The Art of Putting

by Stan Utley

  the high point—the point he needed to aim at to get the ball to curve into the hole. If you look at the

  hole on a breaking putt, your tendency is to hit the ball at the hole. A simple adjustment in his pre-shot

  routine—getting him to focus on the point he wanted the ball to roll to on a breaking putt instead of at

  the hole—made all the difference. He didn’t even have to change his stroke.

  Shigeki Maruyama’s putting problem was one common to most players. He was having his last look at the hole, instead of his start line for breaking putts.

  TAYLORE KARLE

  Taylore is a really talented junior player from Scottsdale who had never really had any guidance

  when it came to her putting. When we started, her left-hand grip was a little weak, and her shaft

  leaned back slightly, away from the target. When she was in her address position, she used to hold her

  elbows out, away from her sides. She tended to make a short backswing, which forced her to really

  accelerate the putter on the downswing to get enough power.

  Taylore is a tremendous learner, and she absorbed what I had to say right away. We strengthened

  that left-hand grip and got her some forward press, softened her elbows and improved her posture. I

  also explained the arc to her, and she incorporated the idea into her putting by focusing on the concept

  of turning her shoulders around her spine. In a short amount of time, Taylore’s lag putting got

  dramatically better, and after four or five months of work, she got tremendously confident over short

  putts. She turned fifteen last summer and had a great tournament season, winning a handful of AJGA

  events around the country and setting the thirty-six-hole scoring record to make it to match play at the

  U.S. Girls Junior. She was rewarded by being named a 2005 AJGA Rolex Junior First Team All-

  American, along with Morgan Pressel and a handful of other talented junior players. We played a few

  holes recently, and I’m happy to report that I can still drive it longer than she can—barely.

  CHAPTER 8

  PUTTING DRILLS

  It’s one thing to describe a good putting stroke to you. But I’m sure you’re wondering how you’re

  going to take the ideas I’ve been talking about here and get them to stick in your own game. We’ve

  talked about feel over and over, and it really is true that you need to feel the way the putter releases

  effortlessly when you make the kind of stroke I’ve been talking about. That’s where the drills in this

  chapter come in.

  The eight drills I’m going to show you here will not only help you feel the basics of a good

  putting stroke, but also help you get back on track later on, after you’ve learned the stroke but are

  going through a rough patch. I use every one of these drills with the tour players I teach to help get

  them locked in. I like them because they travel well. You’re not always going to have a teacher or a

  reference book with you to check on your game. Being able to set up your own reference arc with a

  yardstick or learning how to use coins to make sure you’re hitting down on your putts is going to help

  you remember some of the things we’ve talked about in this book when you’re on the course.

  One other thing to keep in mind when you’re trying these drills—or even just hitting practice

  putts on the putting green—is that you’ve got to change up the holes you’re hitting to. Anybody can

  stand over the same eight-or ten-footer and, with enough practice, learn how to shake putts in the hole

  even with a bad stroke. What you’re trying to do with these drills and your putting practice is to

  develop touch and feel over a variety of putting situations. You’re building touch and feel into your

  new stroke just by changing the hole you hit to and adjusting to a variety of different breaks. I don’t

  like to hit any more than eight or ten putts to the same target when I’m practicing or warming up

  before a round. I’ll move to a different spot and hit putts with a different break, even if it’s to the

  same hole. In the five or ten minutes on the practice green right before a tournament round, I’ll even

  hit some twenty-, thirty-and forty-footers with no target in mind, just to get a feel for the speed of the

  green and the weight of the clubhead. Just doing that will help your rhythm and feel tremendously.

  PUTT WITH ONE HAND

  Many players who struggle with the putter are struggling because of too much tension in the upper

  body. The stroke starts to look like a stiff, full-body jab. The goal is to get that player to feel that the

  energy in the putting stroke comes from the head end of the putter, not the grip end. Start by carefully

  setting your right-hand grip and getting into a conventional putting stance. Cross your left arm on your

  chest so that your hand is on the front of your right bicep. Next, make a half-dozen practice strokes

  using just the right hand. Feel the weight of the putterhead and how it wants to swing itself without too

  much body movement to help it. With the left hand on your right bicep, you can feel how little it

  moves in a good stroke. In fact, most of the movement comes from below the elbows. The weight of

  the putterhead will help you rotate your forearm on the downswing as well—this is what you want, as

  opposed to breaking the wrist to flip at the ball.

  Next, change to your left-hand grip and make some practice swings with just that hand, crossing

  the right arm over the chest. Again, the stroke comes from forearm rotation, not from wrist movement.

  Once you feel the weight of the clubhead—and with only one hand on the putter, you’ll really start to

  feel it—you’ll sense how the putter wants to arc open on the backswing and close after impact with

  no extra hand movement.

