter, however in in a position to absolutely use the body putting stroke, you should get correctly fitted to the proper length of the club for your phenotype.

When putting you would like to use your body to turn, and the shoulders and wrists won’t be used in any way.

The distance control is one of the main problems when using this stroke as it is really tough to develop any touch on the green. This is the reason why a tour pro generally never uses this sort of method.

The putting tips we have on our site endorses you to keep your body terribly quiet from the hips down to your feet. There shouldn’t be any body movement when putting. Swing the putter to your shoulders like a pendulum. The method correctly states keeping your wrists out of the stroke as much as possible, but this strategy would not be actually effective if you would like to cut down on your 3-putting.

So if you hear anyone advocate body putting out on the course ignore them. There aren’t any magic strategies that a professional golfer would not try. If it worked you would see players on the Tour using it and body putting most definitely is not something you’ll see with an expert player.

Get putting tips and drills to help you learn the game of golf at Easy Pars. It is unimportant if you are a newb or an expert, our articles on proper golf technique will help you shoot lower scores.

Popping At Close Putts

One of the more common putts used by golfers is when they poke, stab, or pop at the ball when on the short grass. This isn’t the best putting stroke but it is one of the most typical. When you see a player typically take an exceedingly short backswing even on longer putts then that’s what you call jabbing at putts. They sometimes take the club back 1 or 2 inches and then come through extremely fast to create power enough to get the ball in the hole. Then they stop their follow thru immediately after making impact.

It’s not particularly a very conventional stroke but some tour players have used this, most significantly Gary Player back in his hey day. He however moved back to a more conventional stroke for most of his career.

This stroke is often best for short putts, and if you use this kind of stroke then you’re able to master the short game. When the putter doesn’t have to travel at an especially long distance, your stroke will barely have the time to get off line, nor will it turn your putter face into an open or closed position. This will enable you to keep the ball on a pretty good and straight line.

The issue is in trying to control your distance or hit a lag putt. It will be very tough to build any form of feel for the shot when you’re taking the putter back at a little way and utilizing the speed of your follow thru to dictate how far the ball will go.

Using this stroke while effective can boost your number of strokes per round. By following quality putting tips, we feel that you can cut down on the quantity of putts you hit by extending your stroke and having a better touch on the greens.

Use the putting instruction articles at Easy Pars to boost your game. Our golf tips help out each level of player.

Are Some Golfers Lucky Putters?

While putting is a simple motion, not all great putters use the exact same stroke. A straightforward stroke is more likely to end up in a rather more consistent roll and more made putts, but even simple strokes do not always look the same. Different folks have different swings, others may bend straight over for their putt while still other stand tall. Some go straight back and thru while others swing the putter around them a touch.

Even though somebody is a good putter others like to think of them as “lucky” if they don’t seem acceptable. When a stroke that looks unorthodox produces solid putts that go into the hole, that golfer is thought to have good luck. If however another golfer has a good looking stroke but can’t get the ball to go in the hole, then they are considered unlucky. So how much luck in putting is there?

The game dictates however you are going to have good rebounds and bad rebounds. When things are working well for you, you could find yourself hitting a good shot despite screwing up your stroke. However if you’re having a bad game, then a perfect stroke can still give you a shot that is off target.

While a single round of golf can make you be lucky or unlucky, no golfer can lengthen his luck for the long term. If a golfer continues to make a high percentage of putts within 10 feet notwithstanding an awkward looking stroke, then you have got to admit the stroke that he’s using works for him. No golfer is ever lucky in the long run, and the golfers success or screw ups will always come from his ability.

Putting is an ability implying that any person can learn the way to do it. If you would like to make more of your putts, read our putting tips and start practicing the proper technique.

Do not rely on luck, read the putting tips at Easy Pars and enhance your game. Our golf tips help beginners to scratch golfers so there will be something for everyone.

Better To Putt Downhill Or Uphill?

