Jackson Reid
Golf Digest is a trusted source of golf instruction, offering tips and tricks to improve your game. With insights from top-ranked teachers, equipment reviews, and course rankings, golfers of all levels can benefit from their content. Golf Digest Schools provide in-depth guidance, with lessons on offer from professionals like Scottie Scheffler, who teaches how to Putt Like a Pro. Their website also features a range of putting tips, from beating nerves like Jon Rahm to mastering the greens like Lydia Ko. With such a comprehensive offering, Golf Digest is a go-to resource for golfers seeking to enhance their skills and strategy on the course.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Putt like a pro | David Leadbetter's secret to great putting |
| Putt drills | Lydia Ko's two drills to help you hole more putts |
| Putt mistakes | Michael Breed's 4 basic mistakes bad putters make |
| Putt fixes | A legendary putter's 5-step fix for reading greens |
| Putt nerves | Beat your putting nerves like Jon Rahm |
| Putt tips | How to cut down on your three-putts |
| Putt truths | Drew Powell's harsh truth about gimmes |
| Putt posture | How to get balanced on your feet for skeletal alignment |
| Putt stance | How to maintain stance width and comfort |
| Putt setup | How to position the ball, measure your distance, and check your lines |
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What You'll Learn
David Leadbetter's putting secrets
David Leadbetter, a golf instructor, has shared his secrets to great putting. His approach focuses on the importance of putting with your core to achieve consistent and confident strokes.
Leadbetter suggests an exercise to understand the concept of putting with your core. First, interlace your fingers and clasp your hands in front of you. Then, get into a putting posture and place your hands over your belly button, with your elbows bent outward at 45 degrees. While keeping your lower body still, engage your core muscles to rock your arms and shoulders back and forth. This movement, according to Leadbetter, is what the putting motion should feel like when holding a club. He compares it to a dog wagging its tail, where the core leads and the arms, shoulders, and club follow.
By focusing on using the core, golfers can achieve a more consistent stroke and improve their touch, even during nerve-wracking putts. This technique allows golfers to worry less about their stroke path and promotes a relaxed arm and hand motion.
Additionally, Leadbetter's approach emphasizes the role of gravity in the putting stroke. He suggests a drill where golfers set up on a green next to the collar, with the ball a foot into the fringe. By holding the putter with just the trail hand and swinging it back with the wrist, golfers can let the putter drop down and make the ball pop up and roll. This exercise highlights how gravity, rather than arm swing, can propel the stroke, resulting in a smooth and effortless roll.
Another secret shared by Leadbetter is the concept of "flipping the triangle." Traditionally, golfers create a triangle shape with their arms and shoulders, pointing down at the ball. However, Leadbetter suggests flipping this triangle, so the putter head forms the base and the grip end is the point. This technique, while challenging the traditional approach, ensures a more stable and controlled stroke.
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Beat putting nerves like Jon Rahm
Golf is a game that can test your nerves, and putting is a prime example of that. Even the pros, like Jon Rahm, feel the pressure. Rahm's ability to overcome nerves and secure victory is a testament to his mental fortitude and strategic approach. Here are some insights and tips to help you beat putting nerves, inspired by the composure of Jon Rahm.
Simplify Your Approach
When faced with a challenging putt, it's easy to overthink and psych yourself out. Take a page out of Jon Rahm's playbook and simplify your strategy. Instead of fixating on the complexity of the putt, focus on a few key elements, such as speed. By concentrating on speed, you give yourself a better chance of success, just like Rahm did when he sank that impressive 66-foot putt against Dustin Johnson.
Master the Triangle Technique
Visualisation techniques can help you execute consistent and effective putts. One such method is the triangle technique. Imagine a triangle formed by your arms and shoulders, with the putterhead at the base and the grip end as the point. The key is to maintain this triangle shape throughout your stroke. This visualisation helps you minimise excessive shoulder and arm movements, resulting in a smoother, more controlled putt.
Feel the Natural Fall
Understanding the role of gravity in your putt is essential. Set up on a green next to the collar, with the ball a foot into the fringe. Hold the putter with just your trail hand and swing it back with a wrist-only motion, then let it drop to make the ball pop up and roll. This drill helps you realise that a forceful hand action isn't necessary for speed. Repeat this drill with your lead hand, and eventually progress to two-handed putts, focusing on that free-fall sensation.
Adjust Your Setup for Pure Rolls
When you're just off the green, a slight adjustment to your setup can make a big difference. Kevin Weeks, Golf Digest 50 Best Teacher, recommends shifting about 75% of your weight to your lead foot. This adjustment helps launch the putt, ensuring it clears the fringe grass for a pure roll. On downhill putts, let the slope work in your favour for speed, and stick to your regular read and routine.
Putting nerves are natural, but they don't have to hold you back. By adopting strategies used by top golfers like Jon Rahm and utilising practical techniques, you can improve your putting game and keep your nerves in check. Remember, it's all about simplifying your approach, visualising effectively, understanding gravity's role, and making subtle adjustments to enhance your performance.
