Last night's putting lesson

millsan1

I've figured this game out! Oh wait, no I haven't
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I am new to the game and learning as I go. I have had about 10 lessons so far this year and I practice or play almost every day. I also voraciously consume tips from players, youtube, this forum and others, etc.

Up until last night, I had not taken a putting lesson. I had been putting OK, but had to replace my putter two weeks ago. Since then, all my putts are horribly short. I know it is just a question of getting used to the new putter, but I also wanted to have a lesson to make sure my mechanics are OK.

In store lesson, so on the artificial turf. I explain to my pro what has been happening.

He drops a ball about 10 foot from the cup and says "putt that"

Center of the hole.

Drops another.

Center of the hole.

Drops another.

Center of the hole.

He then asks "how far away is that hole over there? (the hole at the other end of the surface)"
I say "34 feet" It was 35.

He tells me to try and sink one in that hole.
I promptly lag 3 to withing a foot or so.

On the fourth, I finally made the error that had been hurting me. I turned up to look before finishing the stroke. Ball went half the distance.

He then explained to me that the looking up changed my angle and speed of impact and why that hurts distance.


He said my grip, setup and stroke are all fine.

Since this was 10 minutes into a 30 minute lesson, we then went over some putting thoughts and ideas.

He asked "Your uphill putts are short and your downhill putts are long, right?"

Yep.

He explained that when the hole is uphill, it looks closer and when downhill it looks further away. Since your eyes, the ball and the cup form a triangle, that made complete sense. It is elementary, but I had never thought of it before. He also walked me through getting used to striding the distance, getting used to feel, etc.

Great lesson, which I will be putting into practice ASAP.
 
Good stuff. now if it translates on the course. :act-up:
 
That is really good info he gave you. Hope it continues over. Might have to test the theory the next time I am out.
 
I am new to the game and learning as I go. I have had about 10 lessons so far this year and I practice or play almost every day. I also voraciously consume tips from players, youtube, this forum and others, etc.

Up until last night, I had not taken a putting lesson. I had been putting OK, but had to replace my putter two weeks ago. Since then, all my putts are horribly short. I know it is just a question of getting used to the new putter, but I also wanted to have a lesson to make sure my mechanics are OK.

In store lesson, so on the artificial turf. I explain to my pro what has been happening.

He drops a ball about 10 foot from the cup and says "putt that"

Center of the hole.

Drops another.

Center of the hole.

Drops another.

Center of the hole.

He then asks "how far away is that hole over there? (the hole at the other end of the surface)"
I say "34 feet" It was 35.

He tells me to try and sink one in that hole.
I promptly lag 3 to withing a foot or so.

On the fourth, I finally made the error that had been hurting me. I turned up to look before finishing the stroke. Ball went half the distance.

He then explained to me that the looking up changed my angle and speed of impact and why that hurts distance.


He said my grip, setup and stroke are all fine.

Since this was 10 minutes into a 30 minute lesson, we then went over some putting thoughts and ideas.

He asked "Your uphill putts are short and your downhill putts are long, right?"

Yep.

He explained that when the hole is uphill, it looks closer and when downhill it looks further away. Since your eyes, the ball and the cup form a triangle, that made complete sense. It is elementary, but I had never thought of it before. He also walked me through getting used to striding the distance, getting used to feel, etc.

Great lesson, which I will be putting into practice ASAP.

Thanks for sharing.

As for striding the distance, what is the major benefit? Just getting used to knowing how far a putt is? Do you then equate that distance to a certain swing length? Or is it just to give your brain another piece of information and then let it do its work?
 
Ooooo that triangle tip is a real lightbulb! That's pretty cool! I've heard a lot of people say to pace off the putt and never really got why, but that sounds like a fantastic reason, trust your feet and not your eyes.
 
We were talking the other day about putting and the amazing fact that after you’ve been playing this game for any length of time how you just instinctively know how hard to stroke a putt. That’s not to say that you won’t leave putts short or blow one by the hole sometimes, but there is no conscious thought of how far back to take the putter for example, no thought of mechanics at all.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Thanks for sharing.

As for striding the distance, what is the major benefit? Just getting used to knowing how far a putt is? Do you then equate that distance to a certain swing length? Or is it just to give your brain another piece of information and then let it do its work?

Yep, just that. Trying to get used to actual distance vs stroke power.

As a side note, I put some of the info to the test on the putting green today and am amazed at how much it helped. Not so much for accuracy, although that was better, rather distance control and break reading.

We shall see tomorrow at my club championship.
 
The distance thing, uphill or downhill, is a Dave Pelz Putting Bible tip from the late '90's. Some aspects of Pelz are great. Like anything else, take what is useful and forget the rest.
 
We were talking the other day about putting and the amazing fact that after you’ve been playing this game for any length of time how you just instinctively know how hard to stroke a putt. That’s not to say that you won’t leave putts short or blow one by the hole sometimes, but there is no conscious thought of how far back to take the putter for example, no thought of mechanics at all.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Back when I was playing in my younger days and a lot more, it's like you said. Although I could "See" the speed, where it reached sort of a apex and started dying off and rolling out. Just now getting to develop that again, I think. Seems like my putting has gotten a bit better, at least speed wise.
 
The lesson really helped. I only had 37 putts, which for me is very good.

I just realized he also gave me a quickie lesson on AimPoint putting, which also helped tremendously. I only misread one green badly and ended up nowhere near the hole. The rest went very well and a lot of them had a very good chance of dropping in one.

My one putt was a 25 footer for a bogey. When it went in you would have thought I eagled the hole, I was so pumped.
 
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