Golf Basics – Choosing Your Putter is a post from: Putting Tips Pro

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Golf Lessons – Golf Lessons In A Series is a post from: Putting Tips Pro

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What matters, as I’ve said before in my golf tips, is playing the game at your natural rhythm. Rest assured, everyone has his or her own natural rhythm. If you like to take your time with things, you probably like to play at a moderate pace. If you like to zip through things, you probably like to play at a faster pace. The key is not to let what’s happening on the course affect your natural rhythm. When that happens, you often lose both your rhythm and your timing. To trash scoring barriers, you should try to maintain your natural rhythm through the whole round

Find Your Rhythm Early

To squeeze the most out of your game on any given day, work on getting into a nice rhythm early. If you use a pre-round routine and stick with it throughout the season, it makes getting into a rhythm easier. Of course, following a pre-round routine every time is difficult. Players taking golf lessons often say they don’t have the time to go through a pre-round routine. But if you’re serious about lowering your golf handicap, you’ll make time for it. A pre-round routine prepares you mentally and physically for the challenges ahead.

In addition, a pre-round routine eliminates the nervousness or strangeness you sometimes feel before a round. It’s why the pros work hard to gain their rhythm before they tee off. It’s even more important for weekend golfers to work on their rhythm because they don’t play as often as the pros. Tiger Woods copied his pre-round routine from Jack Nicklaus. Tiger uses the same six clubs on the practice range, ending with the club he is going to use off the first tee. Tiger’s not working on his swing here. He’s working on his rhythm.

Play When Ready

In addition to a pre-round routine, always use a pre-shot routine. A good pre-shot routine is critical to playing with consistency. The tendency when your playing a match is to speed up mentally, especially when you’re under pressure. This tendency breaks your rhythm, throwing you off. It also creates tightness in your hands and arms. When you’re tight, it’s harder to fell your rhythm. You start making mistakes. A good pre-shot routine relaxes you, calms you down, and encourages rhythm. Never play a shot before you’re ready.

In addition, always walk to your next shot at a steady pace. Do the same between holes. The extra time gives you a chance to plan your next shot. And don’t get too pumped up after a good shot. Or, too down after a bad shot. Either can affect the next shot. Pace yourself and always try to play within yourself. Your natural rhythm will do the rest for you.

Use A Metronome For Putting

Another critical area is putting. It’s just as important to build rhythm for putting prior to a round as it is for making a full swing. Actually, it might be more important, since nearly 30 percent of your shots on any given day are putts. So in addition to taking swings at the practice range, hit the putting green. One way to build rhythm in your putting is to practice with a metronome—a device for keeping beats in music. Use this device to practice your putting stroke.

If you really want to refine your game, here’s a solid golf tip: Play at your natural rhythm. It improves your scores and your golf handicap.

Finding Your Rhythm Cuts Strokes is a post from: Putting Tips Pro

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It’s not just weekend golfers who wreak havoc on their putters, either. Professionals do it, too. Woody Austin, winner of the 2004 Buick Championship, got so frustrated with his game once that he bent the shaft of his putter on his head after missing a crucial putt. He’s not the only pro who’s done it, either. That raises the question: What do you do when you don’t have a putter to putt with?

The Rule

 The rule on clubs is straightforward. If a club is damaged during the course of play, you can replace it. For example, if something happens to a club during the course of normal play—the clubhead falls off, the shaft gets bent while hitting—you can replace the club. Tiger Woods sent a PGA official to the trunk of his Buick during the 2004 Deutsche Bank Tournament to get him another sand wedge after damaging his on some rocks while swinging.

However, if you damage your club through some action other than during the normal course of play, like smashing it on a rock or bending it over your knee, you’re stuck. You can’t replace it. You have to discontinue using it and play without a replacement. In other words, if you intentionally damage your putter, you have to pay the price. Now the question becomes: what do you putt with to finish the round?

You have several options when it comes to using another club. Let’s look at three of them:

A Wedge

One option is a wedge. The advantage to using a wedge is that the shaft lengths of a putter and a wedge are similar. The length allows you to not only take your normal putting stance, but also set up with your eyes directly over the ball. Setting up with your eyes directly over the ball, as I’ve mentioned in my golf tips, is essential to good putting.

The disadvantage with using a wedge is that your have to strike the middle of the ball with the thin leading edge of the blade. That’s not easy. It takes a great deal of precision and confidence to hit a golf ball with the leading edge of a club. It may not be something you want to try if you’re already angry or upset over your play. It might just make things worse instead of better, costing your strokes.