Golf is more a one man game with a large amount of “common knowledge” when it comes to how to play the game. Nonetheless simply because the belief is popular , does not imply it’s correct. The question frequently asked about the game is which system is more effective, putting downhill or uphill? The basic answer is that it is dependent on the distance. Whether you leave yourself with a putt that’s both short and makeable, or a long putt that you will be more than satisfied to hit in two will show you which putt are the right one to hit.

Short Putts

The more effective method to hit short putts is to putt downhill. Some golfers maybe skeptical of this and if you think you are going to blow a 3-footer by the hole and not make the putt coming back, then you probably have a point. But straight downhill putts hold their line better because of the gravity forcing the end over end. Putting uphill will exaggerate the break that?ll give you a harder shot. Therefore , if you are confident in hitting a putt within 3-feet, you don’t have to worry about having to hit a putt downhill.

Longer Putts

Longer shots outside of 100 yards should tell you to leave yourself an uphiller unless you are a really accurate iron player or playing intensely fortunate. The same rules apply to the break that do on the short putts. Downhill putts will break less than the ones travelling uphill, but the distance control is miles better with uphill putts. A ball rolling uphill has its speed killed so any error in how hard the putt was hit will be offset by gravity. On the other hand, a mistake will be compounded by gravity if a putt is travelling downhill. If a two-putt is your most important concern, then an uphill putt is better.

The four man best shot or scramble is a preferred sort of tournament play for golfers just looking to have fun. Four people that putt from the same spot should not stress about leaving a second short putt, and if a putt is in a straight trail, then selecting a downhill shot is the more correct shot to take.

Sign up for the putting tips at Easy Pars and improve on the greens. Our putting drills will take you from average to excellent on the greens in virtually no time at all.

Making More Easy Putts

Putting in golf look so easy. It’s a short tiny stroke and you are not hitting the ball that far. The problem is that every little mistake is magnified. If you miss a short putt by just a small fraction of an inch it could cause the ball to miss the hole and add one more stroke to your total.

Not everyone has time to put in hours of practice each week to perfect the proper putting stroke. If you would like a putting practice routine that is easy to follow and doesn’t take lots of time then try these two games.

The very first thing you’re going to want to do is build your confidence. Before every round, ensure you hit the green for just 2 or 3 minutes and work on 3 footers. This is just outside of the range where your fellow golfers will enable you to pick it up. You start to see the ball fall into the hole over and over again without ever missing and you will not have any nerves at all as you stand over these types of putts during your match.

Another great thing is that it builds your confidence for the longer putts. You can easily visualize the putt dropping into the hole as you witnessed it happening so many times before the round.

Nail down the 6 footers. Find a straight six foot putt and hit 10 putts from that spot. These are the putts that if you make during the round you actually feel just like you are saving yourself some strokes. Actually focus and concentrate while you practice these. Make it as course like and competitive as you can so when you want to make a middle range putt during your round, you’ll have the confidence to put a good stroke on it.

Jamie Faidley gives a stable flow of putting tips on his site Easy Pars. If you’d like to learn how to golf, check out his extra articles.

Stop Taking Three Putts To Hole Out

If you would like to shoot a lower number when golfing then you can not waste any stroke. Almost every single time that you 3 putt a green it’s like you are giving shots away. Well, I would like to help you stop the bleeding by making absolutely sure that it’s easy to get the ball near enough with your lengthy putts that you easily make your next one and save a stroke.

I know you do not have a lot of time to practice so the very first thing you have to do is stop wasting any time that you do have. You need to target your putting practice on making the close putts of 10 feet and under and then your distance control on the 25 foot and farther. Stop practicing from 10-25 feet because even with a perfect stroke you are not about to make a high proportion of these putts and you aren’t probably going to three putt from here either.

So, to practice your distance step off 25 feet away from the hole and place a marker on the ground. Hit 3 balls towards the cup and then go up and confirm every one of them are within a putter’s distance from the hole. Once you improve you can fret about making sure all of your balls stop behind the hole, since a putt left short has no chance of going in but for now we need to make sure you eliminate wasted shots by getting these putts near the whole.

As you begin to learn distance control from 25 feet, take another step back to 28 feet and repeat. If you can get all three balls within a putter’s length move back to 31 feet. Add three feet each time you have 3 successful putts within a putter’s length and in virtually no time you will begin to discover how hard you want to hit the ball.

