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How do you know how hard to hit a putt?

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I don't know, that's why I am such a great lag putter :bad:
 
I simply rely on my Jedi mind skills that I picked up from The Empire Strikes Back. I've reduced my 3 putts in half!!
 
Nate said:
I simply rely on my Jedi mind skills that I picked up from The Empire Strikes Back. I've reduced my 3 putts in half!!
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Let me know when you're done with Yoda & the backpack. I need polishing on my Jedi skills.


iPhone 5 Tappin
 
Feel and trial and error from hitting thousands and thousands of putts.
 
I posted in another thread recently, I used to be awful when I was basing on swing mechanics, length and speed of swing etc. but in a lesson, coach got me to throw a ball to him from various distances and it kinda clicked.
Sort of like what Michigan Slice said, based on slope and grass, there's just a combination of feel and experience kicks in (and a lot luck I'm sure!).

As a junior, I also used to play a lot of lawn bowls at a decent level and I think somewhere in me, that contributes significantly, while there's no reads, it's 100% pace, line and feel.
 
I have a drill I use to work on distance. But, out on the course, it is feel. And, the best putters, IMO, a successful with that method. Now, when I am looking over a putt, I may tell myself it's a 30 footer, little uphill, play it like it's 33. But, when I address the ball. I just look at the hole, make a practice stroke, and then hit it.

The drill I do is to set up a tee 2 feet behind the hole. Then, I put a tee down at 20, 30 & 40 feet. Sometimes I'll mix up the distances, anywhere from 10-45 feet. I putt 2 balls from each tee. Each ball must go past the hole. But, not go more than 2 feet past the hole. In the beginning, I just putt the distances in order 20, 30, 40, 20, 30, 40, repeat. After several iterations, I'll start mixing it up, 20, 40, 30, 40, 20, 30, etc. I give myself one point for each "successful" putt. 6 points is a perfect score.

I also saw a similar drill profiled by Matteo Mannassero, on TGC, a couple months back. He was scoring 1 point for a successful put and 2 points if the putt went in.

In my scenario, I'm not worried about making it. The drill is for pure distance control
 
I also don't take practice swings when I putt unless it's a SUPER delicate putt. I guess for me it's just experience and muscle memory. I calculated that over the 40+ years I've been playing golf I've probably stroked nearly 100,000 putts just playing on the course. With practice added in, who knows ... That's gotta sink in somewhere!
 
SaffaClint said:
I started a thread a while back asking if people "saw" a line for their putts. I was thinking recently (yes it did hurt) and I got to wondering how people know how hard to hit a putt.
For me, and this may sound weird but I never take a practice stroke. I look at the putt and don't think "Yea this is 25feet downhill with a slight uphill 6feet short of the pin'. I line myself up and look at the spot I've chosen to make sure the ball starts on the right line and from there I hit the putt. I know some people practice and have a stroke for a 6foot putt, a 12foot putt etc etc but I've never been able to do that. I'm a purely feel putter and compare putting to throwing a ball. When I throw a ball I don't have a bunch of practice throws before releasing the ball, I just throw it and get it right. I consider myself to be a good putter and lag putting is a particular strength.
I might be an anomaly?, but it'd be good to hear how others putt.
Thanks.
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All feel for me.
 
It's a lot about feel, no doubt. You know as well as anyone, getting to roll a few putts on the practice green will help before a round. After that, while on the course, it's about bringing that from the putting green to the 1st green. Usually, when given a chance, I'm making some 5 footers, 10, and lagging some 20+ on the practice green before a round. I'm also doing this from four different sides of the same hole if possible. The slope and position of the ball in relation to the greens layout is key (high points, down hill, uphill and such), we know this. However some don't always take into consideration the mow pattern, too. Though if may not make a HUGE difference, it does make a difference. When you look a mowing pattern on a green, light green/white is down grain (faster), dark green is into the grain (slower).
 
I dunno I honestly don't know how I know how hard to hit it. I just visualize the line and break and step up and stroke it.

I think it all comes back to past experience on putts that are uphill, downhill, break on greens that are similar speed.
 
The way I have done it now for the last couple of years is pretty simple. I heard this tip somewhere and can't remember for the life of me but it has really helped me a ton.

