Hey Geoff,

From what I have read from you and from other people who teach the putting stroke is to never miss a putt on the low side. Well I am having that problem now. The last few days I have been trying to die everything in the whole and I keep consistently missing it on the low side. I can't seem to play the ball far enough out to die it in. Granted since I have started dying putts in the hole I have made a lot more putts than usual but I am having the problem of missing all my putts on the low side. Any help? Thanks for everything you have helped me with so far.

Matt Moses

Sure, Matt.

First, I have a tip I am writing now called "Piece of Cake." Here's the gist of it:

Piece of Cake -- Never, ever, never let yourself roll a ball onto the low side of the hole! It's worse than duck-hooking an approach into the pond left of the fairway. So take a giant imaginary knife and slice the green all the way from the hole back to your ball like a huge cake, and toss the low side out of existence and out of your mind. What's left is where you can roll the ball.

Second, concentrate mostly on seeing how the ball will roll in the last two feet of the breaking putt before it goes in the hole. This will give you a sense that the putt needs to get "out there" on the high side, or else this ball will not get into this last piece of its path.

Third, when looking at the putt from behind the ball, make sure you get a strong sense of which direction the ball needs to start out away from the address position, and when you setup, make sure you body is setup square to that start line.

Fourth, don't guide the putt, but roll it straight. Guiding the putt is subtly letting your putterface turn downhill more toward the hole in the stroke, when the putterface should stay moving straight to send the ball higher and more "out there" on the high side.

Fifth, if you read break, then you must believe that the combination of surface contour and ball speed will redirect the roll of a straight putt onto a curve downhill, so leave it to the green to do the driving once you have done your part with a straight putt with the right speed.

Sixth, conform your body setup to the slope at your feet instead of to gravity. That is, on a right-to-left breaking putt, for a right-hander, the ball will be sitting slightly above the feet, so setup with a subtle lean away from the ball so your body is really flush to the sidehill slope. That way, your stroke will tend to keep the ball on the high side. On left-to-right putts when the ball is slightly below your feet, crowd the ball just a bit so your body is flush to the downhill slope. This also tends to keep the putt high side.

Seventh, some people advise hitting right-to-left putts a bit off the toe or with a bit of a closed stance or the ball positioned a bit back to the middle of your stance, or even a combination of these, so the stroke is artificially biased to go more uphill than normal. And for left-to-right putts, some people try standing slightly open, hitting more toward the heel, or playing the ball more forward in the stance, or a combination of these, to help keep the ball uphill.

One or all of these tips ought to help some, I hope. let me know.

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
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Just curious, Geoff, as to why the low side is so dreaded. Not that he's a the guru of putting, but Dave Pelz says, in his Putting Bible, that you WANT to be in a position to make an uphill putt, NOT a downhill putt because it's easier to sink one from below the hole than it is from above. Of course, Mr. Pelz is basing this, I think, on the assumption that the player is trying to ram it in, in which case, the uphill slope helps prevent him from knocking it in too hard by reducing some of the ball's speed. On the other hand, putting from above the hole CAN be easier if you have a soft touch. You can gently use the slope to roll the ball in. Of course, that's assuming a short second putt, as opposed to a longer putt, which is more difficult to sink from uphill of the hole without going past the hole. Personally, I have little problem being on either side, myself.

Gary

Dear Gary,

The low side is not really dreaded per se, but missing the putt is dreaded (sort of). The reasons you want to avoid the low side are 1) no putt sinks after it crosses to the low side before reaching the hole; and 2) misses on the low side almost always run farther away from the hole before stopping than misses on the high side, which always end up heading towards the hole as they come to a stop.

We really aren't discussing misses way long or way short -- just misses when the distance control was about right, but the line of the putt allowed the ball to miss either high side or low side.

So, on ANY breaking putt, one wants to narrow the margin of error and maximize the chances of success. Part of this is ensuring that no putt is ever going to turn into three putts, and is never worse than two putts. This is why the second reason above is important. On a 20-foot breaking putt, the pro chances of one-putting are about 1 in 7 -- not that good! So for every seven 20-footers, the pro expects to two-putt six of them. In order to ensure his two-putt, the pro does NOT want the ball running away from the hole on the low side as its speed dies out. If the putt actually breaks 1 foot right to left, consider what happens in these two sorts of misses. By playing only 1/2 foot of break, a ball with good distance control will cross to the low side perhaps a foot or two in front of the hole and THEN roll downhill another 3 or 4 feet (or more) before stopping. By playing 1.5 feet of break, a ball with good distance will be headed more uphill and will die out a little quicker since it climbs higher up and then it will turn roughly towards the hole and come to a stop probably inside of 1 foot away.

So, when distance control is not the problem, a HIGH SIDE miss is a LOT better than a miss to the low side in terms of the leave and minimizing the chances of a three-putt. No downhill putt inside three feet is much of a threat, while a four-footer is always a challenge, even when uphill.

When Pelz is speaking about uphill putts being easier, he is generally talking about first putts, not short leaves for second putts. And even then, he has talked about how downhill putts are somewhat biased in favor of breaking into the cup, as compared to uphill putts.

Cheers!

geoff Mangum
The PuttingZone
World's most advanced putting instruction.