Putting Like a Pro

I had my third lesson at the PGA Tour Superstore yesterday. I wanted to work on my putting. While I love to go to the driving range and the high-tech hitting bays, I know that the fastest way to improve my score and reduce my handicap is to work on my putting and short game. Will is the short-game specialist. As you might expect, the PGA Tour Superstore has all kinds of high tech telemetry devices to improve your putting, in addition to some old-fashioned gadgets that you can use on the practice green.

Will attached a sensor to my Ping Craze-E putter and he started to play with his computer. I hit five putts from about 10 feet on the simulated putting surface. The green was probably running at a 12 on the stimp meter! The sensor measured seven items: initial putter alignment; length and angle of putter backswing; length and angle of putter follow-through; putter angle at impact; speed at impact; impact location on putterhead; and putter loft. I did very well at initial putter alignment and putter angle at impact, which are the two most important measurements. My backswing and follow-through were too long and I fanned the putter open on the backswing and closed the putter after impact, although I was pretty square at impact.

Will worked with me to shorten my backswing, accelerate through the ball and shorten the follow-through, which will reduce clubface rotation and keep the clubface square to the putting line. We used four low-tech pieces of equipment to practice. First, we used the putting arc, a piece of wood with a subtle curvature. You put the heel of the putter on the outside of the arc and draw the club back and through along the edge of the wood on a perfect plane. The first 6 to 8 inches on the backswing and follow-through are almost perfectly square and as the arms swing further like a pendulum there is a small arc in the backswing and follow-through. It feels unbelievably natural and with practice you can develop the necessary muscle memory to repeat the putting stroke. This device is fairly pricey at $90, but I think it is well worth the money.

Next, we used the golf putting track to keep the putting stroke short and on line. This is a pretty simple and effective device, at a substantially lower price. The putting track on the link is a little fancier than the one I used, which was just a flat rectangle. The next gadget was the putting pegz. The putting pegz is two pieces of string attached to the pegs that you place along your alignment and above the ball. When you set up correctly over the ball, the two strings should be perfectly aligned to your eyes and your putter face. Also, the strings make you keep the putter face low through your follow-through. You can make this device yourself with two knitting needles and some yarn. Finally, the last device was a metal yardstick about 2 inches wide that Will placed along side the putting arc and putting pegz to make sure that the putter was square at alignment. At the end of the lesson, Will placed a golf ball at one end of the metal yard stick and told me to putt the ball keeping the ball on the yardstick the entire 3 feet. He said that he has worked with people that have driven themselves crazy trying to do this exercise! In my first and only attempt the ball stayed on the yardstick the entire 3 feet and went right into the hole! At that point I quit for the day, very pleased with my lesson.