Go to a putting green and line yourself up for a flat 10 foot putt. Take the putter to back so that your hands stop just inside your back leg and as you follow thru just make sure you get your hands to the same position on your front leg.

So as the length of the putt increases the position of your hands will lengthen. So for a 20 foot putt you will put your hands to about the middle of your back thigh and finish the same on your front thigh.

It has really helped me with distance control as I know where my distances are by where my hands go so all I have to focus on is my swing path and follow thru.
 
I have never been a practice stroke guy...heck I don't even take practice swings on full shots, for me it's a pure feel thing. I try to get on the practice green and hit a few putts prior to a round and get the feel of what a 5 footer, 10 footer and 20 footer feels like and then I use those to base my stroke during the round.
 
Texasbrons said:
Not to minimize it, but the percentage thing doesn't make sense. I can swing the same length back stroke and follow through and have the ball move at various rates of speed and distance. This is really an impossible question to answer because it is all FEEL, and muscle memory. How do you know how hard to throw a baseball if you are at the pitchers mound vs. 2nd base, vs center field. How do you know how to throw a football 10 yards, 20 yards or 30 yards. You've done it before and your brain recognizes how much effort each of these things take. You practice it over and over and over until there is an inert sense of what you need to do. You don't need to think about it and analyze it, you just know what to do. That's what putting is as well. That is also why it is important to hit the putting green before the round and start of with 1' putts, 3' putts, 5' putts, 10' putts. And you better hope that the playing greens are in similar condition to the practice green.
Unfortunately there is no one right answer for this. What makes golf harder than the analogy just given for football or baseball is the ball is rolling across a surface so uphill, downhill, grain, type of grass, how tightly it is cut, has it been rolled etc etc ALL come into play.
You just have to practice, practice, practice until you have a pretty good feel for what it takes for you and YOUR putter to move the ball. Oh yeah, that is one more variable, your putter will have an impact on ball travel as well.
Then to add one more variable, the putting surface is apt to change during the course of your 4 hour round. Playing early in the morning? Greens will be slower in the morning dew and dampness then dry out and run faster as the day warms up. The opposite is true if you are an evening player, but I see less of an effect in the evening personally, but that may change in various regions as well. Humid day? Different than dry day. A little sprinkle in the middle of the round? That'll change speed and break.
There is no one right answer for this. You have to build a FEEL for putting and that's all there is to it. There are body mechanics and technique and even equipment that can help with your ACCURACY of rolling the ball across the line you want it to go to, but for distance, it is all feel and your brain knowing what to do.
Go practice so that you can train your brain.

Or you can just go buy an overspin putter. I hear you can't miss with one of those. LOL
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Maybe to you it doesn't. Kinda bold statement to just go out there and say it doesn't make sense. As you stated and I agree there are A LOT of variables when it comes to golf. So to say something doesn't make sense is kinda ridiculous, because like I said it may not to you but it might to someone else. In this case it does. It makes sense to me because the way it was taught to me, maybe I'm not explaining it correctly but it works for me. I'm not saying that feel isn't involved because obviously it is, but practicing the method I've been taught and perfecting the "feel" with said method has definitely made me a better putter.
 
Like throwing a baseball, football, tossing a horseshoe, shuffleboard, etc--its just a feel you get. If I do a practice stroke it is for that feel (imagination) before I hit. Anytime I have tried to be mechanical (trying to go a certain length backswing, or use x amount of power) it usually does not work well for me unless its like 2 footer and I go mechanical on nerves.
 
As others in this thread have mentioned, you are an expert in gravity. Your central nervous system (CNS) can calculate in a split second how much force you need to throw a baseball from here to there, and can also calculate it for a bowling ball.

However, there's an important bit of information your CNS has to have. Gravity. If you're swinging the putter with your arms, you're robbing your body of the information it needs. You have to let gravity and momentum swing the club. Will it always be perfect? Of course not. A misjudgment in the amount of slope, break, grain or any number of factors can cause a miss. Doesn't mean it's not still the answer though.
 
