By: Tony Lake, PGA Pro
In order to gain more control you need to stop using the small muscles (hands) and start using your bigger muscles (shoulders) to control the swing. Move both shoulders straight back and thru just like a grandfather clock. The hands and arms should go along for the ride.
If you find that you are not following thru, here are two things to keep in mind. The first is making sure that your back swing is shorter than your follow thru. When you take it too far back your subconscious takes over, resulting in a short jabbing follow thru. The second is to control the tempo of your stroke. We don’t need power to hit an eight foot putt, so make sure that everything slows down to ensure the club extends towards the target.
The longer the clubface stays at the target the more puts you will make. One easy way to control the clubface position is by placing your eyes over the ball at the address position. If your eyes are over the ball your shoulders, arm and hands will be able to extend towards the target. If your eyes are too far away from the ball you will miss your putts to the right due to an inside out swing. If you are too far over the ball the opposite effect will occur and you will miss putts to the left. Check the alignment of your eyes by placing a ball next to your eyes while at the address position and letting it fall to identify the position.
Reading Greens:
- Down hill putts will be faster and have more break, uphill putts will be slower and have less break.
- Look at your surroundings! Try to find the lowest part of the green, which in most cases would be on the side that a lake or creek is located. Architects design greens to slope from the highest point to the lowest in order to eliminate water from accumulating on the green.
- The slope closest to the hole will have the most influence on the ball since the ball will be traveling slower. Get close to the ground and find out what side of the cup is higher. If the right side is higher, then we know that the putt will move to the left when it gets closer to the hole.
4.0
Show/hide review form
