Dave Pelz: “Studying the game”

Congratulations to Lucas Glover for a well played US Open! Lucas kept his composure and perservered through an extremely difficult US Open experience for all concerned.

Congratulations are also in order to Craig Currier, his support staff, and also to the USGA - great course set-up with the graduated rough, using different tee boxes to control the distance and fairness in terrible weather conditions, and also for the pin location decisions. I witnessed the USGA using a smart-level to make sure their pin locations were not on an unfairly sloped area. Remember the pin locations on 14 and 17? These were brilliant.

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Early in my career, I had the chance to play several rounds with Jack Nicklaus. On these occasions I studied his putting intently, because he was killing me on the greens. One thing that consistently caught my eye was how he held his finish and watched his putts roll out. It didn’t take me long to realize something: Good putters learn from both their makes and their misses. You can watch Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson on today’s Tour do the same thing: they store information in their memory banks about how their putts roll versus how well and in what direction they stroke them.

Holding your finish is good for your game.

The main benefit from holding your finish comes from internalizing the feel of the stroke you just made, and then correlating that feel with its result, good or bad. This system works because the feel of your stroke is still strong in your system. Once you stand up or move your feet, the feelings of your stroke disappear.

Holding your finish will also help keep your body still and improve the consistency of your stroke. I’m sure you’ve been told to not move your head until you hear the putt drop, but I don’t like that advice. Instead, rotate your head while keeping the rest of your body still, so you can watch the ball roll and get a feel for your stroke. You’ll learn how solid your stroke was, if your ball speed was good or bad, and whether your line allowed for the proper amount of break.

Holding your finish is such a good idea, I can’t believe more golfers don’t do it. I’m sure it will improve your putting over the coming years. Read the rest of this entry »

Drawing two red lines on your putter is the best alignment method.

Almost every one of my students asks for help in aiming their putts. That’s good advice to seek, because improving your aim is the key to making more putts. We’ve been testing how people aim putts for years at the Pelz Golf Institute and we’ve learned a few things that will get your putts on the right track.

• Focus on the starting line of the putt. In test after test, we found that the better your initial aim, the less you will have to compensate in your stroke to pull or push your putts on-line. Fewer compensations lead to better contact and more made putts.
• Draw two lines on your ball to help your aim. Draw long lines rather than short ones, and use red marker rather than black because red is easier to see. Drawing two lines rather than one helps to form a wider alignment aid. We tested various combinations, and two long red lines led to the best performance.
• Think hard about getting a new putter. Our test subjects aimed two-ball and three-ball putters most accurately. When converging red lines were added to the tops of these putters, our test subjects aimed them even better.

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I’ve been fortunate to see Phil Mickelson’s rise to greatness from up close. Phil and I worked together extensively early last year and in the weeks before each of the year’s majors. I can help you understand what he changed in 2004, so you can take your own game to the next level this year.

Photo by Fred Vuich

First, a stat that sums up Phil’s 2004 season. Everyone knows he won The Masters, but did you know that Phil beat World No. 1 Vijay Singh by a combined 34 strokes in last year’s five biggest events (the four majors plus the Players Championship–see “The Phil Factor”)?

The Phil Factor

Here is how the top four players performed in 2004’s biggest events: Read the rest of this entry »