Grooved Golf Swing Series: The MUSTS of Good Putting

One of the sins of putting is having a look to see where the ball
is going.
The sin of lifting your head too soon.
This will cause you ball to be pulled to the left.

The first must is that there must not be any moving parts.
Just the muscles used to hit the ball. The rest is to be kept still
as though cast in stone.

The second must is that you must hit the ball with a smooth even
stroke with superb tempo.
You have to practice diligently to develop such a stroke.

The third must is that you must follow through.
Not to follow through is to slow the putter head through the ball
or in other words, quit on the shot. The ball will not travel the
required distance.

The fourth must is to take care and read the green as well as you
can before making your put.

The fifth must is that you must expect to sink every put. You must
have confidence.

Grooved Golf Swing Series: Consistent Putting Method and The Right Putter.

Firstly, how do you put?
Do you hit the ball hard so that it bangs into the back of the
hole?
Or do you try to hit your ball so that it stops at the level of the
hole so allowing your ball to just fall over the edge of the hole
from the
front or from the sides.
What ever your method, you will know exactly how to put each time
you step onto the green if you put in the same way every time.

I mentioned in a recent article that one should find a putter that
suits and then stick to it.
It is not the putter that goes off on some days; it is the person holding it.

Take some tome to find a putter that feels just right for you.
Correct balance, and weight and you can hit it accurately over a
number of distances.
However, have a look at how it lies on the ground. Does the heel
stick up, or does the toe?
The sole of the putter must lie totally on the ground.
If either end does not, your golf professional can bend the shaft
slightly to make sure that the sole does lie totally on the ground.

Grooved Golf Swing Series: How To Work Out Length Of Back Swing

You have to know how far the ball will travel for a given back swing,
your stroke speed being constant for all puts.

This comes with practice and all you have to do is have a look at
your back swing from the edge of the green along a flat surface and
see how far the ball goes for different lengths of back swing.

When you are doing this, tell yourself that you are looking at back
swing first and then the resulting distance the ball will travel
second.
Therefore, take your club back slowly and stop.
Tell you self that the backswing is four inches, then five, and then six and
so on.
When you take your club back, stop.
Have a look at the club head
and see the distance it is from the ball.

Let it register in your mind.
Then hit the ball and measure the distance.

The forward stroke of the putter must be at the same speed every
time.
This is not difficult and think about stroking the ball
rather than giving it a wrap.
So, if you are stroking the ball, the longer back swing will allow
the club to gather momentum and so the ball will go further.

The value here is that you will always be consistent and will hit
the ball a given distance for a given back swing.

Grooved Golf Swing Series: How To Hit Your Puts Consistent Destances Every Time

Probably the most difficult method of hitting accurate puts up to
the hole and slightly beyond it is to hit the ball with different
degrees of firmness.
If you use this method, you will probably find
that your accuracy will vary from day to day and that your very
long puts just do not get to the hole or go too far past.

There is no real way that you can have an inbuilt gauge to hit the ball with
a firmness to send it a definite distance consistently.

The other way, and by far the better way, in my opinion is to
control your distance with length of backswing.
This means that you can develop a consistency of swing.

The swing speed can be made constant.

The short puts will reach the hole with no yip.

It is amazing how the mind can play tricks and make one
mishit a shot from a couple of feet.

With the required back swing and the normal club head speed,
this is almost an impossibility.
Then what about those long puts?

All you have to do is know the length of back swing to make the ball travel the required distance.
Look at Tiger Woods. Huge long puts, yet he leaves his ball beside
the hole (or in it) and he is seldom short or too far.

He has his back swing worked out to the Nth degree and is so confident.

Grooved Golf Swing Series: How To Line Up Your Putter - Yes Putter

Have you ever wondered why some players line the brand name on the
ball so that it is pointing directly along the line of the chosen
put?
When I tried it, it made no difference to me. I still missed
as often as before.
Then I learned that there is a second part to aiming the brand name
at the hole.
When you put your putter down behind the ball, make
sure that the brand name and club head are at right angles to each
other.
This means that your club head is square to the line to the
hole.
Now all you have to do is keep your putter head square on the back
stroke and the hitting stroke, and you will be on line.