A Driver

Some players with low golf handicaps use a driver. The advantage of using a driver to putt with is that it is second only to the putter when it comes to having the least amount of loft. A driver has a face loft of 5 to 10.5 degrees, while the putter has a loft of about 1 degree. The large face also makes it easier to make good contact with the ball.

The driver’s disadvantage is the length of its shaft. It’s hard setting up directly over the ball with a club that has such a long shaft. To get comfortable, you’ll need to stand farther away from the ball. Your eyes won’t be directly over the ball. Also, the ball tends to pop of the driver’s face because of the mass of the clubface.

Using A Hybrid

A third option is a hybrid. It doesn’t quite have the driver’s low degree of loft, but the shaft is a much shorter. That enables you to get a little closer to the target line with your eyes. But the ball pops off a hybrid’s clubface just like it does with the driver. So you need to be careful when using this club. Some players use a hybrid to hit shots just off the green. Why not try it as a putter, if your putter becomes incapacitated?

Any of these three clubs can work. You might want to spend some time practicing with them though. That way you’ll at least have some feel for the clubs as a putter should you ever need to use them. However, if you’re really serious about lowering your golf handicap, you’ll work on keeping your frustrations in check and saving your putter. It’s the best way to improve.

Putting Without A Putter is a post from: Putting Tips Pro

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But to dramatically improve your putting, you need the right putter. Whether it’s a traditional or an untraditional putter, you won’t improve much if you don’t have the right stick. That’s why it’s critical to find the right stick. Since that can be daunting, given all the putters now available, we’ve provided some golf tips below on choosing the right putter.

Find A Real Grass Putting Surface

Some people choose a putter based on hype. Others choose one based on cost. Or, they choose one because Tiger Woods recommends it. Those aren’t the best ways of choosing a putter. Ultimately, selecting a putter comes down to a combination of physical and psychological factors. It also comes down to how the putter feels and how you feel about it. If a putter doesn’t feel right, you won’t improve much.

What you want is to find a putter that instills confidence—confidence in yourself as a golfer and in the club itself. So compare types and models. Many sporting goods stores or golf warehouses have putting surfaces you can test putters on. These in-door surfaces are good and they can help. They give you get a feel for a putter. But they’re not the best way of testing putters.

The best way of testing putters is on real grass. We can’t emphasize that enough. If you’re looking for a new putter, find a store or a local club with a real grass putting green and spend the afternoon testing putters. If you can’t find a location with a real grass putting green, see if the store will let you test it out on the course. Testing a putter on grass gives you the best chance of determining how a putter will perform over the long haul.

Factors To Consider In A Putter

Ideally, you want to choose your putter systematically. Here’s a five-step method for doing so:

1. Take the look-see test. Review all the putters available. Examine the different types and models. Then, based on the “feel good-play good” theory, select a few to test. One factor to consider is heft. Another is alignment method. A third is putterhead type. Make sure your comfortable with all three. When you find one you’re comfortable with, put it aside

2. Try each putter out. Take the putters you set aside and make a series of long and short putts of similar length with each putter.

3. Select two or three putters. Choose two or three you like the best and test those out extensively. Don’t judge them just by how many putts you sink. Instead, judge them based on how the putter feels and how the ball rolls off the putter.

4. Make putts with your eyes closed. Hit a few putts with your eyes closed. This gives you a feel for the putter’s weight and how it feels when it contacts the ball. Try narrowing it down to two putters.

5. Choose the best putter. Make the decision. Again, don’t base your choice on cost or which player on the pro tour uses it. Base it on how the putter feels, how comfortable it is, and if it instills confidence.

Don’t Look Back

After you’re made your decision, don’t look back. You’ve chosen a putter. That’s it. You’re done. Buyer’s remorse never helped anyone. Instead, practice with the new putter as much as possible. Practice helps you get comfortable with it and develop confidence in the putter and yourself.

If you’ve chosen an untraditional putter, like a belly putter or a long putter, schedule some golf lessons with a local pro. He or she has a wealth of golf tips on grip and stroke. These will increase putter comfort and putting accuracy.

Improving putting reduces golf handicaps. Sometimes it improves a handicap dramatically. So take some golf lessons on putting, even if you have a traditional putter. But first, make sure you have the right putter. If you’re looking for a new one, follow our five-step method above and take your time selecting one. It will pay off in the long run.