  After eight or ten putts each with the right and left hands, make your standard putting grip and hit

  five putts, keeping in mind how each hand moved independently through the stroke when it was

  holding the club by itself. You should immediately sense how easily they work together, supporting

  the rotation of the forearms. You don’t have to grip the putter tightly or manipulate the club open or

  closed to get it to work. The weight of the club wants to help you do what you’re supposed to do.

  (LEFT) By swinging with just your right hand, you’re much more sensitive to the weight of the putterhead.

  (RIGHT) This one-handed grip also reinforces the idea that most of the movement in the putting

  stroke happens from the elbows down.

  (ABOVE LEFT) Once you’ve hit putts with your right hand, switch around and hit some using just your left hand. Keep that feeling of rotating the forearm to make the stroke, not flipping the wrist.

  (ABOVE RIGHT) You’ll notice that the easiest way to hit putts with one hand is to let the putter follow the arc, with the face opening like it is here. You can generate a tremendous amount of energy without much effort.

  (LEFT) I haven’t done much at all with my arms, and the putterhead has released nicely and the ball is on its way. Notice how quiet my lower body has stayed.

  STROKE REFERENCE

  Everyone expects me to pull out some elaborate training aid for players to work on their strokes with,

  but my props are pretty simple. You can practice the stroke I teach with just an aluminum yardstick

  and three tees. The aluminum yardstick has just enough flex that it can bend in a slight curve. Balance

  the yardstick on its edge and stick a tee in the green at the center of the yardstick on the inside edge.

  T
hen, curve each end toward you slightly and stick tees in the ground at the outside edge of the

  yardstick to support the curve. The curve in the yardstick you’ve created with the tees stuck in the

  ground should be pretty gentle, having only pulled in each end about an inch and a half from the

  center. Now, you have a track to guide your putter for both practice strokes and real putts.

  I like to use this track three different ways. The first way is to put the ball on the inside of the

  curve, and use the yardstick as a simple reference line. Then, you can hit practice putts with this

  visual cue reminding you of the right arc.

  By moving closer to the yardstick and placing the heel of your putter on the outside of it, right up

  against the metal, you can actually use the yardstick as a physical guide for the stroke. Make a stroke

  with the heel of the putter right alongside the metal during the entire stroke and you’ll really feel the

  swing arc.

  The third way to use it is to place your putter on the top edge of the yardstick, with the aiming

  line on the top edge of the putter in line with the top edge of the yardstick. Then you can make more

  practice strokes while keeping the line on the top of the putter centered on the top edge of the

  yardstick. Having a visual reference really makes a difference when you’re trying to develop—or

  maintain—your putting stroke.

  I’ve seen some “putting arc” training aids for sale in golf shops and on infomercials. These will

  work just fine, but bending your own yardstick is cheaper and easier to do. The yardstick will also

  hide away in your golf bag without taking up too much room. I use this set of drills myself when I’ve

  been away from tournament action for a couple of weeks, just to sharpen my putting path.

  (ABOVE LEFT AND RIGHT) After creating the guide with a yardstick and three tees, start by using it to the outside of your target line.

  (LEFT) Let the putter follow the arc back and through, making sure to set the ball up just inside the leading edge of the arc so that it can clear it on the way to the hole.

  (ABOVE LEFT) By moving forward and hitting putts from the other side of the arc, you can physically use the metal of the yardstick to guide your stroke.

  (ABOVE RIGHT) Slide the putter along the metal on the way back and through and you’ll get a great

  feel for the arc.

  (LEFT AND CENTER) A final way to check your path is to make some swings with the putter on top of the arc guide. Don’t let the guide drift toward the heel end of the putter—which it will do if you try to take the putter straight back.

  (RIGHT) As you go through the downswing, let the putter slide along the top of the guide and then

  release away from the metal at the end of the stroke.

  MOVE THE COINS

  If you’ve always used a putter without enough loft, you’re probably scooping your hands and breaking

  your wrists through impact. Bending the putter to get enough loft on it sometimes solves the problem

  right away. I remember visiting with John Daly once, when he was really struggling with his putting. I

  took a look at his putter and saw that it had two degrees of loft on it. Knowing that John didn’t want to

  hear any technical advice, I told his caddie about it, and the caddie went out and bent the putter to

  about five degrees of loft. John went out and won the next week because he felt better over the ball,

  even if he didn’t know why.

  If you still have some remnants of that scoop in your stroke after checking your loft, try this coin

  drill and you’ll erase it pretty quickly. Make a stack of two quarters and a penny, and put it an inch

  behind your ball, right on the target line. Three inches in front of the ball, make a stack of two dimes,

  again right on the target line. Your putting stroke should cause the putter to miss the stack of coins

  behind the ball, then hit the stack of coins in front of the ball, after you’ve hit the putt.

