18putts.com

It has been a busy week in the putting studio with meeting and coaching new students, but in between sessions I was able to take some photos that will help you with your aim at the address(start) position.

Take advantage of all visual lines

Golf is a very target orientated game. So if you can gain an advantage, that is of course within the “rules of golf” then go ahead. Your target when putting is the hole itself, which is always the same size at 4 1/4 ” wide and long.  You might have heard the famous quote, “every putt is straight” this means that every putt you are faced with on a green has a point A and a point B. These two points signify the first part of which will be straight until the ball goes past point B which is usually the part of the putt when the ball will move with the contours of the slope in the green.

Why not draw a straight line on your golf ball using a permanent marker such as a “Sharpie” pen. This will create a visual guide to where you need to start the ball rolling and on what line. This line can usually be extended by matching it up to the line already on your putter. By using such visual lines on your ball and putter will benefit greatly your chance of aiming correctly using your putter face.

Red pen line drawn onto my golf ball

    Using visual straight lines will always help with aiming correctly

In the above photo you can see I have placed an orange alignment stick along the ground this represents my putt line. I have used one short metal rod from my Swinky Putting Tool this represents the angle of my putter face which is 90 degrees to my putt line. I now have some great straight line visuals and am ready to hole my putt.      

I have just opened the latest June edition of Golf Digest. This is the only golf publication a receive on a monthly basis as it’s not filled from cover-to-cover with 1000′s of full swing tips on how to hit it flush like the pro’s every-time.

One thing that really caught my eye was the latest advertisement from NIKE in their promotion for the Method range of putter. The message was simply put,

A Method putter doesn’t know the speed.

It can’t read the break.

It can’t see the grain.

It doesn’t know bent grass from Bermuda.

It doesn’t care  which way the ocean is.

In fact, the only thing it  does is exactly what its told.

Its thought-provoking as to what are you telling your putter to do when you use it 38,39 of even 40 + times on the greens in 18 holes of golf?  

Most of the golfers I coach for the first time always seem to have a poor set-up when they are in their putting address position. The majority seem to stand to far away from their ball causing their eye line to run vertically to a point on the ground that is way too far inside of their putt-line. A small percentage are the opposite, with their eye line too far to the outside of the putt-line. Both of these set-ups will cause the swing plane and the putter path to travel on either too much of an arc shape in-to-square-to-in or either out-to-sqaure-to-out.

Ideally you need to place your eye line vertically over the ball. The ball position should  be 1-2″ to the left of your sternum(right-hand player). A good tip is to place a mirror on the floor with a ball on top, then position your body in your normal putting address position and check with the help of your reflection where your eye line is in relation to the ball on top of the mirror, you will be surprised where your eyes are looking.

When I meet a student for the first time, I often ask them how many putts they average over 18 holes of golf? 99% of people don’t know the answer. Most golfers don’t take a record of how many putts they take in a round. The easiest way to see if you are improving your putting is to keep a score of the number of putts you take on each hole over a full round. You are then building facts about your putting and this will help mentally with the improvement in confidence out on the greens.

Check out these tour statistics from the european tour in 2010. They show the percentage of putts hold from certain distances. So even though I try to install my students with the 18putts attitude on the greens, if you don’t manage to whole every putt you look at just remember some of the best players in the world don’t either.

Putt Length                            Average Tour Player Conversion

       1ft                                                        100%

       2ft                                                        99%

       3ft                                                        98%

       4ft                                                        90%

       5ft                                                         80%

       6ft                                                         69%

       7ft                                                         60%

       8ft                                                         52%

       9ft                                                         46%

     10ft                                                         40%

   10-15ft                                                     29%

   15-20ft                                                     18%

   20-25ft                                                     12%

    25ft +                                                        5%

If you have never taken a putting lesson from a PGA Golf Professional, then you may not of even thought twice about the importance of where your eyes are positioned in relation to your ball.

Eye-line inside the Aim-line

If you have you eye-line to the inside of you Aim-line on all length putts, then your are pretty much guaranteed to misalign your putter and likely to miss the putt. The mind can’t keep everything aimed if it has to deal with constantly changing views of alignment. Any golfer whose eyes are not consistently vertically above his Aim-line will have to change his view of alignment due to the changing angles as he/she sees for all putts of different lengths. The result is inconsistent alignment. 

    Eye-line vertically over the ball

The only way to align the putterface properly time after time is by positioning both eyes exactly vertically above the Aim-line so the alignment angle is always zero degrees for all putts, regardless of length. I use the help of a putting mirror to show my players where their own eye-line is aiming. In the photo you can see the alignment tool leaning against the far wall of the studio is showing my own eye-line.

Ball drop test

If you want to test if your eye-line is exactly vertically over the ball, take a ball in your left-hand(for a right-handed player) and bring it up to your left eye. If your ball position is just left of your sternum, once you release the ball from your fingers, it will fall vertically down and impact the ball positioned on the ground. If you eye-line is once again positioned to the inside of the Aim-line, it will be obvious to you that your eye-line is incorrect.