dewsweeper
Tour Rookie
How do you see the line on your ball !
Look at the hole when putting
- Thread starter Slab
- Start date
Capella
Journeyman Pro
You don't. Neither do you see any spot on the green in close vicinity to the ball you might have picked to aim over. Which is why I find it hard to do with putts that have more than a bit of break on it. It works great for speed control, and it is also great for straight putts (who needs a line when you are staring directly at your target). Maybe it could work if you pick a target point on the green to where you are aiming at (like a foot the the right of the hole etc.) and then look at that instead of the hole itself, but I find that it does not fill me with much confidence.
Slime
Tour Winner
I think I'm going to give this a go tomorrow ............................. along with a new grip and a different swing!!
How hard can it be?
How hard can it be?
Crazyface
Tour Winner
Tried it yesterday. It's rubbish. Christ I was even worse than ever. Never thought that could be possible.
Jacko_G
Blackballed
I disagree that its rubbish, it does take you out of your comfort zone and when you first try it your brain doesn't like it or trust it and you find your eyes quickly dart back to the ball when you start the stroke. It is something that you need to practice first and start to trust.
Easier to actually start putting with your eyes closed first, you can do this in the house. Build up trust and feel. It will take your thought process away from the stroke.
Mr Hip
Medal Winner
Why stop with the putter?
WARNING! Frequent use of the f word.
stefanovic
Medal Winner
Looking at the hole when putting does help to keep your head still, and for someone like me with limited memory I don't have to think where the hole is if I look back at the ball.
But putting is still the wildest thing in golf - you can 3 putt from anywhere.
But putting is still the wildest thing in golf - you can 3 putt from anywhere.
Slab
Occasional Tour Caddy
Couple weeks on & I'm still using this process (worked really well at the weekend) Can't pretend its a cure-all/never-miss solution, but for me its brought a couple of notable improvements to my putting;
On the long putts my lag-up distance is much much better with no real loss of accuracy to my chosen line
On the mid range 10' - 20' stuff (the range we think we'll hole all the time but we really cant) I feel much more confident and am making more 1-putts from this range
The short ones; <4' this has been the hardest range to get used to using it from, I guess because the ball can still be in peripheral vision, but after 4 rounds I'm learning to ignore it & making fewer pace mistakes so will keep practicing it to see if its the right approach on short putts
I'll really just keep an open mind to it (if its just temporary gains because its something different and distracting me from whatever issue I had before then it'll eventually fail and the faults will return)
Regardless of short putts I'll still use it on anything mid & long because the difference here is the biggest gain I'm seeing (I've never really had an issue picking a good line but would too often leave them too short to be sure of two-putting at worse)
So by having no memory depreciation time between looking at the hole to gauge distance/power, which was normally followed by focusing on the ball for a few seconds with glances back to the hole and adding in swing thoughts before actually hitting it
Its really just changing the order round so that I line up as usual, still picking a spot several inches in front of the ball or whatever you do, but by looking to the hole/target last I have the distance info fresh in my head all the way through the swing, up to and past the point of impact & zero thoughts about green imperfections I might have seen or trying to correct an errant movement I saw on my backswing etc (& not that I did, there's no need to worry about the line on the ball either)
I guess it boils down to which memory is more valuable to any player. The putter head alignment in relation to ball... or distance to target
I figure there's 4 primary misses, left/right/short/long (yes we can throw in short left, long right etc etc) but just to keep it simple. I'm not trying to overcome any particular problem on misses left, right or long because they're not really an issue for me, just leaving them short. So if you have good pace but just a bit wayward it might have little/no benefit doing this
Sorry for the Monday morning ramble
On the long putts my lag-up distance is much much better with no real loss of accuracy to my chosen line
On the mid range 10' - 20' stuff (the range we think we'll hole all the time but we really cant) I feel much more confident and am making more 1-putts from this range
The short ones; <4' this has been the hardest range to get used to using it from, I guess because the ball can still be in peripheral vision, but after 4 rounds I'm learning to ignore it & making fewer pace mistakes so will keep practicing it to see if its the right approach on short putts
I'll really just keep an open mind to it (if its just temporary gains because its something different and distracting me from whatever issue I had before then it'll eventually fail and the faults will return)
Regardless of short putts I'll still use it on anything mid & long because the difference here is the biggest gain I'm seeing (I've never really had an issue picking a good line but would too often leave them too short to be sure of two-putting at worse)
So by having no memory depreciation time between looking at the hole to gauge distance/power, which was normally followed by focusing on the ball for a few seconds with glances back to the hole and adding in swing thoughts before actually hitting it
Its really just changing the order round so that I line up as usual, still picking a spot several inches in front of the ball or whatever you do, but by looking to the hole/target last I have the distance info fresh in my head all the way through the swing, up to and past the point of impact & zero thoughts about green imperfections I might have seen or trying to correct an errant movement I saw on my backswing etc (& not that I did, there's no need to worry about the line on the ball either)
I guess it boils down to which memory is more valuable to any player. The putter head alignment in relation to ball... or distance to target
I figure there's 4 primary misses, left/right/short/long (yes we can throw in short left, long right etc etc) but just to keep it simple. I'm not trying to overcome any particular problem on misses left, right or long because they're not really an issue for me, just leaving them short. So if you have good pace but just a bit wayward it might have little/no benefit doing this
Sorry for the Monday morning ramble
stefanovic
Medal Winner
Sorry for the Monday morning ramble
Or quite simply, learn to read the greens.
