Problems with putting

[Khamelion]

I posted a few weeks back about not being able to read greens, well yesterday had I got a read, I could have easily taken another 6 shots off my 86 and shot an 80.

Everything within 6 feet I nailed, okay bar a couple of dinky putts which was my own stupid fault for trying to be clever and do a one handed tap in. So make that 8 shots I could've had back.

I'm not leaving puts short, they are getting up past the hole and it's not a line up problem, because I look at where I want to putt the ball, pick a mark, line up the ball logo with the direction I want it to go and putt.

The problem I have is, the long puts I just cannot get a read, cannot buy one, puts that look to be wanting to break right, break left, so I aim left and the ball ends up further left.

Hobbit suggested cupping my hands around my eyes, to take away other factors that may be influencing my line up decisions, tried that a few times with no success, made it harder for me, if anything. Tried looking through my dominant eye only, plumb bob the club, walking round the hole, Hell I'm sure the 3 ball following me thought I was going to have a poop on the green the amount of times I circled the hole.

I guess one solution will be to leave all my putts under 6 feet, thus I'll have to improve my short game somewhat, but if anyone has any ideas, I'm all eyes and ears.

 

[User20205]

Aimpoint

 

[Deleted Member 1156]

You should be able to get the general read of the putt (I hope!!) but one important thing that people often forget is to look at the hole itself and see if one side is higher than the other. This will give you a good idea what the ball will do as it slows down around the hole.

Very simple tip but often overlooked :thup:

 

[Evesdad]

You should be able to get the general read of the putt (I hope!!) but one important thing that people often forget is to look at the hole itself and see if one side is higher than the other. This will give you a good idea what the ball will do as it slows down around the hole.

Very simple tip but often overlooked :thup:

The hole cut has helped me incredibly, my putting had been woeful for the last 8 months but after a good bit of practice is finally coming together. If I'm in doubt check the cut of the hole and go with it. It's not often wrong.

 

[Beezerk]

I read the G Mac section in a recent issue of the GM mag, he suggested imagining how the ball would roll into the hole from where you are stood. It's certainly helped me and it's a great starting point.

 

[Hobbit]

This is going to sound bit odd. If you're getting the pace right, your long putt actually becomes a short putt. For example, you've got a long putt of about 45'. You can see it swings from left to right BUT it will only really swing once the pace starts to drop off. Therefore you only really need to concentrate on the last 10'.

The question is, how much will it swing in the last 10'? You've picked a target to the left of the hole, the target being where the swing starts............... pm'd

 

[Birchy]

If you can nail everything from 6 feet then your very capable of rolling all the long ones to at least close range. You can even read the last 6 feet to the hole then work on getting your ball to the right point for that putt with the long one and it shouldn't be that far away.

Sounds to me like you just need a bit of confidence and you will be bang on. The 6-10 feet putts are the money shots in my eyes so if you are good at them its only a matter of time imo.

 

[AmandaJR]

The thing that works best for me is from one of the many golf psychology books I've read and can't recall which one!

So...the basis is our eyes and brain can compute the line required BUT the moment we start to put words to that we limit the information. So I don't stand and think, "this is left to right, 1 ball outside" or that sort of stuff (confuses me when people say it!) rather than really open up my peripheral vision around the putt area and just let the information sink in. I'll feel/see a line the ball will take to the hole and go with that without questioning/verbalising. Stand over the ball (no practice swings), check putter head is square to the line I've visualised, last look at the hole, return eyes to ball via said line and hit it

I mis-read when I try to think too hard about it and usually then over-read the breaks. At first it felt weird and like I was somehow giving up control of the putt but then relaxed and let it flow

 

[chrisd]

Is part of the problem your expectations?

My understanding is that tour Pro's playing on immaculate playing surfaces only make less than 50% of the putts from 6 foot, over that then the % obviously goes down as the distance goes up. If you're sinking everything inside 6 feet then your doing really well and anything over that is unlikely to go in anyway. I'd concentrate on distance control so that when you do miss from say 12 feet you are always only 1 to 2 feet away which you shouldn't often miss. John Jacobs at the Kings of Distance the other week was showing us 50 foot putts and stressed that the pace was much more important than the line, if you get the pace right you should be left with an easier tap in.

 

[pendodave]

Is part of the problem your expectations?

Spot on for me. Just how many putts from over 6 foot do you think the average handicap golfer should be rolling in ??

I was at Walton Heath last week; believe me, the pros miss more than they hole from 6 and out. I reckon if I holed everything from 4 feet and in with no 3 putts it would be a freakishly good round (off 13 fwiw).

On a practical point. If you are a member at a club and play most of your golf at that course, why not use one of these long summer evenings to make very rough notes for each green of the main breaks just to avoid calamitous misreads. If you're playing a round subsequently and misread, just update the notes. Within a month you'll know them all backwards.

Just don't go for club penguin !

 

[One Planer]

I read the G Mac section in a recent issue of the GM mag, he suggested imagining how the ball would roll into the hole from where you are stood. It's certainly helped me and it's a great starting point.

I do this. Always have.

Seems to work for me.

 

[Khamelion]

Is part of the problem your expectations?

My understanding is that tour Pro's playing on immaculate playing surfaces only make less than 50% of the putts from 6 foot, over that then the % obviously goes down as the distance goes up. If you're sinking everything inside 6 feet then your doing really well and anything over that is unlikely to go in anyway. I'd concentrate on distance control so that when you do miss from say 12 feet you are always only 1 to 2 feet away which you shouldn't often miss. John Jacobs at the Kings of Distance the other week was showing us 50 foot putts and stressed that the pace was much more important than the line, if you get the pace right you should be left with an easier tap in.

Distance isn't that much of an issue, I can usually get the ball close, to leave a short second and it's not my expectations, I realise that not every put over 15ft is going to drop, I except that.

What I was getting as is, over 15 feet I can look at a putt decide on a line and hit the putt, but the ball rolls in the opposite direction to what I read the break to be. The below image is what I put up on the first thread I posted and month back.



The green looks like, well to me anyway, it slopes up left to down right, everything tells me the ball should roll left to right, but when hit it does the opposite and rolls right to left.