Putting Tip – Every Putt Is Straight
Green reading tips
I remember when I was a junior, playing in Ireland, I was on the putting green practicing one night at my home club. While practicing on a sloping putt, without much success, an older member of the club came up to me and told me “Every Putt is Straight”. Before I even had a chance to ask him to explain, he had walked off into the clubhouse without giving an explanation. I had no idea what he was talking about; clearly every putt is not straight, so within about 30sec, I had dismissed the advice as “rubbish” from a crazy old guy!
Well, it turns out that crazy old guy was not as crazy as I thought. Recently, I was teaching a tour pro. She, like many players of all levels, struggles missing putts on the low side of the hole. What I mean by “missing on the low side” is missing left on a right to left putt, and missing right on a left to right putt. Just as I was back when I was a junior on the practice green.
Why so many players miss on the low side more often than not is a lack of trust in the line they have chosen, and their eye looking directly at the hole, and not on the starting line of the putt. The combination of not trusting the line, and your eye looking directly at the hole, will cause you to pull the ball on a right to left line, and push on a left to right putt; you are putting towards the hole, and not the starting line.
In trying to explain to the tour pro her fault, and why she was missing on the low side, for some reason I thought back to the old guy’s advice. What he was trying to tell me, was I should forget the hole and trust my line as if I was putting on a “straight putt”
Follow this step by step routine to a putt which slopes:
1st – Read the green as you normally would and select the starting line of the putt.
2nd – Pick a piece of grass just in front of the ball on the starting line you have chosen.
3rd – Make your practice strokes behind the ball looking down your starting line, focus on getting the feel for the correct distance of putt.
4th – Address the ball, aiming at the grass on the starting line. When you look up, do not look at the hole, only look at the point level with the hole which is on your starting line. Imagine the hole is there. Imagine the putt is straight.
5th – Make your stroke only focusing on the correct distance, forgetting the hole. The putt is straight!
