January 24, 2020
Reaching the putting green should be a time that is celebrated. After all, the green is technically the simplest part of the course. It’s a clean, smooth surface with no bunkers, or rough, and no out of bounds. The target is right there, all you have to do is put the ball in the hole.
Unfortunately, it has instead become an area of the course that brings nothing but anxiety for many golfers. Reading the green, aiming the face, and start the ball on the line ends up being a nerve wracking task, all while your golf mates stand and watch.
We’ve put together a few of the foundations that, when practiced, will only improve your putting and have you sinking more putts!
Table of Contents
It’s a common problem with golfers that their hands get in the way of a well executed putt. The saying “it’s all in the wrist” definitely doesn’t apply to putting. Putting with your hands and wrists is the worst method you could use.
The core principal here is to putt with your shoulders not your hands.
Many of us lose confidence in allowing our big muscles (shoulders) to control the putting motion, but it’s imperative that we persevere.
If you maintain the triangle formed at address, and rock your shoulders back and through, you will putt with a true pendulum stroke, and a great deal more confidence.
It’s very difficult to maintain the level of control required to perform a clean and true pendulum swing when using your hands. Instead, by locking off your arms and hands, and relying on your shoulders to do the work, you greatly reduce the chance of drift and sway in your swing.
As mentioned above, the putting green is arguably the most stressful part of the golf course. And so if tensions are high it can easily be transferred into a tight, white-knuckle grip on your putter. Unfortunately this is the worst thing you can do when trying to achieve an accurate putt. A tight grip means less sensitivity in your hands, making it far more difficult to achieve the correct distance. It also means your arms and upper body are tightening up and this can in turn affect your ability to perform steady and relaxed stroke without drift and wobble.
Professional golfers use various techniques for their putting, but one technique they all share is an attempt to keep their grip as light as they can. Many professional teachers suggest holding the club like you are holding a tube of toothpaste that you don’t want to squeeze anything out of.
A light grip in turn assists with the previous foundation of using your shoulder muscles instead of your hands, as it allows you to relax your arms and upper body.
Relaxing and letting the putter hang from your hands give you the best chance to swing it back and forth freely and let the ball roll smoothly toward the cup.
Of course, having the wrong putter grip fitted to your putter can only hinder your putting. If the grip isn’t comfortable, is too small, or perhaps provides too little grip it can wrongly encourage you to squeeze it too much, or not enough. Not to mention a bad putter grip can actually encourage movement in the wrists and hands, which will certainly impede your putting stroke.
Here at PnP Golf we encourage an over-length counterbalanced putting grip to all our customers. There’s significant advantages to using a counterbalance grip such as creating a smoother tempo and consistent repeatable stroke.
The PnP BigEZY Counterbalance Grip is ergonomically designed to promote an easy tension-free feel and has the advantage that a golfer can choose to hold the club at various positions along the grip to suit their own putting preference while maintaining the overall balance of the putter. It also aids in restricting unwarranted movement in the wrists and hands. I encourage you to check it out here.
Read our comprehensive guide on how to achieve the best grip pressure on your putter.
Aiming a putter to your target is no small feat, and correctly aligning ones putter to the ball and line is paramount to a successful putt.
The traditional method of squaring the face of the putter to the target has been shown again and again to be an ineffective method in which to align your putter. While it works for some, most golfers find squaring the face of the putter to be a very difficult and inaccurate way of alignment.
A far better and easier technique is to simply point your putter at the target. Unfortunately this requires a decent pointer or arrow on the putter, which many putters simply don’t have. Those that do have the line or arrow leading to the face of the putter which effectively leaves the player wanting to square the face again.
PnP Golf have developed the SX1 Putter with it’s bold directional pointer designed to eliminate alignment flaws common to many golfers. The directional pointer on the SX1 is removed from the face of the putter, which in turn removes the need to square the face.
For most golfers it’s easier to point than square. The directional pointer of the SX1 allows the golfer to simply point their arrow at the target and putt. This method has been scientifically proven (as can be seen here) by PuttLabs to improve accuracy by up to 62%. By pointing the arrow at your target, you automatically square the face 90 degrees to the target. It’s really that simple.
We hope the above putting tips are helpful. Putting is one part of the game that, with consistent practice, any golfer can become proficient at. Just stick to the above foundations and you’ll see you see a marked improvement. Good luck!
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