Thoughts while addressing or over a putt.

[cnosil]

1 hour ago, Mike10487 said:

This is ABSOLUTELY spot on!  Once you determine your line and use the ball alignment aid to set the aim point at your chosen line. It's always a straight putt. ALWAYS. One doesn't change his putting stroke to cut or draw a putt.  This why you see guys changing to the left-hand low claw grip on a long putter and moving your change to from your right to your left pocket while tightening the shoestring on your left shoe. I see some of these grips and stances and weird putter grips and wonder to myself " just how much agony has his putting stroke done to this guy"?

So you are saying you must use an alignment line on the ball and people that don't like to use that line are doing it wrong?  as I mentioned above, tiger likes to feel a draw when putting;  Rory likes to hold off the putter face.   There are lots of ways to hold a putter and lots of ways to move the putter through the stroke.  Even if a player uses a conventional grip, they my power the stroke with left arm, left hand, right arm, right hand, shoulders, both arms, or some other combination.   Some players can process a putt as a straight line and some can only process it as a curve.  

I am not saying what you are doing is wrong, but you seem to be of the mindset that there is only one way to putt.   What you are saying is really no different than saying there is only one way to do the full swing or the hit a pitch shot.  

[Mike10487]

2 hours ago, cnosil said:

So you are saying you must use an alignment line on the ball and people that don't like to use that line are doing it wrong?  as I mentioned above, tiger likes to feel a draw when putting;  Rory likes to hold off the putter face.   There are lots of ways to hold a putter and lots of ways to move the putter through the stroke.  Even if a player uses a conventional grip, they my power the stroke with left arm, left hand, right arm, right hand, shoulders, both arms, or some other combination.   Some players can process a putt as a straight line and some can only process it as a curve.  

I am not saying what you are doing is wrong, but you seem to be of the mindset that there is only one way to putt.   What you are saying is really no different than saying there is only one way to do the full swing or the hit a pitch shot.  

Not at all. But why not make the simplest part of the game.... simple? As mentioned before, once the line is decided upon, you only need to worry about speed. Tiger and Rory are far from the common players and practice several hours a day on putting as most professionals do. Does Tiger actually draw the putt or just go open to closed? Tiger's major winning putter supported an open to closed stroke. This would cause the feeling of closing the toe and drawing. Not actually causing it to draw. Rory's putter if I remember correctly is a mallet which favors a more straight back and straight through stroke, which would "feel" as though you were holding it off. I use a Scotty Futura 5 mallet style with a Super stroke flatso 2.0. I get the feeling of holding it off as well. There is no wrong way to putt. I just choose to make it as simple as possible. But once again a putter fitting could be the most important club fitting in the bag for some people.  Shoot 72 and 2 putt every hole, 36 putts. Get that average down to 28-30 putts, look out Tiger! 

The putter is my favorite club in the bag. I can and do stand on a putting green for hours. I am not trying to be difficult. I am truly passionate about the flat stick, and I just want to help people who struggle with it. 

[cnosil]

2 hours ago, Mike10487 said:

Not at all. But why not make the simplest part of the game.... simple? As mentioned before, once the line is decided upon, you only need to worry about speed. Tiger and Rory are far from the common players and practice several hours a day on putting as most professionals do. Does Tiger actually draw the putt or just go open to closed? Tiger's major winning putter supported an open to closed stroke. This would cause the feeling of closing the toe and drawing. Not actually causing it to draw. Rory's putter if I remember correctly is a mallet which favors a more straight back and straight through stroke, which would "feel" as though you were holding it off. I use a Scotty Futura 5 mallet style with a Super stroke flatso 2.0. I get the feeling of holding it off as well. There is no wrong way to putt. I just choose to make it as simple as possible. But once again a putter fitting could be the most important club fitting in the bag for some people.  Shoot 72 and 2 putt every hole, 36 putts. Get that average down to 28-30 putts, look out Tiger! 

The putter is my favorite club in the bag. I can and do stand on a putting green for hours. I am not trying to be difficult. I am truly passionate about the flat stick, and I just want to help people who struggle with it. 

I don't think I am complicating putting and I don't disagree that once the line is decided upon that you only need to worry about the speed that matches that line.  my original point was that on lag putts; even though we are still trying to make them, speed trumps line and you can probably be a little more casual on the line but as you get closer to the hole you need to focus on line a little more.   Being a degree off on a 30' putt is not as significant as being a degree off on a 5 footer.    You can't draw or fade a putt,  friction causes the putt to roll end over end but Tiger has the feeling that he is trying to draw putts (I posted a link to the article and posted his quote from the article) and Rory holds off the putter because his stroke path is biased to the left;  all strokes have some degree of arc unless you are manipulating how you move the putter.    Make putting simple by finding the right stroke and  putter matchups.  As a putting instructor you can't just tell a player they only need to worry about speed; there are other skills that need attention. 

