Hi Geoff,

A few quick questions on putting routine.

Should I use a practice putting stroke before or after I use the "ruler method" (with putter shaft, pick out discoloured grass and dimple on ball, etc.)?

Also, with a breaking putt, when I do the dead gaze, should I completely ignore the hole and only look at my aim point? I am confused because you also advocate starting at the hole for 4 seconds to absorb the speed/entry of putt.

Thanks!

Dear Friend,

PRACTICE STROKE

If you want to make practice strokes, I would suggest doing them at a time that does not interfere with the other, more important aspects of the routine. In the scheme of things, aiming the putter correctly deserves more attention in the routine before setting up to the correctly-aimed putter than does worrying about touch. Practice strokes are for nervous golfers trying to get rid of the jitters, and not really add much for "feeling" the touch accurately. Appreciating the distance and visualizing the good-touch putt does that for you, even if you do this visualizing while also making a practice stroke, but the practice stroke itself does not really add much to the process for gaining a good useable sense of touch. The visualizing and rehearsing the pace of the putt mentally and by physically looking along the line of the intended putt as if watching a ghost-ball that is rolling with perfect touch does that much better than trying to "size" a practice stroke. You don't really NEED a conscious appreciation of touch for a putt anyway and it's not as helpful as it is hurtful to try to get one -- you just intend to do it well, target well, and stick to your tempo in the backstroke and the instincts do a better job than you personally might get done by "trying" to get the touch. If you observe closely, practice strokes seldom match in size or pace what stroke the golfer actually makes when he pulls the trigger. What practice strokes really are for are 1. to shake off the willies because you're nervous and unsure, and 2. to get "in touch" with your usual tempo. That's okay, but if you don't get the willies and you know your tempo, you won't need a practice stroke, nor will you want to enshrine your fear and anxiety with a public display of nervousness into your standard routine so that you are constantly reminding yourself that you don't really have putting touch mastered yet.

But hardly any golfers evolve to that level. (Incidentally, do you realize that "old school" golfers like Walter Hagen and plenty of other masters did not use practice strokes in putting ever? The practice stroke of today is basically something golf psychs told golfers they needed to use starting around the late 1970s, and I don't think these golf psychs understand the brain, the instincts, or touch very deeply.)

Back to using a practice stroke.

If you can select a spot in front of the ball using the edge of the shaft and THEN make practice strokes behind the ball without losing the spot you picked out, so that after making the practice strokes you still see the front spot and can walk up to the ball and place and aim the putter accurately, that would be okay. But if you find your making practice strokes tends to confuse you about which spot you picked out, then I would make it a habit to finish with the practice swings before selecting the spot in front of the ball, so you can move straight away up to the back of the ball and USE the perception of the aim spot in front of the ball to accurately aim the putter face. Some spots are easier to keep identified than others -- bigger, more contrasting color, they just stand out better.

Usually, though, I don't recommend any practice stroke. Maybe I'm too used to my tempo to have to worry about it, but so long as my stroke progresses with good tempo, I don't have any concerns or worries about whether the ball will roll the right pace and distance. I hope you get that confident in knowing that your strokes all look and feel like, since afterall every stroke is exactly the same for how it is made and how it looks and how long it takes back and thru, except for the size, and getting the size of the stroke right is purely instinctive so long as all strokes have the same tempo back and thru.

I specifically do not recommend a practice stroke to be made beside the ball, because then your task is to aim the putter face accurately before you lose the spot on the ground in front of the ball and then to square up to the putter face as aimed without changing its aim and then to check / verify where exactly you think it aims once you are setup square beside the ball. There isn't any room in this collection of movements of aiming putter, setting up square to the putter as aimed, and checking the aim of the putter where a practice stroke beside the ball fits in. Strokes beside the ball only mess up the whole process. Tiger Woods, for example, formerly made three practice strokes beside the ball standing back off the line a ways, and then kept his feet that far back and "slid" the putter head out to behind the ball. This changes the way his hands and arms hang from a natural hang to a "reaching" out there away from his body to "hold" the putter out there against gravity. That's why he needed a very tight grip and tension in his arms and hands. Not good. Today, he dumped one of the three strokes beside the ball (sort of better, but not really), but now when he slides the putter head out to behind the ball, he follows it with his feet and gets into another setup position that keeps his arms hanging naturally, or moreso than before. He still needs to improve.

LOOK AT HOLE VS LOOK AT TARGET SPOT / SEEING BOTH THE ACTUAL CURVE INTO THE HOLE AND THE IMAGINARY START LINE AND STRAIGHT PUTT TO A TARGET SPOT AS TWO COMPLEMENTARY ASPECTS OF THE SAME PUTT

You're right about my advice to look at the hole for about 4 seconds. That's in conflict with the advice to pick a target spot beside ther hole (on the high side of the fall-line) to aim at and to roll your ball onto. Let me attempt to clear up the confusion.