Additionally find inspiration, learn Zen and Transcendental Meditation (only kidding).
The biggest pressure is uncertainty.
Smasher
Medal Winner
You should see my driving!
HomerJSimpson
Hall of Famer
Had a two hour short game session last week so tried it. I was determined not to look back at the ball and it did take some getting use to. Did it make a difference? No. Tried it and found I was better putting traditionally especially on anything between 15 and 25 feet. I did a simple test and putted 10 balls from 3, 4 and 5 feet looking and not looking and on the 3 foot putts looking won 10-8 on 4 feet it was a win for looking 8-6 and at 5 feet looking won 8-7.
Slab
Occasional Tour Caddy
From what I've seen pace really isn't the problem on your missed putts (Jeez, re-wrote that three diff ways trying to make it sound less condescending because that isn't my intention, just that your misses seem to be more of an alignment issue, whether that's reading the line or the face angle at point of impact I've no idea)
It is interesting though that within just a few minutes of using a new approach your putting stats, just on the short ones alone, are within about 10-15% of what you can achieve verses a method you've used for decades. I wonder what the potential would be with ten or twenty hours of practice?
Jacko_G
Blackballed
I did this today with all putts from 20 feet and under. Holed out brilliantly and my distance control was excellent.
I've tinkered with this in the past mainly in bounce games and had moderate success, moving the focus from the stroke is a big positive in my eyes, think I'll persevere with this through the winter.
I've tinkered with this in the past mainly in bounce games and had moderate success, moving the focus from the stroke is a big positive in my eyes, think I'll persevere with this through the winter.
That is brave, I tried it from 6 feet in, right until you miss one. I think from 2/3 feet it works very well.
HomerJSimpson
Hall of Famer
Tried it intermittently on the course in recent roll ups (especially when it hasn't gone well and I've lost a bit of interest). Great when it went in but managed to ram the rest two-three feet past so struggled with distance control. Might just have been a bad day as the practice ones didn't seem to have been so fierce and go so far past. Don''t think ultimately its' something I will buy into but if it works for some why not?
Slab
Occasional Tour Caddy
Well its been a couple of months I've been doing this now and I plan to stick to it for the foreseeable
I actually had my first poor putting round with this approach just last week but not dire enough to make me think the strategy is flawed (just down to me not practicing for two weeks and putting on two different grasses/greens in consecutive rounds)
Using it in comps and social games on most putts. The closer to the hole I am the less likely I'll look at the hole (basically if the ball & hole are in my vision without moving my eyes or my head then I'll likely just look at the ball, but everything further away then just get set up and address the ball as we all do but when you would be taking your last look along your line to the hole before starting back-swing I just focus on the hole as my objective
That's maybe an important point, its not about looking at the ball then the hole its looking from the ball to the hole, so look along then line & finish with the hole as the objective then just swing with the distance info as fresh as it can be (& remember to finish the swing, like any putting stroke there can be a tendency to quit after you feel the strike and if not conscious of that then you'll mentally start to predict the moment of impact and you're already slowing down, so it'll finish short)
I actually had my first poor putting round with this approach just last week but not dire enough to make me think the strategy is flawed (just down to me not practicing for two weeks and putting on two different grasses/greens in consecutive rounds)
Using it in comps and social games on most putts. The closer to the hole I am the less likely I'll look at the hole (basically if the ball & hole are in my vision without moving my eyes or my head then I'll likely just look at the ball, but everything further away then just get set up and address the ball as we all do but when you would be taking your last look along your line to the hole before starting back-swing I just focus on the hole as my objective
That's maybe an important point, its not about looking at the ball then the hole its looking from the ball to the hole, so look along then line & finish with the hole as the objective then just swing with the distance info as fresh as it can be (& remember to finish the swing, like any putting stroke there can be a tendency to quit after you feel the strike and if not conscious of that then you'll mentally start to predict the moment of impact and you're already slowing down, so it'll finish short)
NorwichBanana
Assistant Pro
Teddy Sherringham uses this technique for all his putts as far as I'm aware 
!
!
Orikoru
Tour Winner
And what is the context for that? Does he play off 5 or 35?Teddy Sherringham uses this technique for all his putts as far as I'm aware
NorwichBanana
Assistant Pro
No context at all, just simply a 'famous' who uses the technique.And what is the context for that? Does he play off 5 or 35?
....but he plays off 6.
garyinderry
Ryder Cup Winner
I am still a big fan of this. only ever on longish putts. played today and did it maybe 3 or 4 times.
