Serious Putting woes

Hi Guys,

Just looking for some advice really. Having some real putting woes at the minute and was wondering if anyone had been through the same and how they got through it. I have gone from a low 1 handicap to 3 in little over 18 months

Been going on for around a year now and was topped off last Saturday. I struck the ball as well as ever - I hit 16 greens in reg and still only managed 34 points. The highlight being hitting our par 4 8th in two and walking off with an NR .

Ironically, my stroke doesn't feel too bad and have been told (by other scratch golfers) that they cant spot anything glaringly wrong.

I have always used a traditional style anser putter and am now even considering getting a Tyler made Spider putter thingy to see if that changes my fortunes.

Golfer in distress....

whats a low 1 handicap?!

i've struggled big time on the greens this year but putting that down to poor condition and lack of practice as i've focussed my practice time almost entirely on pitching and chipping from 50 yards in.

bizarrely my putting has really improved over the last month or so - probably because all the greens have slowed up so much that they're now pretty consistent hole-to-hole and week-to-week.

personally i'm not a fan of switching putters around, but i guess it might work. i tend to be of the mind that if i'm having a bad putting round i know its down to me and not the putter as i know i've had really good season's with it in the past.

thing i try and do if i'm having a bad spell is to try and have a putt every day - even if its just around the house for 5 mins. by focusing on good contact only it means when i get to the practice green and on the course at the weekend i'm familiar with the feel and contact of the stroke and its just a case of working on line and pace.

Sounds like a wind up.

Why do you say that sr?

I am a little curious as to how someone could describe it as a wind up.... Please explain

Davie,

He says he's a "low" 1 handicapper, whatever that is.

So, if he can't tell that anything is wrong with the stroke and if no one can see any problem then he probably has a mental issue. Probably trying too hard.
I'd expect a 1 handicapper to be able to take a step back and try different things. Sounds like he's given up.

Well SR. Handicaps come in .1 (incase you are unsure please refer to GONGU website)

I would describe a 0.8 handicap a low 1 and a 1.4 handicap as as a high 1 (as in nearly 2). Not rocket science...

With regards to the mental issue, that I have no doubt is the issue as putting is 99% confidence. Something which is not easy to get back.

Just interested to find out how many putts were made on the 8th for you to NR? Seems unrealistic to me.

Our 8th (Pennard G.C) is quite undulating. I hit the green in 2 (to about 30 feet) and 4 putts later walk off with a double i.e. an NR

Yes Cashy, I'm aware of that, just wondered why you need to tell everyone as if it will affect the advice you are given (not trying to be confrontational by the way) Just that putting isn't difficult and is something that every golfer of every ability can be as good as everyone else.

As for advice, as someone of the same ("low" handicap, I would suggest that you have to look forward to getting on the green as you clearly dread getting on the green because it seems you are expecting to putt badly.

I'll be the first of many to recommend Bob Rotella's Putting out of your Mind.

Thanks for the advice SR. Unfortunately, I have read it a while back. From what I remember, it was mainly about about approaching putting with the attitude of not really caring if you hole it or not and try to "free your mind from the technique".

I think its up the loft, as I am summoned to get the Xmas decorations down this weekend, I will have to dig it out!

Cashy, you don't four putt because of the loft unless you've slammed your putter in a boot lid or damaged it somehow. I could use my wedge on the greens at St.Andrews which are massive and never four putt.

You've obviously been a good putter to get down to a "low" 1, so it's doubtful it's your technique, and if you used the same putter I doubt it's that either.

Sounds mental in my opinion.

I think it's the book that's in the loft

s_r - I think the loft he is talking about is the space in the roof of his house where the book is located

That's what i said

Ha ha, I should read more closely eh?

Well after that bizarre attack from S_R lets hope some of the rest of us can offer you some useful advice. Having never been as low as 1 my advice may mean little to you but in times of desperation, as you seem to be in, us golfers will try almost anything.

First of all it may be necessary to identify if you actually have a problem with your putting and if so what type of putts are causing the problem. As is the way I am sure you keep stats so maybe just double checking you are taking more putts than low handicap players might be a good idea. Also think about the relationship between higher GIR and more putts.

If possible you should try to identify how close (or how many you hole from closer in) you are getting to the hole for various lengths of putt.

If your stroke is good, as you say others have mentioned, it could be that distance putting is just not getting you close enough to ensure a two putt.

A closer analysis will do two things; it will give you confidence that some areas of your putter are good and also help you identify where to improve.

It might just be a case of developing drills you can do on the practice putting green that focus on the length of putt that is causing you problems. Whether this is really concentrating on reading the greens or judging the pace.

Mac, read it, it wasn't an attack.

Oh come on s-r - you've been "guns a-blazing" since the opening post of the thread

No Davie, I initially thought it was a wind up for a low handicapper to ask advice, then since then I've been fairly decent. Certainly not an attack.

Just out of curiosity SR why is is so strange for a low handicapper to ask advice. As a low handicapper yourself, I can only assume you know it all...

No I don't know it all, but I usually know where to start. especially when it comes to putting, it's usually quite obvious where to begin.