You have probably noticed when watching pro golf on the television
That some players draw a line around the equator of the ball.
This line takes the place of the brand name on the ball.

Draw one on your ball and line it up as just described.

Grooved Golf Swing Series: How To Find The Putting Style That Suits You

Maybe with practising and imagination you will hit upon a method
that suits you and makes you a wonderful putter.
Wouldn’t that be nice?
While you are practising you will try all types of strokes.

The stiff-wristed arm and shoulder stroke, where you only move your
shoulders in a right and then left rocking motion, keeping the arms
in the same relationship to the chest, their movement being the
result of the rocking motion above. The wrists are stiff and do not
add to the stroke.

Then you may add the wrists to the stroke and make it a wrists and
forearms stroke, with less rocking of the shoulders.

Or lastly, you may make it a wrists only stroke.

I would advocate trying to use both the forearms and wrists in your
stroke because you will be far more relaxed and the stroke will
feel much more natural.

One of the important things when developing a putting style is that
you must be able to repeat the stroke consistently.

Probably you will find that the wrist and forearm style will allow this more
than any other method.

Grooved Golf Swing Series: Bunker Play. When the ball is flush with the front wall.

Your ball has just managed to fall into the bunker and no more. It is jammed hard against the front wall, and there is no where to take your stance.

This is almost an impossible shot but luckily there is a way to play it and get your ball onto the green ready for the two puts to get your ball into the golf hole.

The most important thing when playing this shot is to keep your head very, very steady. Move your head and you will duff the shot.

Line up to the left of the hole if you can, or line up just to get the ball onto the green.

Dig your feet in for stability, have the ball off your right foot (right handers), and have your weight on your left foot.

Open your club head to maximum, and make your back swing out and steeply up using a quick cocking of your wrists to achieve this.

Hit down strongly using your right hand hitting the sand as close to the ball as possible.
Drive your right knee towards the green but as stated, keep your head very steady.

This should get your ball onto the green and give you a psychological lift.

Grooved Golf Swing Series: Bunkers. How to play from wet compacted sand.

If you find yourself in a bunker which comprises wet compacted
sand, there is a method that you should employ to get your ball out
and onto the green.
If you adopt the normal bunker shot with the normal swing as for
normal sand, you will find that your club will dig into the sand
and keep going.
This means that the club will dig too deeply and
you will not be successful in your golf shot.

The way to play this shot is with a low out to in swing.
Set up in the normal way and have the ball positioned opposite your left
heel.
Open your club head until the face faces the sky.

Now take your club head back outside the line and keep it low.

The movement is back but only a little up.

Now swing and hit the sand about one inch behind the ball and on a very low trajectory.
The club head will dig enough to get under the ball, but its main
trajectory will be towards the target.
By swinging in this way,
you are helping the club do what it is designed to do.
That is not dig too deeply beneath the ball.

Grooved Golf Swing Series: Bunkers. How to play those burried lies.

If your ball is half buried in a bunker and you can only see the top half, there is a technique that will get your ball out of the bunker nearly every time.

Firstly open the club face so that it faces the sky.

Take the club back with the arms AND WRISTS which break quickly. This is one time when you do break your wrists on the back swing.

Now concentrate on hitting the ridge of sand or if no ridge, hitting one inch behind the ball.
Your down swing should be very steep and wristy.

Drive down with your right hand so that the club head digs deeply beneath the ball, exploding it out onto the green.
The club will be so deep that a follow through will not be possible and so there should be no follow through attempted.

Grooved Golf Swing Series: How Hard Do You Hit Your Bunker Golf Shots.

Now, how hard do you hit your bunker shots?
The swing speed should be constant being controlled by the length of the back swing.

However, if you would rather vary your swing
speed, the rule is to hit your bunker shot as hard as you would hit
your chip shot from short of the green.

The rule is that if you have a 20 foot bunker shot, then hit the
ball as hard as you would if you had a forty foot chip from short of the green.