Using The Right Putter Sheds Strokes is a post from: Putting Tips Pro

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One good way to learn to hit a par saving shot is to watch the pros in action. By studying how they do it, you can learn golf tips that can help you get up and down more often. Previously, watching golf tournaments on television was the only way to see the pros in action. But thanks to the Internet, gleaning golf tips from pro golfers is easier than ever. When it comes to saving par, keep an eye on Luke Donald, Ben Crane, Jose Marie Olazabal, and Tiger Woods. They provide great golf instruction sessions.

Make More Sand Saves

Luke Donald is among the best young players on the Tour. He’s also among the best at sand saves—with a save percentage of nearly 80 percent. That’s impressive. Obviously, he has sand saves down to a science. For him, the key to making sand saves is adjusting his technique to his lie. He’s learned to hit all kinds of shots from a bunker, like the “fried egg.” To hit a high soft shot with this lie, he stands square to the target line, places more weight on his front foot, and opens up the clubface. These adjustments create a higher, softer shot that rolls toward the hole when it lands.

Sink More Putt

Ben Crane is always among the Tour’s putting leaders. He averages about 27 putts per 18 holes. His edge lies in his solid fundamentals. A strong point is his ability to keep his putter underneath his eye line during the stroke. This symmetry—eyes over the line and putter under the eyes—is critical to sinking putts. It promotes consistency because your eyes help determine how your muscles move. In other words, you putt where you look. And where you look affects perception. Maintaining the eyes over the target line keeps the club moving along the line and directing the ball along this path.

Chip Like A Pro

Jose Maria Olazabal is among the premier short game players in the world. He’s always among the Tour leaders in Scrambling—saving par after missing a green in regulation—with a 69 percent average. Like Ben Crane whose putting technique is solid, Olazabal features a flawless chipping technique. Normally, he uses a piston like pitching approach. In it, the right elbow straightens as it applies force at impact. This increases accuracy because it produces an accelerated stroke and keeps the clubface on line—two keys to great chipping.

Escaping From The Rough

When we think of Tiger Woods, we often think of his booming drives or his deadly approach shots. But Tiger also has an uncanny ability to escape from the heavy rough. It requires both strength and technique—and Tiger has both. You can learn a lot from watching Tiger play shots in the heavy rough. For him the key to clearing heavy rough is rotating his chest and hips, preventing the grass from grabbing the club’s hosel and closing the face. In addition, he holds the clubface open by preventing his forearms from rotating.

If your golf handicap never seems to drop no matter how much you visit the range, focus on learning to save par. Do whatever it takes. Read golf tips on how to chip and putt. Take golf lessons on putting and tackling the rough. And watch how the pros do it. You’ll be surprised just how much you can reduce your golf handicap just by learning to save par.

Saving Par Cuts Golf Handicaps is a post from: Putting Tips Pro

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But while studying professional golfers often produces valuable golf tips, the modern style of putting may not yield the best results for weekend golfers—at least that’s the opinion of the PGA’s Tom Kite. He thinks weekend golfers shouldn’t putt like the pros at all. Instead, he advocates adopting a different technique—one that h believes can lower your golf handicap dramatically.

More Like Jones Than Woods

Here’s Kite’s theory: Over the years putting has evolved. It’s gone from the wristy stroke of Bobby Jones to the arm-and-shoulder stroke of Tiger Woods. The arm-and-shoulder stroke is fine for professionals, who play on fast, smooth greens and under great pressure. The arm-and-shoulder stroke is highly effective here. It provides control over the putt and also eliminates the influence of the wrists’ smaller muscles. These can twitch when under pressure, causing mistakes.

But the modern stroke may not be right for weekend golfers, who play on slower, bumpier greens and under less pressure. That’s because of two reasons: First, since the modern stroke is longer, it’s also slower. The longer and slower the stroke, the easier it is for the putterhead to go off line. You can’t sink a putt if your putterhead is off line—even if the putt’s speed and roll is perfect.

Second, since the greens weekend players play on aren’t as glass-like as those of the pros, making solid contact is imperative. Slower, bumpier greens require a firmer putt to keep the ball on line—one that can be delivered by using the wrists. A wristy stroke down plays the arms and shoulders. Also, since weekend golfers play under less pressure, they don’t have to worry about twitching.

Support From Jack Nicklaus

Support for Kite’s theory comes from one of the game’s greatest players. If you watch old footage of Jack Nicklaus, you’ll notice a big difference between his approach to putting and Tiger Woods’. Like Woods, Jack is methodical in his basic approach. He carefully studies each putt. And like Woods, he carefully goes through his pre-shot routine. But when it comes to putting the ball, Jack uses more of his wrists than Woods does.

