Puns and rhyming words aside, putting is an essential and signature part of the game of golf so much so that emphasizing its importance to the sport would mostly be redundant. Do you want to improve your putting skills? Kick butt with your putt-putt skills by following these simple putting tips.
Taking Some of the Pressure Off Putting.
First off, relax. Take a deep breath. Sure, golf isn’t just a game to you but you won’t go anywhere with all that tension. Afterwards, make a good study of the target line the way that pros do. Visualize where you want to aim by finding out where you want to aim then adjust for the lie of the green in your expected flight trajectory. Take a couple of practice strokes to awaken that muscle memory of yours. Now address the ball.
Presence of mind is essential during the preparation stages, so keep a balance between visualization and what you’re actually doing at that time. But once striking time comes, abandon all thought. Strike with all the confidence you can muster and accept the result like a pro. Que cera cera, if you will.
Accelerate The Putter.
Increase the speed at which your club head moves through the ball; it’s not just good for those hard driving shots, it’s also good for short putts as well. Acceleration of the putter head can actually improve control and accuracy of your short putts, just as long as you know how. Here’s how.
On a practice putting green, a miniature golf course or even a paper cup in your office, set up for a flat and straight putt. Place your faithful sand wedge perpendicular to the putt so that the club face is facing down and the thinner part of the shaft is on the line of the putt. The shaft should be at the edge of the hole / cup. Putt away from there on end.
A Change Of Style.
Face it; if it’s broken, you should fix it. Your brain may be wired to putt with whatever technique you’ve earlier adopted. While this is all fine and good, it’s important to take note that there must be some factor that’s keeping you from making your current adopted technique effective. As such, a change of pace and techniques may be in order. Try out other gripping techniques that may work more effectively with your play style; a grip can spell the difference between a perfectly good putt and a golf score comparable to the points on a pinball machine. Your choice.
Among the grips that you can try out is the “cross-hand grip” (playing right-handed but grasping the club with your left hand right below your right) which is particularly effective for putt control; egg-in-the-hand grip (the soft yet constant grip pressure) which assure a suave and flowing stroke; and the “reverse-overlap grip” (the index finger of your other hand overlaps your dominant hand) which is quite common place among golfers.