Grooved Golf Swing Series: Putting Problems? Deal With Them & Improve Your Score By Putting Well

I talked about putting problems in my last article. I want to
continue with a few more situations that you will certainly meet on
the greens.
You were unable to keep your ball below the hole on a fast sloping
green.
You are faced with a down hill put and you are filled with
trepidation.
You hit your put, and to your amazement, it is too
short.
How could you hit such a short put on such a down hill run?

The answer is that you were too tentative.
You decelerated so much through the put
that you almost stopped the putter head.

OK, here is a solution that you can apply next time you are faced
with such a down hill put.
The trick is to forget about the down hill aspect of the run to the
hole.
The trick is to put for a spot well short of the hole.
This way, you will still hit your put with authority.

Work out in your mind how much further past the hole your ball will
travel if you hit your put on level ground.

If you, for example you estimate that the ball will go six, ten,
twelve feet past the hole, then hit your put to stop this distance
short of the hole.
This may only be four or five feet in front of
you for a fifteen foot put.
You will have to practice this because, boy, does this take some
courage!
Similarly, if you are putting up hill, estimate how far short you
will be if you hit to the hole on level ground.
Yes, that’s right;
you hit your put to reach a point past the hole the same distance.
This also takes courage.

However, commit to these two situations
and distances, and hit your puts.
You will be very impressed with your efforts.

Similarly, if off the green, say 4 feet, and the grass is a bit
rough, but not too long, use your putter.
Hit your ball with enough power to stop at a spot say five feet past the hole.
You will find, to your delight that your ball stops beside the hole.

This takes courage as well.

A friend and I won the club foursomes once doing just this.
It seemed to always fall to me to get the ball to the
hole from a few feet off the green and somehow, I made myself hit
to a spot well past the hole.
The result was a foot put for my partner on most occasions.

After a horror hole on the first, where
we had four puts, we parred the rest and won the day.

Keeping your ball below the hole as much as possible allows you to
hit your puts firmly.
There are a couple of things to know about this too.

Because you are hitting your ball firmly, there will be
less break.
So the ball will not curve as much as it would for a
slower put down hill.
A firm put up hill will not go a long way
past the hole either and so you will not be faced with a long put
back if you miss.