  This drill will immediately get you hitting down on your putts instead of scooping them, and

  you’ll start maintaining the forward shaft angle and holding the angle of your right wrist through

  impact. It might feel a little awkward at first, but you’ll get over that when you see how much more

  true your putts roll. The feeling at impact should be much more solid, and it will immediately take a

  lot less effort to get your ball to roll out.

  (TOP) Place a stack of two quarters and a penny one inch behind the ball, along the target line, and a stack of two dimes three inches in front of the ball, also on the target line. Avoid the stack of coins on the backswing and the beginning of the downswing.

  (BOTTOM) On the downswing, avoid the stack of coins behind the ball, and try to push the stack of

  coins in front of the ball after making contact with your putt.

  CHECKING THE PUTTING PLANE

  Plane is a difficult thing to check when you’re hitting putts by yourself, but with a simple assist from a

  friend, you can check it two ways. First, have your friend crouch to the side of you, straddling the

  target line. Ask him or her to hold a club parallel to the target line, halfway up between the putterhead

  and the bottom of the grip, against the back of the shaft of your putter. Then, hit some practice putts.

  Your putter should slide along the shaft without the pressure changing. If it leaves the shaft or pushes

  hard against it, you will be able to instantly feel your tendency to leave the swing plane. This process

  helps you learn what “plane” looks like, and how it works in conjunction with swing path to produce

  a pure stroke.

  By holding a guide club parallel to the target line, halfway between the clubhead and grip, and just behind and gently against the shaft of my student’s putter, I can make sure he keeps his putter on a nice plane. If his putter leaves my shaft or pushes it out of place, his stroke is moving off the desired plane.

  Another way to use a club as a check is to have your friend hold it along the target line, just

  above your putterhead. Your goal is to make stroke while keeping the putter low to the ground and

  under your friend’s club. It forces you to make a shoulder turn and swing on the arc, not rock the

  shoulders up and down and lift the putter.

  Here, I’m holding a club shaft slightly above my student’s clubhead, along the target line. He makes practice strokes with my club there, making sure to keep his stroke low to the ground. This drill helps promote an arc and shoulder turn, instead of a shoulder rock.

  HIT TO THE HAND

  Practice your normal stroke and allow your friend to stop your through swing just after impact. It will

  be easy for both of you to tell if you have released the hand too early and lost your slight forward

  shaft lean through the strike on the ball. Now hit a few putts with this drill and feel how solid a good

  stroke is supposed to be. This drill will also help you find your instinct for the appropriate length

  backswing.

  The idea here is to have your friend’s hand cause the end of your stroke. You will learn from

  how your shaft is leaning at this point. If the putterhead is way ahead of the grip when the shaft hits

  your friend’s hand, you have released or flipped the clubhead too early. If you reach your friend’s

  hand with the shaft still near vertical, you will have maintained your right wrist angle as well as

  released your right elbow properly through impact. This should create the perfect feel for the proper

  way to end a great stroke—low, short and through the ball. Mr. Lanning called this “dead strength.”

  From
the setup position, I put my hand just in front of my student’s puttershaft, three inches past where impact would be. I’m trying to get him to think about accelerating through impact.

  Your goal here is to hit your shaft squarely into the hand—which means the shaft came through impact at ninety degrees or leaned a little

  bit forward, toward the target. If you flip your hands, the bottom end of the puttershaft will hit the hand first and you’ll hit the ball with a glancing blow.

  NARROW YOUR FOCUS

  I always like to see practice greens that have the small, two-inch-wide practice holes—they’re a

  great way to focus your concentration on a smaller target. That way, when you go out onto the course,

  the regular four-inch hole looks huge. Most places don’t have those holes cut into the practice green,

  but you can improvise with a couple of tees. Just stick the tees lightly in the grass a half inch inside

  each edge of the cup. Essentially, you’re creating a set of mini-goalposts to hit putts through. I like to

  put the tees in and set up for a six-or seven-footer without any break, and practice just rolling putts

  through the goal posts. It sounds simple, but when you try it, you’ll notice how much more acutely you

  focus. Instead of picking a nebulous, large target, you’re almost picking blades of grass to roll the ball

  over. Again, it makes putting into the standard holes seem easy in comparison.

  THE PRE-ROUND DRILL

  The first few drills I’ve described here are great for practice days when you’ve got a lot of time and a

  pile of balls. But what do you do before an important round of golf to get yourself mentally and

  physically prepared? When I get to the golf course, I start out on the practice green, hitting putts for

  twenty minutes or so to get myself into the “golf” mindset. After that, I go to the practice range and

  proceed with my normal full-swing warm-up until about ten minutes before my tee time. Then I walk

  back to the practice green (which is almost always near the first tee) and spend five minutes trying to