The Art of Putting - by Craig Hudson

We have all heard the saying “Drive for Show and Putt for Dough” – coined by one of South Africa’s all time legendary golfers – Bobby Locke. And how true we all know it to be... Putting is a pure art form, the likes of which every golfer on the planet strives constantly to perfect. So many factors play a role in being great on the greens.

Ultimately the mechanics of putting are straight forward – stroke the ball in the sweet spot of the putter with a fluid back and forth motion and the ball ‘should’ go in, or finish very close to the target, right? BUZZZZZ – try again – we golfers have decided to make it far more complicated than that, letting it get into our minds where we seem to make such a big fuss about things. So we complicate the issue drastically and end up making things far more difficult for ourselves. Of course it’s easier said than done to change psychological golfing habits, especially once we have developed and nurtured our habits to become obstacles, but change needs to happen. I think going right back to basics is the key – if something isn’t working for you then make a change that counts – re-asses the entire package!

Are you using the correct putter? Is your putter actually setup for you and your stance, including your putting style? Perhaps you battle away with the short stick, yipping everything inside 6 foot when a broomstick or belly putter could be the answer for you. I was a low single figure handicap at a very young age but developed putting woes in my late teens which saw me never progress any further in the game. A decade later I tried a broomstick putter for the first time and went from a 5 handicap to scratch in 3 months, my friends started calling me the ‘pendulum’ because suddenly I was lethal on the greens. In my case it takes the wrists out of the stroke which is what caused me to yipp before – I’m thus able to make a smooth consistent stroke, back and through with the ball starting on its intended target which obviously gives it far more chance of going in. Putting is all about confidence, but how can we be confident in a club that has only given you problems? Well my answer is to go down to your local pro shop and try out everything they have in stock – extensively!

There are 3 major varieties of putters these days, the traditional short stick – gripped waist height by both hands. Then there is the belly putter which sees the handle of the putter sticking into the players’ mid-riff to provide an anchor point to promote the pendulum action. Lastly you have the broomstick style of putter which is the longest of the three and promotes a grip where the hands are very much apart, one low down in a normal waist height position and the other high up on the club underneath the chin. The key is to find something that works for you, not something that just looks good. Subconsciously I steered away from using a broomstick for so long because of what my playing partners might think or say, but when I suddenly found the target consistently and started taking their money their laughter soon turned to fear, respect and admiration.



Once you have selected a club that suits you and your style it’s down to working on the mechanics of your stroke. The concept of making a putt is so simple – stroke the ball with the correct weight so that it starts rolling in the direction of the intended target and provided that you have setup correctly and managed to return the face of the club square at the impact point, the ball will go in or be very close. So get on the putting green and start practising…. Constructively!

The first thing to concentrate on is keeping your head and body as still as possible, ideally only your shoulders should move in a pivotal pendulum action, rocking freely allowing the club head of the putter to maintain it’s line back and through the ball. Too often I’ve seen amateurs struggle with their putting solely because they have developed the bad habit of not staying still throughout the entire stroke. Your objective is to strike the ball in the sweet spot of the putter because that’s how you get the truest and most consistent reaction off the clubface which will result in far more consistent length putts and you will also see the target getting hit a lot more often because at impact the ball is not causing the clubface to twist by hitting off-centre. So work on this first, initially don’t worry about whether the ball is going in, in fact don’t even setup at a hole – stick a couple of pegs into the green at different distances (5 foot, 10 foot, 15 foot and 20 foot for instance) and just work on keeping as still as possible, keeping the head down and making a smooth stroke with a pure and solid contact. Strike 2 or 3 putts at each peg before moving onto the next length taking note of the different length stokes you need to make to reach the relevantly spaced out pegs – the more you practise this instinctively you will develop a feel for how hard you need to stroke the ball to reach different distances.

A very useful drill to ensure that you are taking the club away on line and returning it at impact to a square position – which ensures it starts rolling in the intended targets direction is to setup 2 rows of 5 pegs just wider than your putter head – make the channel you create with the pegs about 30 centimetres long and simply make a smooth stroke back and forth without letting your putter head touch any of the pegs on either the backswing or follow through. First try without a ball, just making some smooth strokes - concentrating on the basics of staying still throughout the stroke, then try with the ball to get used to making a pure contact with the putter not hitting any of the pegs. When doing this drill it is advisable to setup at a target no more than 10 feet away. Always remember that it will feel completely strange and uncomfortable at first when making changes to your golf game – it’s because we get into bad habits quickly and tend to stick to what we know or feels comfortable to us instead of battling through the period of uncertainty constructively.

When we break down this aspect of the game it seems rather simple doesn’t it. More often than not a player who struggles with putting has some kind of a mental block. As things on the green spiral out of control – it’s very difficult to maintain composure and approach the art of putting confidently – we end up creating a mountain out of molehill by complicating things. It quickly reaches the point where a player resigns himself to being a bad putter and from that moment on you will always be dropping shots in this aspect of your game.

Start loving your putting, do whatever it takes to enjoy your time on the greens. Don’t get complacent quickly rushing into your shot purely to get it out of the way. Take your time, asses the line and length and give it your best effort – every time.

Get into a greenside routine that you can slip into and stick with it. Try not think about your score or any other pressures, pretend as if what happens doesn’t matter – this attitude might seem a bit gung-ho but if you are already leaking shots on the greens then you have nothing to lose.

Don’t put the added pressure of having to score low on yourself, just go out there and enjoy yourself – its a lot more fun making putts I assure you. It might take a while for you to find your mojo on the greens but that is what it is about – when you are looking at a putt, the only thing that should factor in are the strength you have to hit the ball and direction you have to start the ball on – once these two factors are calculated you should be licking your lips at the prospect of holing another one. Being relaxed and confident in the technical aspects of your stroke will allow you to do this.

Craig Hudson

Editor of Golfweather.co.za