Dave Pelz: “Studying the game”

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 »

If you take a close look at your game, you’ll find that you make most of your two-foot putts, but begin to miss a significant number of putts somewhere between three and six feet from the hole. Everyone does.

Even with perfect aim you'll miss if you don't hit the sweet spot.

There’s a combination of things that lead to putting inaccuracy as you get farther from the hole. Where you aim your putterface and how firmly you stroke the putt are major factors. Then there’s the break due to the slope, and the speed and quality of the green. But you know all this: After a few years of playing the game, your aim became instinctive, you developed the touch to create the proper energy in your stroke for good putt-speed control, and the knowledge of just how much your putts tend to break at the speeds you roll them became ingrained in your DNA.

A factor you may not be paying attention to, however, is the quality of your impact. The precise location of the strike on your putterface influences both the amount of energy transferred to the putt and its starting direction. There’s only one small point on any putterface that’s truly “sweet” — the point on the strike area that results in zero putter-head rotation and maximum energy transfer at contact.

To see if you’re stroking putts on the sweet spot, place a piece of impact tape on the face of your putter and roll 30 different-length putts on the practice green. If your impact pattern is less than 3/8 inch in diameter and near your putter’s sweet spot, that’s good. If it’s larger, or centered away from the sweet spot, you need to practice with a feedback device called the “Teacher” clip (visit pelzgolf.com) to train your putting stroke for solid impact. And I promise: Groove a sweet-spot stroke and you’ll see sweet putting results! Read the rest of this entry »

If breaking putts of six feet or less give you problems, consider these three things:

Middle-road break (normal speed), high-road break (die speed)

1. The faster you roll a putt, the less it will break. The slower you roll it, the more it will break.
2. The three break/speed options are: The high road (at die-in-the-hole speed); the middle road (normal speed); and the low road (jam-in speed).
3. It’s important to choose a break/speed combination and commit to it even before you make your practice strokes.

Committing yourself to one of the three break/speed options may seem like an obvious thing to do, but many golfers don’t even know they have options. Most players make a cursory read of the slope, then assume the middle-road break and normal speed for almost every putt. That’s hardly the attention your putts deserve if you’re interested in making more than your fair share. Read the rest of this entry »

I see many amateurs address putts with an open stance, a curious move they think will help them see the putting line better. Don’t copy their technique. Instead, stand with your feet parallel to the line (use your toes as a guide). As you can see in the photo at right, my toes are aligned left of the cup on this straight putt by the same distance I stand from the ball. This establishes my toe line as parallel to and left of the putt line. It also sets my shoulder alignment parallel left of the putt line. Together, these setup features create a “direction of flow” for my shoulders, arms and putter to swing naturally and easily along in the same direction.

To see the putt line, stand behind the ball and look down various starting lines until you see one you like

The best way to see the putt line is to stand behind the ball and look down various starting lines until you see one you like. Many professionals (watch Anthony Kim, for example) stand in this position and make practice strokes until they commit to the line they want to start the putt on and feel the stroke they want to make.

After reading your putt from behind the ball, walk around and step in just shy of your ball and make practice strokes to get a feel for distance. Make strokes until you find one you feel will roll the ball perfectly into the hole. That’s the stroke you want. Then step into your parallel-left alignment, take one last look down the line to your aim point, and repeat the perfect stroke you just saw and felt. The better you align your body (and shoulders) parallel left of your line, the more your putter will naturally want to swing down that line, and the more often your putts will find the hole. Read the rest of this entry »

The problem

You just never feel confident that you’ve determined the proper line for any putt.

To make sure you read fast, breaking putts like this one correctly, visualize the ball tracking backward from behind the hole first, then use the AimLine to accurately "see" the start line and break. Photo by Leonard Kamsler

The solution

After studying the dynamics of reading greens and how putts break for the better part of three decades, I’ve developed a simple and uncomplicated method that will help you improve in both areas. Here’s how it works: Read the rest of this entry »