Instruction
Think you’ve got to “give it a run” on must-make putts? Think again
With the Ryder Cup this week, I thought I’d share with you one of my pet peeves when it comes to making putts and rolling the ball the right speed. It drives me crazy when I hear announcers at tournaments say: “He can’t leave this putt short, he’s got to give it a run. It’s a must-make putt.”
What ends up happening when players follow this advice is that they hit the putt way too hard and it rolls something like 10 feet by the hole. The announcer comes back with, “Well, at least he gave it a good run.” But the reality is that a ball that rolls past the hole more than a couple of feet is travelling too fast to go in, even if it smacks square into the center of the hole. And nowhere does this happen more often than in Ryder Cup matches or match play, where sometimes the player does not have to hole out to finish the hole.
As a matter of mental practice, a good putter has learned how to control their putting “speed thoughts” to hole out, except when an outside situation interferes with the normal decisions process they use to hole a putt. And that outside influence is usually an outcome-based intrusion, which can come in the form of, “A must-make putt,” where they feel they have to hit their putt harder than usual.
Let’s enter two brains in a normal round of golf
- The mind of those trying to get to the next level of improvement in their games.
- The mind of the elite player.
The first person, who plays occasionally and practices on a limited basis, has a lot of wrong “speed thoughts” when they putt. They might hit the first couple of putts of the round well past the hole, well short of it or a combination of both. In their head, they are adjusting speed with the back-and-forth thoughts brought on by “don’t” sentences. Those sound like this: “don’t knock this one way past like last hole” or “don’t leave this way short again.”
Either way, they are going to blast it past the hole if they were short on the previous attempt, or leave it woefully short if they were way long on the hole before. They are not controlling their inner conversation very well, and by thinking about what they “don’t” want to do, they are promoting the opposite outcome.
“Don’t leave it short” usually results in hit a putt way past the hole. For example, I recently had one of my junior players complaining about hitting it too hard on one hole and too soft on the next hole. The player was constantly leaving the putt either six feet past the hole or six feet short of it. He was stuck on the ping-pong thought loop of “don’t hit this one too hard” followed by “don’t hit this one too soft.”
These are common thoughts that go to the brains of a player struggling with speed.
Both thought processes are detrimental to hitting the putt the right speed when you’re struggling. What I tell my players to do when this is happening is to think “do” thoughts, not “don’t” thoughts. I try to give them the mindset of the elite player who is thinking correctly over putts when struggling with speed.
So let’s look at the way a good putter’s mind works on a putt.
Once the elite player has finished considering the line and speed of the putt, their mind goes into execution mode.
“How do I need to hit this ball to get it to go the right distance on the line I select?”
Then, they either take a physical practice stroke to feel the “correct” speed or a mental one where the mind internally moves the body and they feel the stroke without taking a physical practice stroke. Each practice stroke is quiet, void of “don’t” or outcome thoughts, as the player feels the perfect speed and executes the motion that will roll the ball to the hole at the perfect speed. If it misses and comes up a little short or a little long, that’s alright. It is ok to be wrong if you are in control of your “speed thoughts.” Then they get set and hit it the speed they feel is correct without the “don’t leave it short” or “don’t knock it way past” thoughts of the poor putter.
Did you catch the first part of the above sentence? No matter what, they try to hit it the speed they feel is correct! So each practice stroke results in an inner conversation that if there were words for each stroke it would end up sounding like this:
“Yep, that’s the right speed” or “perfect speed, that’s the one.”
Inwardly, you are trying to calibrate a stroke with the mind quietly approving that this is the correct speed, disregarding previous outcomes that might have been too hard or too soft of a roll. It is this quiet recalibration to the correct speed that overcomes the “don’t” speed thoughts.
Here’s a relevant example from a past PGA Tour event.
Several years ago at the Zurich Classic in New Orleans, David Toms had about a 20-footer on the last hole to force a playoff. Once again, the announcers declared, “He’s got to get it there, he can’t leave it short.” So what happened? Toms took his time and decided on the read and speed of the putt. He took a couple of practice strokes and let it roll. The ball was dead in the center of the cup and came to a halt — one turn short of dropping and forcing a playoff.
The announcers groaned, “Oh how could he leave it short? He had to get it there!” From where I sat, I saw things differently. As a past player, I knew he didn’t intentionally leave the putt short. I knew he hit the putt with what he thought was the proper speed and put his best stroke and roll on it. Toms just happen to underestimate the correct speed and came up short instead of perfect. For this putt on this green at this time, he was just wrong about the speed. Nothing more.
Remember, there is a specific speed the ball has to be rolling for the hole to secure the ball. If the ball is going too fast when it gets airborne over the hole, the hole cannot collect it. This is called capture speed. It is governed by the laws of physics and we can’t cheat it no matter what we do. So when someone says, “Give it a roll,” make sure you focus your inner thoughts on picking the speed you think is correct without the “Don’t leave it short” thought and turn it loose.
Most times, a putt struck too hard doesn’t go in. Instead, focus on making a stroke that will roll the ball the perfect speed in your mind. If you happen to be wrong and the ball comes up short, oh well, tap it in. At least you tried to hit the ball with what you thought was the correct speed.