Edited October 24, 2023 by cnosil

[GolfSpy_APH]

Have to say I have really struggled this season on greens that are not my home course. Even with my simpler thinking, the last round I just couldn't hit the ball hard enough. The greens were super tricky.

[Mike10487]

4 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

Have to say I have really struggled this season on greens that are not my home course. Even with my simpler thinking, the last round I just couldn't hit the ball hard enough. The greens were super tricky.

I normally bring 3 balls to the practice green before a round at a (away) course. I will vary the distances of each ball 3-5' on the same line to just work on speed. I will not worry about line until the final 5 or 6 putts. Of course, you will get an idea of breaks as you practice, for me it's always speed first. It seems to help me. 

 

 You can't draw or fade a putt. I know people who do it on every putt. Playing in a scramble, we don't watch them putt!  lol 

[GolfSpy_APH]

33 minutes ago, Mike10487 said:

I normally bring 3 balls to the practice green before a round at a (away) course. I will vary the distances of each ball 3-5' on the same line to just work on speed. I will not worry about line until the final 5 or 6 putts. Of course, you will get an idea of breaks as you practice, for me it's always speed first. It seems to help me. 

 

 You can't draw or fade a putt. I know people who do it on every putt. Playing in a scramble, we don't watch them putt!  lol 

At these courses I have spent 15 plus minutes trying various putts on the practice greens but found the on course greens to be very different in speed.

[Josh Parker]

9 minutes ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

At these courses I have spent 15 plus minutes trying various putts on the practice greens but found the on course greens to be very different in speed.

My home course is like that right now.  Greens need to be redone but they are waiting on funding and they just rebuilt the practice green.  Not anywhere close to the same speeds.  The greens typically play pretty quick.  Sunday they didn't cut them apparently and they were so much slower than normal.  Took about 4 holes to get the speed down and even then left some short.

[Rc51]

The first thing I do after reading the putt and get over it is think man I hope no one is looking at my gross putting stroke. After I get through that I see my intended path from ball to hole and back to the ball. As soon as my eyes come back to the ball I lock in on a dimple and pull the trigger

[cnosil]

54 minutes ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

At these courses I have spent 15 plus minutes trying various putts on the practice greens but found the on course greens to be very different in speed.

Unfortunately that is part of the world we live in and not being tour players..Green speeds will vary because they are maintained differently.   The other thing is that green location will influence the speed over the round; especially if you play early.   Some will be wetter because they aren’t in the sun and others will be faster.  
 

what do you do during that 15 minutes to gauge speed?   You say hitting various putts but do you have a stock putt that you use to evaluate green speeds?  Basically this stock stroke goes 12 feet on my normal green but here it is going  15 feet or 10 feet.   Once you get on the actual greens you can start to adjust if the ball is going a little farther or shorter and continue to evaluate as the round continues.  

[Mike10487]

13 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

Have to say I have really struggled this season on greens that are not my home course. Even with my simpler thinking, the last round I just couldn't hit the ball hard enough. The greens were super tricky.

Summertime in Florida we get the same. It is our off season, so we get punched and sanded greens. During the healing process we will have 2 or 3 greens that are outliers, mostly faster than expected. The wild card is summer is our rainy season as well, so you just never know what you are going to get. Winter/high season we normally get excellent conditions and uniform speeds, for the most part. It really depends on the diligence of the superintendent. We are lucky and have some really good supers around here. 

[Fred Mitchell]

I am striving for the straight back and thru stroke, I bend over so that by face is practically over the ball. I am putting better now than ever before, partly because the center shafted Scotty Golo S is perfect for this stroke but to be seeing the line when looking almost straight down on the ball is so much simpler and a arc putting stroke was tough to be consistent with on pressure putts. I played a fairly freshly aerated green last week and had ZERO idea where the line was, I hated it, only way I could make a putt was was to stand back take some practice strokes for speed scoot up and swing without looing back at the cup and those dang holes.

