Dear Matt,
Thanks for writing and I sure hope I can help!
Instead of trying to make the putting green like the course, do it the other way and make the course like the putting green. When you're on a green on the course, forget everything about the round you are playing and just look at the putt like an opportunity to sink one! That's what you're there for -- to try and sink it.
Another thing you can try is to get a good sense of your smooth tempo. Getting off tempo, or letting your mind get you off tempo, is a problem that causes short stabbing putts or long explosive "gassed" putts that blow too far by the hole. Both of these are because you don't have your smooth tempo ready to hand for the putt. So just let the putter swing at the end of your arm lazily in a nice, relaxed smooth way. That's your putting tempo and you will want it for the stroke itself. Maybe make a couple of "practice strokes" beside the ball, not for distance, but to shake the cobwebs off your tempo and make sure your putting action is smooth. A confident golfer is always smooth with his putting stroke.
Another possible mental cause is worrying about going past the hole. This again comes back to good tempo. If you are smooth with a good tempo, it is very very hard to blast the ball way too far past the hole, and almost all your putts will either go in or leave a short tap in. So, a good tempo let's you look at a 15-footer as AT WORST a two-putt, so why not go ahead and relax and give it your best try to sink it, knowing the comeback or leave won't amount to anything if it misses.
And another possible psychological issue is expecting too much of yourself on a particular 15- to 20-foot putt. You certainly will not make them all, and it's not reasonable to expect that you will. pros make only about 1 out of every 7 20-footers, so they miss six times for every time they sink one. Sinking ALL your 20-footers is not how you score. A good golf score comes from 1) avoiding bogeys, and 2) hitting a lot of greens in regulation, and 3) one-putting between one-third and one-half of all the greens you hit. Pros typically hit 12 greens in regulation. If they make two bogeys, then in order to shoot 70 they have to sink four first putts (one-putt four of 12 greens hit in regulation) and get up and down the other six greens. So that's one-third of the greens in regulation. Of those 12 greens, the AVERAGE first putt is about 20 to 25 feet in length, so there are maybe 4-6 first putts between 6 and 15 feet and another 4-6 between 15 and 25 feet. A pro who sinks 4 of 12 first putts typically gets only one longish putt to go in (say 20+ feet, and the others are from inside 10 to 15 feet). Looked at in this way, your score depends more on HOW CLOSE YOU CAN STICK GREENS and HOW OFTEN rather than on whether you can sink a lot of 10 to 20 footers. So lighten up on the putting expectations. Take the birdies you can, and don't swqeat the ones that get away. Just keep on rolling steady and avoiding bogey -- the birdies will come, especially as you get better at sticking greens. Tiger Woods leads the PGA Tour in Greens in Regulations per round, to be sure, but perhaps as important, he sticks his shots closer on average than the other players too. And it's this combination that gives him a scoring average in the 68-69 range, not his putting. He pretty good in the majors putting, but usually he's down below 125th on Tour in putting stats.
If I think of anything else to say, I send it along. let me know how it's going.
Cheers!
Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
The PuttingZone.com
http://puttingzone.com
The Future of Putting Now -
Elite instruction from the World's most comprehensive resource.
over 30,000 page visits each month and growing strong...
518 Woodlawn Ave
Greensboro NC USA 27401
336.230.0612 home
336.402.1602 cell
336-574-2324 fax
geoff@puttingzone.com