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Lydia Ko's two drills for more putts
Lydia Ko, the youngest tournament winner in LPGA history, has become a mainstay on the LPGA tour and is among the best putters in the world. She practices with a very unique putting drill. Here are two of her go-to drills that she works on before every tournament.
Drill 1: The Gate Drill
This drill is popular with a lot of tour players because it trains you to make contact with a square face and start your putts in line while helping you get a feel for the speed of the greens. First, find a straight putt about six feet from the hole. Next, create a gate a little wider than your putter head on your starting line with the ball on the other side of the gate. The goal is to swing the putter head through the gate and then strike the ball, hopefully holing the putt. Keep practising this way and note what's going on. If your putter hits either of the tees before striking the ball, you know you're not delivering a square face to the ball. You're hitting it with a glancing blow, and the ball is starting off the line. When you can miss the gate on command, you're going to have a good day on the greens.
Drill 2: The Ruler Drill
Find a flat putt on the practice green and line up a ruler or something similar with the hole. Place the ball down towards the back of the ruler, and hit some putts, trying to keep the ball on the ruler all the way to the end. If the ball drops off to the left, the putter face is closing through impact (for righties). Conversely, if it drops off to the right, the face is opening. This drill is one of Ko's favourites because it gives her instant feedback on her face control. You know if your putts are starting on the line you chose.
In addition to these two drills, Ko also recommends trying the "triangle drill", which involves creating a triangle shape with your arms and shoulders when holding the club, with the goal of keeping that triangle shape intact during the stroke. This drill helps to improve the consistency and smoothness of your putting stroke.
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Avoid the four basic putting mistakes
Putting is often described as the “make or break” aspect of golf. It is where crucial strokes are won or lost, and even the smallest errors can significantly impact your game. Here are four basic putting mistakes you should avoid:
Incorrect grip
Gripping the putter too tightly can lead to tension and a loss of feel, while gripping it too lightly can result in a lack of control. Golf instructor Glenn Billington teaches that a grip pressure of seven on a scale of 1 to 10 offers the best combination of feel and control. You should also relax your arms, shoulders, wrists, and fingers while holding the putter.
Poor alignment
Proper alignment is the foundation of a successful putt. Ensure that your feet, hips, shoulders, and putter face are all aligned parallel to your target line. To check your alignment, use alignment sticks or pick a spot a few inches in front of your ball as a reference point.
Inconsistent stroke
Many golfers make the mistake of using too much shoulder and arm action when putting. The best putters make a stroke where the putterhead creates the base of a triangle, and the grip end is the point. Keep this triangle shape intact during the stroke, and focus on letting the putter drop into the ball due to gravity, not your arm swing.
Lack of practice and confidence
Putting is all about confidence, which comes from a combination of practice, ritual, and mental toughness. Visualize the ball rolling into the hole and dropping to the bottom. Practice your putts until your stroke becomes automatic, and focus on the fundamentals to improve your putting game.
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How to cut down on three-putts
Three-putting is one of the most frustrating mistakes a golfer can make. However, there are several techniques and drills you can use to cut down on three-putts.
Drills
One drill to help you cut down on three-putts is the "8-4-4" drill, shared by GOLF Top 100 Teacher Joey Wuertemberger. This drill helps you dial in speed control on the greens. To do this drill, find a flat area on your putting green that allows putts up to 30 feet. Place a tee eight inches behind the ball and hit 10 putts with a good tempo, focusing on taking your backstroke all the way back to the tee. Match your backstroke and forward stroke length. The putt should roll about 10 feet. The "4s" in the drill's name refer to adding four inches of stroke length (both back and through) for every 10 feet of additional putt distance.
Another drill is to place 10 balls in a three-foot circle around the hole. Start at the first ball, read the break, aim the logo or line on the ball at your starting line, commit to the read, and make a stroke. Once you hole all 10 putts, spread the balls in a four-foot circle around the hole and repeat. The goal is to make as many putts as you can and get in the habit of reading and aiming on every attempt.
A third drill is to put three tees in the ground on the green at 20, 40, and 60 feet from the hole. Roll putts from each of these tees with the goal of rolling the ball past (or into) the hole, but no further than a putter-length beyond the cup. If you can consistently complete this drill successfully, your touch from a distance will improve.
Techniques
To cut down on three-putts, it's important to dial in your speed control. One way to do this is to focus on your tempo and stroke length. The best putting strokes have a 2-to-1 ratio—or two beats going back, one beat going forward into impact. The stroke length is also symmetrical, which helps prevent too much acceleration.
Another technique is to practice specific putts. Six-footers, forty-footers, uphill, downhill, left-to-right, right-to-left. By practicing these specific putts, you're training your brain to recognize patterns. Pick a hole on the practice green and putt to it from 10 different spots. Don't move to the next hole until you've holed out from each spot. This teaches green reading and builds confidence.
Finally, when you have a straight shot (no hazards), it’s almost always better to putt than to chip, even if you’re just off the green.
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