So as you enjoy the Ryder Cup, watch for the putts that the player “gives a run” and notice how far past they roll the ball if they miss. If it is a couple of feet then that is fine, but if it goes well past, you can bet the outside influence of not having to hole out and the inner concern about not leaving it short (“give it a chance”) entered into his head, which made him blast it too hard, thereby never really allowing the ball to arrive at the hole with the right amount of capture speed.
Best of luck to both teams, but from my academy I have to say, “Go USA!”
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Instruction
Clement: Laid-off or perfect fade? Across-the-line or perfect draw?
Some call the image on the left laid off, but if you are hitting a fade, this could be a perfect backswing for it! Same for across the line for a draw! Stop racking your brain with perceived mistakes and simply match backswing to shot shape!
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Instruction
The Wedge Guy: The easiest-to-learn golf basic
My golf learning began with this simple fact – if you don’t have a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, it is practically impossible for your body to execute a fundamentally sound golf swing. I’m still a big believer that the golf swing is much easier to execute if you begin with the proper hold on the club.
As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.
The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.
Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply. Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:
Mis-aligned hands
By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.
The position of the grip in the upper/left hand
I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean. Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.
To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.
Too much lower (right) hand on the club
It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.
Gripping too tightly
Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.
So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.
More from the Wedge Guy
- The Wedge Guy: Golf mastery begins with your wedge game
- The Wedge Guy: Why golf is 20 times harder than brain surgery
- The Wedge Guy: Musings on the golf ball rollback
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Instruction
Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!
Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?
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Josh
Dec 21, 2014 at 6:24 pm
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8thehardway
Sep 25, 2014 at 11:54 am
If you want to improve ‘blast it past’ or ‘woefully short of the hole’ putts, I submit your intended audience has no useful speed thoughts they can draw on; eliminating the “dont’s” won’t usher in information, practice does that.
To amplify, the problem with “focus on making a stroke that will roll the ball the perfect speed in your mind” is that they’ve already tried that and failed (“They might hit the first couple of putts of the round well past the hole, well short of it or a combination of both.”) because they have insufficient thought/motion experience to draw on… an anxiety-producing situation that makes a shambles of purposeful internal dialogue.
My advice for those who don’t practice yet remain concerned about abysmal putting is to become skilled in the art of the ‘gimmee’ which affords a four-foot rather than a four-inch target and pleasant feelings throughout the round.
J
Sep 25, 2014 at 11:44 am
For me, I do putt a LITTLE differently on a shorter putt, or one I consider must make. On a regular putt (anything outside 10 feet, generally) I am shooting for absolute die at the hole distance. The closer I get to that, the easier my next putt will be. (preferably a tap-in inside 6″)
On a ‘must make putt’ however, I try to aim, weight wise, about 9″ past the hole. That way if I’m 6″ light, I still have enough to get there, and if I’m a bit heavy, it will likely still drop should it roll over the cup (18 inches heavy isn’t that far).
If I consider making the putt to be more important than the length of the next putt should I miss, this is what I do. It means my second (or third, or fifth… 😉 ) putt might be 2 or 3 feet instead of 6 inches, but it also means that my first putt is a little more likely to drop so long as I have read the line properly and struck the ball clean, since me being a tiny bit short still gets me to the hole, and a tiny bit long wont be so heavy that it bounces over. It also gives me a little more confidence in my strike, I don’t get too wimpy in the wrists and leave it way short.
On principle though, I also very much agree with what you are saying. ‘Giving it a run’ beyond a foot or two certainly makes the effective size of the cup smaller and does not do you any favours. If you’re 10-15 feet too heavy, you’ve effectively removed the cup from the green entirely.
Johnny
Sep 25, 2014 at 8:40 am
I like what Harvey Penick says on page 102 of The Little Red Book.
“It’s true that a ball that never reaches the cup never goes in, but neither does the ball that goes past it. I like a putt to die at the hole. The cup is only one inch wide for a putt that is struck too hard. The cup is four inches wide for a ball that dies at the hole”.
Martin
Sep 27, 2014 at 7:12 am
I have gone from never up never in to this theory in recent years and make far more 5′-15′ putts.
I was really struggling with the 6′ past thing a few years ago and my Pro gave me good advice, two parts of a putt, Line and Pace, and pace is part of picking your line not the other way around.
Since then I try and get all my putts to die in the hole and three putts have dropped dramatically as well, gone from 33 putts/round to 31 1/2 despite moving to a new course with far faster more undulated greens.
Tyler Harrison
Sep 24, 2014 at 11:45 pm
Rob-
I agree with what you said about thinking positive thoughts, but I have to disagree with what you said about focusing on a certain stroke. My putting is best when my sole focus is the hole. I read the putt, slope and grain, imagine the ball tracking into the hole at the proper speed, sure, but my mind never thinks about a ‘certain stroke’ that will get the ball moving that speed. My focus is on the target, and my athleticism takes over to make the proper stroke. I also don’t use a practice stroke because I believe that practice strokes put me in a mindset of replicating that practice stroke when I go to actually putt the ball. I would rather that athleticism make the stroke from the get go. Just food for thought…
-Tyler
Ian Boat
Sep 24, 2014 at 6:51 pm
I’m sorry, but Andrew Tursky should’ve been the one who wrote this article…kid knows about clutch putts
Josh
Sep 24, 2014 at 6:19 pm
Great point. Couldn’t agree more.
snowman
Sep 24, 2014 at 5:34 pm
+1… The proper speed for ANY putt is the PROPER Speed. You’ve addressed one of my pet peeves.