Watching Jack, it almost seems like he “pops” the ball as opposed to stroking it—a good image to keep in your mind, if you adopt this putting style. Also, Jack makes a much shorter stroke than Woods, picking the putterhead up more abruptly and then placing it down on the ball. In fact, Jack’s stroke looks more like a jab than a stroke, with little movement of the arms and shoulders.

Keys To A Wristier Stroke

If you’re committed to changing putting styles, adopting Kite’s approach is worth considering. But you must hold two keys firmly in mind if use his approach. First, keep the blade square to the ball. In the modern stroke, the blade has a tendency to open and close in the course of the stroke. But with Kite’s approach the blade doesn’t have time to open much. In fact, keep the idea of squaring the blade to the ball as your primary swing thought.

Second, make the putter head finish on the ground. In the modern stroke the putterhead keeps moving toward the target after the ball is struck. It’s known as follow-through. It results in hitting up on the putt, causing topped or cut putts. But Kite’s approach eliminates this fault, since there’s no follow-through. Since there’s no follow-through, try hitting the bottom of the ball, not the upper half.

Kite’s idea of using a wristy putting stroke has merit. If you’re looking to improve your putting, consider it. Keep in mind that putting is the most individual of all golfing skills. So the wristier stroke may be better for you than the arm-and-shoulder stroke. But whatever you do, don’t stop taking golf lessons, reading golf tips, or practicing putting. It’s the best way to improve your putting and the quickest way to lower your golf handicap.

Tom Kite’s Controversial Advice is a post from: Putting Tips Pro

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But sinking more short putts improves your golf handicap, since we usually have many more short putts than long ones during a round. So if you’re really serious about lowering your golf handicap, work on sinking more short putts.

One area of short putting to focus on is alignment. Poor alignment causes more missed short putts than almost anything else. The tips below on help improve alignment.

Correct Shoulder Misalignment

Pulled putts hurts many a weekend golfer. Among the biggest causes of pulled putts is shoulder misalignment. Players with low golf handicaps tend to blame pulled putts on a breakdown of the wrists. But that’s not always the case. If your shoulders are misaligned, you’ll pull putts.

Next time you’re on the practice green, try this simple test: Go through your pre-shot routine. Take your address. Now, bend down and place your club’s shaft lengthwise along your feet so that it’s touching your toes. If the shaft is not running parallel to the target line, you may have discovered why you’re pulling your short putts.

How can you fix this? First, push your hands as close together as possible. The closer your hands, the less likely you are to dip your back shoulder toward the ball, caused by how you grip the club. Second, think of the line of your shoulders as you address the ball. If you’re fighting a pull, make sure your shoulders are parallel to the target line. That way when you swing, it will be along the line of the putt, not out to in.

Aligning The Putterface

 In addition to aligning your shoulders properly, your must also align your putterface correctly. The putter’s sweet spot must be perpendicular to the target for the ball to be online and stay that way during the putt. If you’re missing short putts, you could be taking this fundamental for granted—a common error among players with high golf handicaps.

Practicing the credit card drill helps eliminate this problem:

Find a straight 8-foot putt on the practice green and drop a ball down. Go through your normal pre-shot routine, and then take your address. Once you’re set, have a friend switch the ball for a credit card, placing it square to the ball with the long sides pointing toward the hole. Now rise up, stand back, and look along the card’s long edges. These lines should bracket the hole.

If you’re off, repeat the drill, but align the credit card first. Then place the ball on top of it. Now set your putterface square to the edges of the credit card. This allows you to see what straight looks like. After a few practice sessions, you’ll get an idea of what straight really is.

Line-up The Lettering

Another method of improving alignment is perhaps the simplest of all. Find a green where you have a straight putt about 10 to 12 feet. Now drop a ball down and take your address. Align yourself as you normally would. Make sure the clubface is at right angles to the ball. Now, holding the putter tightly, kneel down behind the putter and look over the putterhead to see if you had the putter aligned correctly. If not, keep working on this until you do.

In addition, you can reduce alignment problems when playing by using an old trick that many pros use. Before putting, place a marker behind your ball. Now bend down and align the ball’s lettering so that it’s aiming directly at the hole. Go through your pre-shot routine and take your address. Make sure the putter’s sweet spot is perpendicular to the lettering on the ball before putting. If it is, you’re aligned properly.

Tiger Woods spends about 45 percent of his time on the practice green hitting short putts. That tells you how important sinking those 10 and 12 footers really is. To sink more short putts, take proper alignment seriously. Make sure you are correctly aligned on every putt, even the short ones. Sinking more short putts chop strokes off golf handicaps.

Sinking Short Putts Cuts Golf Handicap is a post from: Putting Tips Pro

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