Swiftflow said:
Like throwing a baseball, football, tossing a horseshoe, shuffleboard, etc--its just a feel you get. If I do a practice stroke it is for that feel (imagination) before I hit. Anytime I have tried to be mechanical (trying to go a certain length backswing, or use x amount of power) it usually does not work well for me unless its like 2 footer and I go mechanical on nerves.
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+1 As a former quarterback, i didn't consciously think about how far to lead a crossing receiver to get the ball in his hands, and I didn't think about how hard to toss the ball when I took a jump shot, you just see it and let it happen. I try to be the same when putting. I try to really focus on the distance from the hole, then let that info travel from my eye, to my brain, then on to my hands and then the putter. I suppose multi sport athletes have a certain amount of hand-eye coordination and the better at this you are, the better putter you'll be. The worst thing i believe anyone can do while putting is have a bunch of thoughts on their mind while making a putting stroke. For me it's: see it, roll it, hole it.............
 
What a really great question!

As a former multi-sport athlete, I always found that knowledge of the variables and affects and practice leads to wrote performance. Your body learns and then knows what to do and how to do it to maximize performance, without thinking about it. Of course, there are different skill levels in every sport.

Basically, judging distance is an inborn ability. Some of us, like airplane pilots are better at it than others. I think putting, in golf is different. There are so many more variables and they change from day to day, course to course, grass type to grass type, putter to putter. Even the wind, at ground level, affect a golf ball.

The best I think anyone can do is learn some basics about putters, greens, grain, slope and such and practice those until they are ingrained (wrote). The less you have to think about when putting the better. If you then do all the right things, you may not make every putt, but like most pros, you'll leave the ball close. Aside from that there is always a bit of luck that goes into the putt.
 
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Well said MM !
On a side note, I see your handicap's dropped a bit, well done :clapp:
 
I don't know, but I see the line, and I just putt. I do take a practice swing, and it helps for me to visualize the ball going in. If the greens are consistent, I don't have to think anything when I putt.
 
I see the putt, feel the strenght with a couple of back-fron-back-front practice strokes, from then on it's just KNOWING the right strenght
 
Hawk said:
Practice stroke looking at the hole and I let my brain figure the rest out. Works surprisingly well.
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like shooting a free throw. My dad looks at the hole on practice and actual putts.

Jman said:
I'm an SPi player and was not taught on percentages and such, I agree that can be confusing. SPi itself is NOT confusing though, thats the best thing about it, its all simple, repeatable, and makes sense.

For me, its the shoulder rock size determines the stroke size which results in distances.
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SPI rules!
 
All feel for me. There are a lot of variation from course to course on green speed, grass type and condition.

I do my best to get feel for the round on the practice putting green. You see a lot of amateurs drop balls from 15 feet and out for their first putts on the practice green. I always start with what my dad taught me many years ago: find a straight, flat hole on the practice green and using 2 balls roll first from 3ft, then 4ft, then 5ft and keep going 1 ft back all the way back to 10ft. Again all on the same line. This helps your brain pick up just speed.

After those putts are complete then I go to a variation of all distances and breaks.

Another drill I sometimes use right before the round to learn the speed for long putts is to putt from just inside the fringe on one side to fringe on the other side. Hopefully find something in the 25 to 40ft range on this one.
 
It's all feel for me. On the practice green I test speed of the greens first from various distances, then I worry about how I am perceiving break. Speed is the critical factor, in my mind.

No practice strokes for me before a putt. Based on my read of the slope, my mind knows how hard to hit the putt. I just let it happen.
 
cpljohnst said:
All feel for me. There are a lot of variation from course to course on green speed, grass type and condition.

I do my best to get feel for the round on the practice putting green. You see a lot of amateurs drop balls from 15 feet and out for their first putts on the practice green. I always start with what my dad taught me many years ago: find a straight, flat hole on the practice green and using 2 balls roll first from 3ft, then 4ft, then 5ft and keep going 1 ft back all the way back to 10ft. Again all on the same line. This helps your brain pick up just speed.

After those putts are complete then I go to a variation of all distances and breaks.

Another drill I sometimes use right before the round to learn the speed for long putts is to putt from just inside the fringe on one side to fringe on the other side. Hopefully find something in the 25 to 40ft range on this one.
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I like he he little pretty round drill...I'm going to try it for sure
 
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