Which is your scoring club? Driver? Pitching wedge? Putter?
If you said "putter" you're probably right. Why? Because a good scratch golfer playing 18 holes will use his putter 36 times with every round. All the other strokes are taken with the remaining 13 clubs in the bag.
Therefore, good putting is absolutely crucial to making a lower score.
Using the putter is strangely mechanical and intuitive at the same time. You must swing like a mechanical putting robot and you must allow your intuitive brain to take command and control the motion of the putt, the direction of the putt and the pace of the putt.
Have you watched how Tiger Woods approaches his putt? He squats down - like all of us - to look at the line. He walks around both sides of the line and visualizes the the roll of the ball. Everything he does programs his mental intuition to automatically perform the stroke. He allows his vision and the feel of the green under his feet to feed information into his subconscious, intuitive mind. He evaluates the wind's effects, the grain of the green and uses the same routine every time. Then he practices "feeling" the putt with practice strokes - too hard, too soft, just right. Finally he adjusts his feet, sets the club behind the ball and using a measured rhythm allows this body to swing the club in a pendulum: straight back and straight through.
I have found that if the follow through is longer than the back swing I will make a better putt more often than not. Try it at home on your most green-like carpet. Make 8 and 10 foot putts and notice how the club feels in your hands and hold your position at the end of the stroke while you watch the path of the ball. If the pace is right, your ball will stop about 12 - 18 inches beyond the target.
The expert on putting and the short game is Dave Pelz. Pick up his book on putting at Amazon.com.
WebWeaverGolf 2-17-08 Next: Attitude
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