One additional tip on picking up distance control. As you move further away from the hole and you want to hit it further, lengthen your stroke. Too many people try and hit the ball harder with the same length of stroke, this is tricky to do.

Jamie Faidley offers weekly putting tips on his site Simple Pars. If you want him to contribute golf instruction content for your website you can contact him there.

Popular Thailand Golf Holidays

In recent times, golf tours in Thailand have appeared as one of the most well liked holiday options for managers, as well as business men and women all over the world. Holidays offer an opportunity to relax and take a much needed break from the hectic lifestyle for these busy corporate pros.

Relaxation for many translates into an afternoon spent hitting the ball on a golf course, enabling these individuals to play their fave sport and work out at the same time. Enthusiastic golfers particularly like to waste hours on the golf course in between their busy working timetable. Is it any wonder that they might like to spend their holiday partaking of their favourite sport; especially if the same vacation offered a rare opportunity to play on the best golf courses around the globe frequented by even professional golfers? This is exactly what specialised golf tours in Thailand, or Thailand golf vacations, as they are popularly called promise.

Thailand golf holidays supply a rare chance for you to play in some of the best golfing greens in the world. These courses have been named as favorites of even famous pro golf players. While you are enjoying hitting that ball all over the golf field your better half can enjoy touring the lovely beaches and well-liked tourist haunts in Thailand, all just a part of a Thailand golf vacations package. Golf tours in Thailand therefore promise to be memorable experiences for both ardent golfers and their families.

What can Thailand golf

holidays offer you? Dedicated golfers can fritter away the hours playing on world famous golf courses like Thai Members Club, Black Mountain Golf Club, Siam Members Club, Banyan Golf Club, and Red Moutain Golf Club in Phuket, Thailand. What’s more, they can enjoy these courses while situated in lush exotic destinations in Thailand like Phuket, Hua Hin and the like all part of golf tours in Thailand. One of the biggest blessings of going on golf tours in Thailand is the chance to combine golf with a trip to some of the loveliest locations on earth. Holiday makers can blend one or two rounds in world’s finest golf courses with tours to bright beaches of Phuket, enjoy relaxing stay in Pattaya or Hua Hin resort or explore the cosmopolitan city of Bangkok. Golf tours in Thailand therefore promise so very much more than just golf.

What do you have to remember while booking Thailand golf vacations? Golf tours in Thailand can be adapted with each differing in locations, golf courses on offer, duration, and cost. As in any other holiday package Thailand golf holidays should also be totally analyzed before committing to one. Golfasian specialized in Thailand golf packages that are customized to suit your wants and tastes.

Want to know more? Stop by for more about:

Medicus Driver review

Or learn more about:

Sitter City reviews

Resume Writers reviews

Don’t Burn Out On Golf Training

Golf training aids in more recent times have received a lot of bad press especially among the teaching pros and traditionalists. Many of those golf teaching aids are seen as very cheesy but for the most part, these aids are helpful to the player working on a particular side of the game. The key in judging the value of a golf help is whether it effectively contributes toward feel and whether it can be directly interpreted into swings made without the training aid. The question ensues then as to whether a player should be dependent upon the golf performance training equipment so as to make a reasonable swing?

What Advantages Do Golf Training Aids Have?

Golf teaching aids allow us to improve on our game without being engulfed by numerous swing thoughts.
They permit us swing the proper way by employing Muscle Memory. Put it an alternative way, imitating without the mental overload of information and tips coming in from all directions.
They permit us to get out of unacceptable habits as we all know that a habit is the product of repetition steadily until it becomes automatic without thinking.

There are many types to select from which target all the aspects of your game that you could need to focus on, thus satisfying your own private necessities.

This is how golf training aid’s work, they get us swinging or putting in the right manner till it becomes a habit with no need for overpowering swing thoughts or diversions.

What do Golf Training Aids Actually Do?

There are lots of areas of your game that you might be having Problems with. For instance, you may need to fix your swing plane, your address to the ball, your weight transfer, your shoulder turn, wrist break, head movement, balance, putting and the list keeps going and on and you'll find accessories for all these.