Mac gave a great description of understanding why your putting is suffering.
Why I wouldn't seek advice on a forum is that you tend to get masses of conflicting technical information which is more likely to give you extra confusion and therefore further problems.
Mac and I have given information which probably relates more identifying the root of the problem, rather than offering "advice" on how not to four putt.
Sorry if it came across as confrontational, it wasn't intended to. If I was going to offer any advice on putting, it would be keep it simple so as to avoid introducing tension.

Biggest thing that can dent your confidence is losing distance control, you start panicking when you dont lag it near enough. Work on distance control, which means you'll have to work on your tempo. Distance control comes from having a consistent tempo in your stroke. Do some research on the tempo of the putting stroke, find and ingrain your tempo then work on distance control until its easy.

IMO its the hardest bit about putting - distance control - hitting the ball on the line you want should be easy.

Cashy - as a country member myself at Pennard I know that 8th green all too well! Some of the pin positions they put out there can mean a putt that you think will stop 5 feet past the hole can quickly become 30 or 40 yards away!
If your putting isn't too glaringly bad generally maybe you're being too hard on yourself choosing this hole to cite your woes. Blame it on the greenkeeper!

To me, having been a 'low', low handicapper and now still a 'low' 2, I would say Love sacks to technique with putting, at your level, it has nothing to do with it.

You need to simplify everything about your mental approach, mark ball, look at line, put ball down, hit putt.

I had a similar issue, nothing major, but wasn't holing anything - i used to have a much more involved routine, which worked for years, but all of a sudden it changed - now I am holing putts again, sadly though the rest of my game has gone to rat shyte!

As with all decent golfers, putting is always a confidence thing. I would say work on the mental side of putting, rather than thinking it's something technicailly wrong with your stroke / putter of choice. I don't buy into all these techincal books nonsense.

I've played with a lot of good golfers in my time, none of them are bad at putting, some just believe they are, negativity which is transferred to their game.

Not a lot to add to what's been said. I would ask myself if the misses are consistent i.e. all left or all right? Is it your distance control leaving a lot to do for your second putt?

Anything changed with your vision over the last 18 months?

Whenever my putting has gone off the boil, generally find that it's down to being lazy and not taking enough care to line the putt up properly.

To rectify this, I purchased a putter laser (about £5 on ebay), which I use indoors. You attach it to the shaft of your putter, and position the beam directly over the sweetspot. The beam then reflects where you're actually aiming.

I also bought a Masters Align-M-Up ball marker http://www.americangolf.co.uk/product/Masters-Golf-Align-M-Up-Golf-Ball-System/p94298.aspx As you can see from the picture, it has one long template, then two smaller at 90 degrees. I use the long template to line up the putt direction (and the putter sight line), and the the two smaller lines to ensure that the putter face is square to the target.

Marcus wrote:Whenever my putting has gone off the boil, generally find that it's down to being lazy and not taking enough care to line the putt up properly.

To rectify this, I purchased a putter laser (about £5 on ebay), which I use indoors. You attach it to the shaft of your putter, and position the beam directly over the sweetspot. The beam then reflects where you're actually aiming.

I also bought a Masters Align-M-Up ball marker http://www.americangolf.co.uk/product/Masters-Golf-Align-M-Up-Golf-Ball-System/p94298.aspx As you can see from the picture, it has one long template, then two smaller at 90 degrees. I use the long template to line up the putt direction (and the putter sight line), and the the two smaller lines to ensure that the putter face is square to the target.

Marcus, are you Rodney Dangerfield?

If I were you Cashy I'd spend less time worrying about how (relatively) bad your putting is and more time enjoying hitting the ball so sweetly. I'm assuming you don't play for a living so does it really matter whether you score 34pts or 44? Besides if you're playing in a handicap comp is it not true that the better you do one time the harder it is to do well the next?

I certainly wouldn't start getting technical when you've been as good as you clearly have in the past. After all a putter is pretty much just a flat bit of metal and I've often thought you'll hole as many putts by misjudgement i.e. hitting it too hard/soft on the wrong line as you will hitting the perfect putt.

navyblueshorts wrote:Anything changed with your vision over the last 18 months?

That's a great point Navy and not often mentioned as a reason for a sudden loss of overall timing and particularly putting accuracy. I'm not sure how old you are Cashy but your eyes do change significantly as you get towards your late thirties early forties and certainly, at your level, can make a big huge difference especially putting. It happened to me (I didn't know at the time) and I managed to sort it out and my game came back, well relatively anyway!

I too have played Pennard although it was some years ago and can understand your woes on the eighth, I played it in the wind, fantastic scenery and top notch course; would love to play it on a calmer day though.

Don't think I can add anything that hasn't already been said. Putting is mainly all in the mind and the more you miss the more you think about how bad you are when in truth you may not be bad at all technically.

If you missing so wide of the mark sounds like an issue reading the lines which could be a sight issue or simply complacency.

I'd head back to the putting green and practice from 3 feet get used to hearing the ball drop in the hole, move back to 6 foot then 9, and 12 etc to build confidence. Also would practice looking at long putts and and marking where the apex of the break is and aiming at that mark and seeing how far out I am. Should give an idea of how your reading them.