Keys To Improve Your Putting Stroke
Nothing can ruin your day on the golf course like poor performance on the greens. You can do everything right on the course but if you can’t finish it off by draining the putts, it makes for a long, frustrating round. If you want to start shooting lower scores, you have to find ways to get putts to fall!
It seems simple enough, but in reality you know that is not the case. A golf hole is only 4.25 inches in diameter, meaning that your putting stroke doesn’t have much room for error if you want to make a putt. Having an effective and consistent putting stroke will give you an advantage on the greens while helping you eliminate bogeys by making more pars and birdies. If you want to drain more putts, then you’ll want to learn the keys to improve your putting stroke.
Pendulum Putting
First things first, what is a putting stroke? Putting is as simple as swinging the club back and forth in a pendulum like motion. The putter moves back and forth from a fixed point with the help of gravity. That fixed point or “pivot point” as we’ll call it, is where you should put your focus.
This is also where many amateur golfers go wrong. When you think of the pivot point and the putter, you’ll try and imitate that swinging motion a pendulum creates. For many amateurs, they will create that pivot point in the wrist. This creates a wristy stroke that causes inconsistencies in your putting that make it hard to control direction and pace.
You want to change your idea of where that pivot point is located. Instead of in your hands, you want to imagine the pivot point is up higher like in the middle of your chest or your shirt buttons. Your hands will act as the anchor point rather than the source of power that creates the motion.
The energy is now coming from a core and torso motion rather than flipping your hands and wrists through the ball. You’ll find that a much smoother stroke will come from this adjustment.
Pendulum Drills
Keys to improving your putting stroke requires some practice to develop the feel you’re looking for. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day! Here are a couple of drills that will help you find the feel of a better putting stroke.
Pendulum Putting
- Take your putter grip and place it in your sternum
- Grip down on the shaft as far as your arms will let you
- Make a putting motion back and forth
The key to this drill is to get your arms, shoulders, and club moving together as a unit. You’ll find that this a rotational motion of your core and torso, rather than a rocking or hinging motion at the wrists.
Rotational Drill
Anchoring the club to your body is a great way to get the right feeling of where that pivot point should be in your putting stroke. It will help get your body moving in the right way! But more than likely you won’t be putting with the club anchored to your chest on the course. Which is why it’s important to find ways to retain that feeling. This drill will help you move from anchoring to your natural putting stroke.
- You’ll want to take your grip and naturally hold your putter in space out in front of you. (Like you’re holding a baseball bat over the plate)
- Connect your elbows gently to your torso
- Turn your shoulders right and left in space
- Feel that upper body rotation
- Lower putter and body down into putting posture
- Make the same movements with that rotation feeling
This will help you feel where that power should be coming from as your shoulders, arms, and club work together. Rather than your hands and wrists, the power is coming from the rotation you’re producing with your torso and core.
Conclusion
Having an understanding of what the putting stroke should feel like will make a difference when you’re on the green. You’ll have a more consistent stroke and be able to drain putts when you need them most. When you make more putts, bogeys and doubles start falling off the scorecard, and the next thing you know, you’re shooting 5-7 strokes lower each round!
If you want more tips and drills like this, you’ll want to check out our vault of over 700+ videos in our training vault.
