How to Improve Your Golf Putting Skills
One of the most important things that you can do to improve your golf game is to improve your golf putting skills. While it may seem impossible, simply practicing and working to improve a few minor things will greatly improve your putting skills.
Once you have learned what you need to do, practice the putting drills until you have them mastered. Keep in mind, a good putting skill will ultimately translate into a much improved long shot as well so taking the time to practice your putting is very important.
You are of course going to need to practice to improve, but the exact golf skills that you need to practice tend to vary from player to player. As a general rule of thumb, there are three things that you need to specifically focus on in order to get the best golf game possible.
Golf Putting Tips
The first basic putting skill is making certain that your swing is correct so that you will contact the ball precisely in the middle of the clubhead. If you are not dead on the center you will never be able to master putting.
You simply can’t hit the ball from the side of the clubhead and expect it to go straight. No matter how long you practice putting techniques, this is not possible and will result in plenty of frustration over what you are doing wrong.
Once you have worked to improve hitting the ball from the very center of the clubhead you need to make certain that you always hit the ball in a straight line to the target.
This means if the ball needs to go a couple of feet away from you towards the lake, you would not want to aim the ball towards the tree beside it.
You might think this sounds a bit weird, but many people do not squarely approach the ball to the target. They then stand around and wonder why they are missing their shot. Even if you are off by just a fraction, this can badly alter your putting skills because the ball is not going to go where you want it to go.
You will likely need to practice this point a lot, most people do not realize when they are just slightly off-center from the target. Yet even the slightest difference away from the target will result in a missed shot and an increased handicap.
Work on this by ensuring that you take plenty of time to practice. This is even a putting skill that you could practice in your office, or at home using a small home putting kit.
However, going to the driving range is not going to help you here so avoid them if possible while you are working on this skill.
The last skill that you need to work on to improve your putting skills is working to ensure that you are accelerating the clubhead when you are actually coming into contact with the ball.
Many players make the mistake of slowing the club down right before they actually hit the ball. This will cause you to lose the momentum that you need in order for the ball to make it to your target.
Working to make a conscious effort not to slow the club down will usually be sufficient in order to improve this golf skill and give you some improved results.
How To Improve Your Putting Stroke
Here are some golf putting tips that you might want to take down in your book:
*Don’t hit the ball too hard on fast greens since they break more.
*Downhill putts are similar to fast greens since the gradient influences the roll of the ball
*You must hit the ball harder on the slow greens as they break less.
*Uphill putts are similar to slow greens. The steeper the slope, the higher the power it takes to drive the ball.
The Putting Grip
This grip is not similar to the grip used in full swing. Since the full swing grip uses the fingers, it allows your wrist to hinge and unhinge. The purpose of a putting grip is exactly opposite to the full swing grip. The putter is gripped in the palm to restrict your hand movements.
You will be tempted to use the wrist action for the putter action. Restrain from doing so since wrists are not very reliable for hitting short distances.
The putting grips differ but what stays common is the palm of hands facing each other. Both hands must work equally to get the desired results. Domination of one hand over the other will lead to a bad experience with the ball.
The Vardon Grip
The Vardon grip is a popular way of holding a golf club.
Mind Games: Visualizing The Putts
You can visualize the hole to be very minute or to be very big that it is easy for anyone to putt the ball with no difficulty at all. The former visualization is a hindrance to the game since the ball seems not to fit the hole.
Golf Putting Perception Study
A study assessed how golfers cope with the commonly observed systematic overshoot errors in the perception of the direction between the ball and the hole.
The study scrutinizes the impact of errors in the perception of the direction of the aiming line in golf putting. That is when addressing the putt most golfers look back and forth between the ball and the hole, standing parallel to the left (for a right-handed player) of the line between the ball and the hole before they actually perform a swing.
Intriguingly, Johnston, Benton, and Nishida (2003) observed that golfers, whether skilled or not (i.e., handicaps ranging between 0 and 30), make systematic overshoot errors in the perception of the direction of the aiming line between the ball and the hole.
Golf Putting Practice: Golf Putting Drills Video
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