You can do BOTH look at the hole for about 4 seconds and also aim at the target spot then run your line of sight from putter face to target spot to check the putter face aim and to generate a good neck turn that sets the instincts for the size of the stroke. Just not at the same time.

The golfer can only start the ball rolling on a straight line. After the ball leaves the putter face, the "curve" it actually follows is up to the green speed and contour and the ball's rolling speed over this contoured surface. The golfer should not try to "guide" the putt out of the setup other than to send the ball straight sideways out of the stance the same way every time -- the way the putter face aims.

Looking at the hole for a bit, and thinking or being aware of that specific location is space, helps focus the brain's awareness of the spatial relations between body and hole. That's a good thing, undoubtedly. And that's an especially good thing on straight putts.

But on breaking putts, doing this has to be tempered with the notion of "committing to your line" and putting this line ONLY and not trying to "guide" the putt during impact off line towards the hole. That encourages a miss to the amateur side.

The trick is that there are TWO COORDINATED REALITIES -- a starting line for the breaking putt, and the actual curving path that the ball's pace will result in as it rolls over the green's contoured surface. The expert putter needs to be able to 1. see the actual curving path in realtime as he envisions the realtime rolling pace of the putt from start to finish (and especially as the rolling comes to and goes into the hole); 2. see how this curve fits with a start line away from the ball before the surface makes the path of the rolling ball curve off this starting line; and 3. see the "touch" required to get the ball all the way down this distance into the hole with the right pace of the putt at the front lip of the cup.

The selection of the target spot to aim at for start line and to putt onto (at and to but not thru) serves two purposes: to aim the putter down this line, and to putt as far as but not farther (or much farther if any) past the target spot. Selecting this spot as always on the high side of the fall line straight up above the highest part of the rim of the cup means that the touch will be right ON THE REAL CURVING PATH.

There are mentally two putts: a REAL PATH in which you expect the ball to start straight out of the setup but then curve along the ground and enter the hole with the right pace, and an IMAGINARY STRAIGHT PUTT that never breaks but rolls across flat and level surface all the way right at the target spot and comes to a stop right on top of the target spot. If the target spot is selected astutely, then THESE TWO MENTAL IMAGININGS ARE TWO MATCHING ASPECTS OF THE VERY SAME PUTT. There is no conflict. It's just that when you imagine putting straight at and to the target spot, that putting straight with good touch RESULTS IN the ball actually following the correct curved path into the hole.

You can imagine both the REAL CURVING PATH and the IMAGINARY STRAIGHT PUTT to the target spot separately -- they are two aspects of seeing the same putt. But when you pull the trigger, it is important not to guide the putt off line. Commit to the target spot on the fall-line and putt that AS IF the ball you putt would not break but would roll straight the whole way, and come to a rolling conclusion right on top of the target spot. This is HOW you get the touch right for a breaking putt to insure that the ball follows the right CURVING PATH into the hole.

For every simple, single-break putt, there is one curving path and one start line. If you drew the curve on the ground back out of the hole with your finger scoring the grass to mark the curve, the curve will be sharpest at and near the hole and then will become milder retracing back to the ball and eventually will straighten out and head back to the ball on a straight line. This piece of the curve nearest the ball is the start line that aims at the target spot on the fall-line. This straight start line "fits" smoothly and snuggly onto the "hump" of the curve path like laying a plank down over a hump on the ground.

You can FIND the correct target spot by first seeing in your mind's eye this REAL CURVE, using your known sense of delivery speed of the ball on all putts to visualize the curving path nearest the hole first into the hole and then back out of the hole, and coming back out of the hole continue the REAL CURVE back towards the ball until it straightens out at the ball and finishes up straight. The IMAGINARY LINE for the putt is this last piece of the CURVE nearest the ball, and this line aims at only one spot on the fall-line. That spot is NOW identified and serves BOTH as the target to putt "at" for line and "to but not thru" for touch.

The golfer who putts well will necessarily see BOTH the curve and the start line that matches the curve -- just not at the same time. He will make sure that the start line he selects (and therefore the target spot that aim line points at on the fall-line) match up so that a real putt with that good touch will start out on a this straight line and will end up following the hoped-for envisioned curve into the hole.

Some teachers teach that golfers are "naturally EITHER linear visualizers or non-linear / curve visualizer." Not so. Good golfers should see BOTH the line for starting the putt AND how that line combined with TOUCH will result in the correct curve. Golfers who think they are ONLY linear or curve "seers" are half-assed, not to put too fine a point on it, and need to learn how to do BOTH because they are both parts of the same putt and doing one without the other is, frankly, not too smart or effective.

