Putting Lessons

[DCB]

Spent a glorious sunny afternoon on putting at Inverclyde many years ago as part of a four day course. It was the best session of the week. Still use the drills and practise routines nowadays. Putt well and your scores will drop. Practise is the key to it though.

 

[woody69]

it is, but without decelerating, if you can maintain a 'speed' then great but most of us have no chance doing that, so accelerating at impact (even slightly) will ensure you don't decelerate which is a killer for putting.

You do obviously need to be careful not to go too far the other way though and stab at the ball, which is what accelerating at impact could do I think, but I know what you are saying.

 

[DaveM]

Sorry putting to me is all about feel. No one can teach you that.

 

[Rooter]

Sorry putting to me is all about feel. No one can teach you that.

so my putting feels great to me, but i have 40 putts a round. are you saying a lesson on the fundamentals wouldn't help?

I believe yes, putting is about feel, reading greens, working out pace and breaks etc. but you surely have to be able to consistently hit the ball where you aim it at the right speed. That may need a lesson just to set you on the right path..

 

[Deleted member 1147]

Sorry putting to me is all about feel. No one can teach you that.

I'm not one to post too direct a response, but in this case I allow myself the opportunity - I disagree...strongly, I might add!

When I putt', before the lesson, I was standing incorrectly, aiming incorrectly, had an open clubface, and wasn't judging distance very well - all using feel as my guide. This lead to 2 rounds of our scratch cup with only 1 birdie, giving me the 4th best score.
Had I used better set-up, technique and judgement I may well have holed more putts, giving me a chance of winning, after all I gave myself 17 putts from within 15 feet for birdies and made none of them (the only birdie was a 2 putt).

As such I had a lesson, am more mechanical in technique, but it seems to be improving. I was complemented by some old playing partners, this weekend, that they'd never seen me putt so well!

 

[Deleted member 15344]

Sorry putting to me is all about feel. No one can teach you that.

Putting is feel - the stroke is about feel in regards pace and line

But you can be taught a good set up and shoulder movement

 

[Foxholer]

Sorry putting to me is all about feel. No one can teach you that.

Agreed that it's difficult, if not impossible to teach 'feel'. But they can certainly teach you how to have a more reliable, consistent stroke! So it's not ALL about feel!

 

[mhwgc]

Had a putting lesson a couple of years ago and have to say I was really impressed. Important to get the basics right, such as set up alignment etc then it's about reading the greens, feel, pace etc. I'm staggered how often I play with a high handicapper who claims to be a good putter then proceeds to 3 putt his way round the course!!

 

[DaveM]

Guess that's just the difference between a naturally good putter and a naturally bad putter.

 

[Deleted member 1147]

Guess that's just the difference between a naturally good putter and a naturally bad putter.

Probably!

 

[London mike 61]

I had a putting lesson yesterday , the pro didn't use any equipment , he just looked at how I was standing to the ball and my aim .
He said I was standing too near to the ball, although I had my eyes over the ball my arms did not have enough room to to use the shoulders as they should, so he got me in a position where my feet were further away from the ball but my eyes still over the ball and target line.

Well, the difference it made was amazing, I could see the line a lot easier and my previous 'push' of putts had disappeared .

He showed me a couple of drills to work on and I went away a happy bunny!

Time will tell if my scores fall but I feel a lot more confident about my overall putting abilities now.

 

[mchacker]

Everytime I have a bad round on the greens, and think about having a putting lesson(as recently as yesterday morning) I focus on resetting the basic alignment, ball position and grip and things improve drastically. Also a tip I spotted on here a long time ago about putting a dowel rod through belt loops to look for body movement helps.

 

[CMAC]

You do obviously need to be careful not to go too far the other way though and stab at the ball, which is what accelerating at impact could do I think, but I know what you are saying.

and after saying all that I played today and decelerated like a decelerating maniac :rofl:, badly hit putts as well as coming up weak. I need to listen to myself more often