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HOW TO BE A GREAT PUTTER BE CONSISTENT: To be a great putter you absolutely have to have a really consistent putting stroke. By that it means you have to repeatedly stroke the ball exactly the same way, stroke after stroke after stroke. Many of us think we have a consistent stroke but when we analyze our stroke few of us really do. You need to understand your stroke and you need to truly know exactly what you are going to repeat each time. You need to know exactly how you're going to place your hands; you need to know exactly how you are going to stand. You need to have practiced the physical move enough so it’s automatic. HAVE "BALANCED HANDS": When you stroke the ball both hand contributed to the force and direction of the putt. You want to maintain the same balance between two hands on each putt. This does not stress you should have a 50-50 balance between your hands. What ever is the best balance with each hand that works for you, then that is the balance of force between your hands that you should maintain on every putting stroke. HAVE A CONSISTENT GRIP: You need to grip the club the same way every single time!!! How you grip the putter affects the balance of power between your hands. Each player is a little different and you may want to try a slight variation with your grip to compensate a tendency to either pull or push the putt. You may putt much better (more consistently) just with a minor modification to the placement of one of your hands. A little experimentation especially if you are having some problems can be a very good thing. The goal is to have a consistent stoke that returns the putter head to square through impact every time. Even the actual shape and size of the physical grip that you have on your putter can affect the balance of your hands. SWING THE PUTTER: The most repeatable putting stroke is a swing of the putter (with the top hand controlling the stroke) rather than an attempt to stab at or hit the ball with the putter (controlled by the bottom hand) . A swing will be more consistent and stay on-line much, much better that "a hit". Your goal in your putter stroke should be to create a repeatable pendulum swinging motion of the putter. KNOW YOUR TARGET LINE: Target line means the desired line that you want your putt to start off on. All putts start off start straight toward a target even if the putt eventually curves on its way to the hole. You need to know exactly where your putter face is pointing at address and you need to square up to that target line at address. STANCE: Your stance definitely needs to be consistent. Slight variations in you stance will cause variations in your putting stroke. It's easier to get into a square stance and it's easier to repeat a square stance. To use an open or closed stance is ok as long as you have some way to repeatable set-up in exactly the same position each time. YOUR GOAL: Your goal should be to make a really good stroke – not to make the ball go in the hole. You can’t actually control whether the ball goes in the hole or not. The one thing you can control is whether or not you make a good stroke. "You think you can control whether the ball goes in" but actually once the ball leaves the putter you can't control it any more. At that point, the grain of the grass, the slope of the green or something falling out of the sky could affect the ball. Hopefully you've chosen the right line and the right speed. MENTAL ASPECT: Mentally, the goal of "making a good stroke" will make you a much saner and happier golfer. Rather than standing over a three foot putt and worry about "missing it" you now just concentrate on the positive action of making a good stroke. That helps you keep a positive attitude when putting which can result in significantly better performance. IF YOU MISS A PUTT (WE ALL DO SOMETIMES): If you miss the putt don't flail your arms and yell obscenities no matter how good that might feel. Just keep watching the putt to see how the ball breaks past the hole. That will give you enough information to make it much more likely on your "come back" putt. Y Chipping Setup ~ Golf Tips The most common fault seen with amateurs and their chipping is that they try to scoop the ball at impact. The main problem with scooping is that it encourages inconsistency. To scoop at chip shot, you have to add a lot extra wrist movements, this is asking for trouble. A good mental image you should consider when chipping is to create ‘Y’ at address and keep it throughout your stroke. To do this you need to have your hands ahead of the ball at address, with the ball back in your stance. When viewed front on, your lead arm should be directly in line with your club shaft. Focus on maintaining this position throughout your chipping stroke. The only way to do this is to eliminate your wrists movement. Much like putting, chipping is a shoulders-only motion. Avoid Golf's Death Moves Bad golf isn't necessarily a function of poor swings or faulty decisions. Prime performance-wreckers, in many cases, are negative thoughts, images and attitudes. Some of the prevalent morbid attitudes in golf - the so-called 'death moves' are:
Golfers with mental toughness can talk themselves into having a good round. Golfers lacking mental toughness, almost assuredly, will talk themselves into having a bad round. Learning the game of golf Many golfers go through life without learning how to play the game. They spend 100 percent of the time thinking (or worrying) about the motor skills and mechanics required to swing a club - the so-called "science" of golf - while ignoring the art of playing golf, the attention to the affect sets of skills that golf requires. A generation of golfers grew up seeking to copy Jack Nicklaus' upright swing. But how many of those golfers took to heart one of Nicklaus' most revealing insights: "I have never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp, in-focus picture in my head." And even Ben Hogan, golf's ultimate grinder, attributed his success to an attitude change. Hogan stopped trying to develop a "perfect" golf swing because, as he put it, "It became clear in my mind that this ambitious over-thoroughness was neither advisable nor even necessary." Amateur golfers, in the endless quest for improvement, often seek to copy the swings of the most accomplished players in the game. If you want to emulate anything about a premier player like Gregg Norman, copy his high-performance attitude, his belief in himself, his commitment to training and - perhaps most of all - his absolute refusal to surrender to bad breaks and tough luck. Self-trust and confidence fit together in the mental game of golf. They emanate from the answer to one fundamental question: "Do I possess the skills to get this task done?" Augmenting self-trust is the critical dimension of positive self-talk. By that, we mean talking to yourself in a way that will enhance your motivation to succeed and not wear down your interest in the game. A good competitor in golf enjoys all challenges associated with a round - from playing the course to competing against others. He or she doesn't focus on negatives or whine about playing conditions or become distracted by water sprinklers, or slow play. A good competitor just keeps on keeping on. If you're a poor competitor, or a non-competitor, you should decide which areas of your game need work. Are your deficiencies related to the full swing? The short game? How is your mental game? Course management? You can set out to become more competitive by becoming more systematic in your acquisition of golf skills. Then, when you head to the golf course, take along the right attitudes. Love the challenge, exercise patience, have self-trust, and be relaxed, ready and eager to play. By being performance-oriented - and not obsessed with the outcome - you will naturally bring out your best competitive instincts. Having fun playing golf implies staying in the present, going with the flow, enjoying the moment and not being concerned with the outcome, or results. Some golfers erroneously think that golf, by its nature, must be a struggle. They do not believe that the concept of "fun" can apply to such a challenging, complicated task -especially when competition is involved. In truth, having fun and being competitive go hand-in-hand. If you're staying in the present moment and not worrying about ego, if you're not worried about your standing relative to par or other players, then you are headed toward your peak performance state. As a by-product, you're having more fun ! |
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