A chip shot twice the distance of the bunker shot.

Grooved Golf Swing Series: How To Vary The Effects Of Your Bunker Golf Shots.

Practice is needed to perfect your bunker shots.

This is how to hit a soft shot with little back spin.

All you do is hit well behind the ball and do not take much sand
beneath the ball.
Hit a shallow shot from, say three inches behind the ball.
Take care not to come up on the shot as then, you may
skull the ball over the green.


Now how to hit a ball that runs on after landing.

Same shot as before, with slight variation.
Hit say 3 inches (7 ½ cm) behind the ball and take more sand.

Hit your shot quite a bit deeper than for the above soft shot.

This will get your ball onto the green but it will do little else.
It will be a soft shot and will go up in the air and land softly
and stop.
It will of course break to the right a bit, (right handers) so
don’t forget to allow for this.


Lastly, how to create a great deal of back spin that stops the ball
quickly.

All you do is hit a shallow shot beneath the ball but this time you
hit close to the ball.

Say about one inch or 2 to 3 centimetres
behind the ball.


What I did when I first heard all this was write it down on a small
piece of card that would fit into a small pocket on my bag and
before each bunker shot I would refer to it to make refresh my
memory and make sure I was going to hit the correct shot.

Grooved Golf Swing Series: How to Have A Home Driving Range

Here is how I have built a practice driving range in my back yard.
I got the idea from Bobby Jones when I watched his movie.
He was hitting his golf balls from a piece of carpet into a larger piece of carpet that he had propped up in front of where he was hitting the ball.
I found a large quilt in a second hand shop. This is much lighter than a big piece of carpet and easier to hang.
Two long stakes driven into the ground, with or without supporting stays.
A length of wire from one to the other and here is you frame.
I just hang the quilt over this. I am sure a sheet, blanket or any type of material big enough would do just as well.
Be sure to hit in a direction so that if you do shank, you will not break any windows.
The only thing against hitting off carpet is that you can not see your divots. I have a piece of lawn where I hit balls, and then every now and again pour sand over the area so that the grass will grow again. I just move my hitting area forward a bit and rotate over a small area. It works just fine.
I did invest in a net, but the ball kept going through it and continuing on its way.
This is stronger and much cheaper than a net and leaves it for dead.

Grooved Golf Swing Series. Make Your Own Putting Mat

A practice putting mat that I find very useful both in helping my putting and fun is made like this.

Get some artificial turf, not too rough and not too smooth.

The dimensions for the putting mat are:

Length 220 cm

Width 50 Cm

Mount the end where the hole will be ( dimensions 10 ½ cm ) on some soft rubber. Foam rubber if you like.
Dimensions, 25 cm long and as wide as the mat, which is 50 cm.

Taper the first 10 cm so that the ball runs up it like a ramp and cut a hole to coincide with the hole in the artificial turf.

Now stick the rubber to the under side of the turf.
There you have it.

The mat is long enough to make you hit the ball straight to get it to the hole, and wide enough to try some angle puts.
The ramp will make sure you hit your put hard enough to get it to the hole.
Place a box, piece of board or what ever to stop your ball when you miss.

Grooved Golf Swing Series. Make Your Own Putting Mat

A practice putting mat that I find very useful both in helping my putting and fun is made like this.

Get some artificial turf, not too rough and not too smooth.

The dimensions for the putting mat are:

Length 220 cm

Width 50 Cm

Mount the end where the hole will be ( dimensions 10 ½ cm ) on some soft rubber. Foam rubber if you like.
Dimensions, 25 cm long and as wide as the mat, which is 50 cm.

Taper the first 10 cm so that the ball runs up it like a ramp and cut a hole to coincide with the hole in the artificial turf.

Now stick the rubber to the under side of the turf.
There you have it.

The mat is long enough to make you hit the ball straight to get it to the hole, and wide enough to try some angle puts.
The ramp will make sure you hit your put hard enough to get it to the hole.
Place a box, piece of board or what ever to stop your ball when you miss.