It seems that my lesson book has been busy with putting lessons this spring.  The good news is that golfers are finally realizing how important putting can be.  The old saying “drive for show and putt for dough” is so true.  I always tell golfers that if you want to shoot lower scores you need to improve your putting.

The biggest difference I see between great putters and average putters is how the golfer sets up to the ball.  The average putter stands very tall when setting up to the ball and the great putters are more bent over from the waist with their eyes directly over the ball.

How to get into the posture that will allow you to make the proper stroke:
1.     Stand straight up gripping the putter with your elbows close to your side and the putter parallel to the ground.  Bend over until the putter touches the ground.  This should bring your eyes over the ball and more bend   from the waist.
2.    Ball position (in general) should be from a half to a full putter head length inside your front foot.
3.    Hands should be directly over the ball. Neither leaned forward toward the target, nor tilted away from the target.
4.    Stroke should be with the shoulders, not the arms. Keep the elbows close to your side.  Keep the tempo of the backswing and the forward swing the same (Think of a pendulum clock swinging for the proper tempo).
5.    Always listen for the ball to go into the hole.

I hope this will allow you to make more putts during your next round of golf.

Please feel free to call or come visit us to improve your game. We are located in Keswick, Virginia which is located just outside Charlottesville.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 10th, 2011 at 11:58 pm and is filed under Golf Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.