Putting – If putting is your area of weakness you can choose from an enormous selection of putting aids. Putting golf mats will aid you in developing a consistent, smooth putting stroke allowing you to sink more putts in real play. Training straps will also assist in removing wrist movement in your putting stroke.

Chipping “Golf nets are a great as these will help with your accuracy and ball striking when try to chip into one whether it be off grass or a mat. They also are useful for practicing your wedge play as you're able to just distance better to your target.

Golf Swing “There are golf swing trainers that may aid you with your swing alignment, posture and stance. Laser golf training aids are now commonplace to act in the capacity as a swing speed tutor and varied programmes to help break a swing down so as to guage it.

Golf training aids actually have their place but will never replace the personalized touch of your golf professional. There are some top rated golf training aids in the market which teaching pros will advocate as an element of their coaching programmes. Consistency thru repetition is the secret to success with golf and the top players in the world today have got to where they are by numerous hours of practice, tough work and resolution.

For more beneficial golfing resources and advice, have a look at our tips for putting in golf and receive your complimentary report to putting supremacy.

Want to know more? Stop by for more about:

Medicus Driver review

Or learn more about:

SitterCity reviews

Resume Writers reviews

Improve Your Putting – Lower Your Golf Score

Like to make a long hitter who hits a 300 yard drive mad? Here’s how it works. He’s on the green in regulation after his drive and a wedge. Then step up and drive the ball a hundred yards shorter. Next your 2nd shot comes up short of the green. Then you ptich up and you are on in 3. He is away and misses his putt then taps in for a par. You sink your twelve foot putt for your par. The big hitter is not going to be happy. Do this for the whole round and he’s like to lose it. It is not luck though. It’s putting and its the big equalizer.

A few years ago I saw an interview with a PGA touring pro. I don’t remember his name, but I sure do remember what he said, “from tee to green everybody is about equal on the tour. It’s really just a putting tournament.” Here is a professional telling us that the difference on the top level tour on the globe is putting. It’s the difference that makes a difference.

Look at your last round, i’m guessing you had somewhere about 30-36 putts. If you had more putts than that, sprint, don’t walk, to the practice green and practice until you are confident in your stroke. Use putting drills to improve your stroke so it is very consistent. Then, you are half way there.

Hitting putts on the practice green is like hitting home runs in batting practice. They feel good, but don’t matter. And, there is no pressure and that’s more significant than most golfers understand. Putting is a least 50% mental. In certain cases, when a golfer get the yips, it’s even worse. A golfer with the yips is so out of sync that he fully believes he is going to miss the putt. The opposite extreme is when you hold the confidence that your stroke is just right and you are going to make every putt.

Sinking putts can be looked at in 2 ways. 1st, you must sink every one of the short easy putts. Second, then you should keep yourself away from awful putting situations. What’s a bad situation? Think of a sixty foot uphill twin breaking putt against the grain of the green. Nearly all golfers would be better off using a wedge for that putt. Improving your pitching and chipping will lessen those unpleasant situations. When’s the last time you spent a good amount of time practicing chipping and pitching to stay out of bad situations?

Improving Your Putting

It doesn’t take a lot of work to get better at making putts. Here’s an easy, but effective practice routine. Take one-half of the available time to practice putting and reading greens. Change the angle and distance to the practice cups often and shift from hole to hole. Work on putting the golf ball where you aim. Even if you misread a putt, make sure the ball goes at your selected target. If you’re pulling or pushing, lay down 2 balls side-by-side and hit both at the same time to square the putter. If both balls go the same distance, you are hitting the ball square. If they don’t adjust until they do.

The 2nd half of the available time is best spent chipping and pitching. Choose one club for each and stick to it until you’re stroke is the same every time. Quality pitching and chipping will reduce problem putts and get you closer to the hole.

Once you’ve improved your chipping, pitching and putting, go to the driving range and begin working on the other 40% of the gameShots from 100 yards in will make up about 60% of your golf score on most days. Master that 60% first and then move on to the other 40%.