The golfer is using TOUCH to visualize the REAL CURVE of the putt, and then using the CURVE's shape to see the start LINE that matches that curve, and then using the start line to see the target spot as the spot the line points at on the fall-line. Then the golfer TRUSTS that putting straight at the target spot AS IF the putt will not break and AS IF the ball will stop rolling right on top of the target spot, THEN the ball will follow the hoped-for curve into the hole.

What's the reason this golfer should TRUST that the ball will do what is hoped? Physics. The brain's ability to PREDICT the shape of the CURVE accurately depends on being able to visualize the actual rolling speed of the ball as it slows near the hole. That is possible only if you have good touch, so that ALL putts deliver the rolling ball to the front lip of all cups for all putts with very nearly the SAME rolling speed over the lip at the end of the putt (I recommend two revolutions per second of ball speed at the front lip on all putts). So TOUCH shows you the curve. The CURVE that you need to make happen, then, REQUIRES THAT YOU ACTUALLY USE THAT DELIVERY SPEED AND TOUCH when you pull the trigger. Otherwise, you are envisioning one curve but putting another one. So all breaking putts at the last moment are TOUCH issues. Once you visualize the curve, using one internal sense of your touch and tempo, you have to execute with that same touch or it won't and cannot possibly work correctly.

The target spot on the fall-line keeps the golfer honest about his commitment to LINE and to TOUCH. And it's the right sense of touch if you make an IMAGINARY STRAIGHT PUTT at the target spot (straight at it, only that far).

This process is what people like Jack Nicklaus use when "seeing a putt as one and one-half balls right" or something similar, but without the added clarity of the fall-line's location of where that "target ball" actually sits "beside" the hole. Golfers who see a putt as "one ball out" etc. THEN have to focus on touch as the last thing to get right before pulling the trigger. As Nicklaus says, "Every breaking putt is at the end right before pulling the trigger a matter of touch. The final focus for all breaking putts is touch." (Or similar words.)

Well, touch is NOT really a matter of "grinding" and conscious worrying. It's instinctive, and that means targeting plus tempo. Targeting for touch is broader than what happens when at the last you turn the face from ball down the target LINE to the TARGET SPOT to prime the brain and instincts for the right size of backstroke and therefore the right impact velocity for the touch of the putt. That last / final targeting move just is the icing on the cake, but the cake is baked over a stretched out period of time leading up to the icing.

One of the lead-up targeting-for-touch processes is looking at the hole for a few seconds getting a good focus on "WHERE IT IS" in relation to your body location and in relation to your usual putting stroke (same every time except some are bigger than others). This keys you in to the TOUCH and helps get the backstroke instinctively correct. But THEN, after this, you cannot "guide" the putt and MUST putt straight, and if you have a line that aims across the curve to the fall-line, then seeing that IMAGINARY PUTT as stopping right on top of the target spot is the SAME TOUCH. So, beside the ball at address, to ice the cake, turn the face and run the eyes along this straight start line from ball to target and back, and PRETEND to putt on a flat and level putting surface straight at and to but not thru the target spot on the fall-line beside the hole, and the REAL CURVE WILL HAPPEN.

It's not actually a matter of TRUST in the supernatural. It's what you have to do to make the TOUCH that sees the line be the same TOUCH used to execute the putt.

So, visualize the real curve and use that to select the start line that aims at the fall-line at a specific spot on the fall-line, use that target spot for the imaginary putt for both the aiming of the putter down the start line and for putting straight down that line with the correct touch, and then the ball's touch will cause it to follow the visualized path correctly into the hole with good over-the-lip delivery pace as intended.

I hope this clarifies matters!

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Coach and Theorist
PuttingZone.com
Golf's most advanced and comprehensive putting instruction.

You do everything right and you are filled with confidence, but you still miss most of your first putts, requiring a second or even a third putt. Your putting average is 2.1 putts per green per round for a total of 37.8 putts per round. What's wrong?

Reality tells us that putting is a somewhat bad gamble based on the statistics of the probability of sinking putts of various distances. According to the data collected by Pelz, you only have about a one in four chance of sinking a 10 foot putt, and that's if you are a pro golfer. You only have a 50/50 chance of sinking a 6 foot putt. So what's all the fuss about ??

Well after getting putting lessons, buying the latest model $200 putter, reading all the putting books ... you still suck ... according to your unrealistic expectations.

If your approach shots are mostly outside of 15 feet and you only practice putting on the practice green prior to the start of your round, you should not expect anything more.

Putting odds are stacked against you regardless of your good intentions because it's no different than a lottery .... all because there are more significant uncontrollable factors than the factors you can control ... just watch the putting by the world's best golfers and I think you will agree.

However the factors you can control must be diligently practiced ... and consistently follow Geoff Mangum's putting advice to improve the odds of sinking that first putt.