 

[Mike10487]

When things don't feel right or start going sideways my first check is eye position. For me it is just inside of the line nearing the inside of the ball. Most of the time this gets me back on track. Be it mental or the actual cause of the issues. It pacifies my brain enough to let me get out of my own way.  Punched greens are difficult for everyone. If they are properly sanded and after the morning dew has evaporated it really isn't that bad. You will always get a bump or wobble, but it's the same for everyone. A few weeks of torture is worth it.  Some people have amazing putting days on punched greens. My buddy always says "Bad greens make a bad putter better" 

[homedecoreto]

On 10/23/2023 at 9:47 PM, chisag said:

 

... Ok for you I will make an exception as you seem to be stuck on this concept.   You hit every putt with the same straight stroke. Better? If I putt breaks 10 feet right to left, you don't stroke the ball with an out to in stroke nor with a 10 foot break left to right do you stroke the putt with an in to out stroke. So just for you I will amend the thought to: every putting stroke is a straight putting stroke. You also seem to be stuck on the concept that players see curves/path and ... well ... of course they do! I know I do. I am kinda like Bagger Vance when I look at my putt and I see the path from my ball to the hole which usually has at least some break. I am always looking for the break because every green has to drain water and there are no flat spots on greens. Straight lines sometimes yes, but they are every so slightly uphill or down hill or the water wouldn't drain off the green. When I miss a makable putt it is usually because I play a slight break that isn't there. But when I stroke my putt I stroke straight through my ball because every putting stroke should be a straight putting stroke. 

... Through trial and error with students I found many will try and curve the ball with their putter on a 10 foot break right to left putt and close there putter face and with a 10 foot left to right try and curve the ball on their line by opening the face. Even worse they will move their bodies and bend the way the putt breaks. It is much more technical to say every stroke is a straight stroke to which some students would say DUH! and then proceed to try and curve their ball with their putter face or body. To say every putt is a straight putt (which it is even if for just a few inches) encourages you to not try and make the putt break, just stroke straight through the ball and let the break take the ball to the hole. Pounding the point home YOU don't make the putt break, the slope and the ground make the putt break, so YOU need to make a straight putt (stroke). I can assure you of this, telling students and friends that struggle with breaking putts that every putt is a straight putt was a real game changer, because they were trying to make the putt break on the line they close which resulted in pulls and pushes. Once they understood every putt was a straight putt and they just needed to make a straight stroke though their ball, their putting improved dramatically. You being the exception of course. 

... I do understand for some, putting is neither natural or easy. Having a repeatable stroke with control of both the putter face and the speed you stroke the ball can be tough of those without good spacial awareness. I simply can't imagine changing the way I stand or hold the putter or make a stroke because to me just standing and bending from the waist naturally and letting my arms hang soft and loose, using them like a pendulum seemed to just make sense from the beginning and I have never changed anything abut the way I putt in over 35 years. (I wish I could say the same for my full swing ) I do see players with an uncomfortable stance or grip, contorting their bodies for salon san francisco /arms/hands an making some kind of mechanical movement with little success and I feel for those players. 

When addressing a putt on the green, thoughts often revolve around precision and focus. It's a moment where every detail matters—the distance to the hole, the slope of the green, and the subtle breaks that could redirect the ball. There's a balance of technique and mental composure, a need to block out distractions and trust in your practice. Each stroke is a dialogue between strategy and execution, where confidence meets concentration. It's about visualizing success, feeling the rhythm of the stroke, and committing fully to the putt.

[Hacker60521]

For putting I like to keep things simple so I spend half of my putting practice just focusing on a straight roll and then distance. The other half is spent learning to read breaks. So I have a simple putting strategy — some may disagree and I’d appreciate feedback. 

1. From behind the ball I imagine what would happen if I hit the ball straight towards the cup.
2. Based upon how much break I imagine, I’ll then set my line accordingly. So if I think a putt straight at the hole will move 12”, then I aim 12” off the cup. I know this isn’t perfect because it assumes uniform break.
3. I then decide how much takeaway I need for the distance.
4. Line up over the ball, hit the putt. 

One other thing. I always try to hole the putt. But if I can bring the first putt to within three feet I’m happy because I know I can drop a 3 footer. 

[cnosil]

34 minutes ago, Hacker60521 said:

some may disagree and I’d appreciate feedback. 

Not sure there is anything to disagree with; it is the basic approach to putting.  Determine break, determine aim location for desired speed, hit the putt, hope it goes in and if not gets close.   
 

most if the disagreements are about people that leverage more feel or mechanics.   Things like line on the ball, see the curve or an aimpoint, predetermine stroke length or feel it during the stroke, etc.   

[gingerbeast87]

Normally on a mid to long putt I'm thinking "if I get this in I quit my job and join the PGA".

 

I still work in an office