Your putting technique is THE most important part of the game of Golf. You make 40 - 50% of all shots on the Putting Green.
Yet every month I receive the golf magazines all professing to be offering the best swing advice and club reviews. Looking back over the years I see that the actual content that covers putting is minuscule in comparison to the articles on DRIVING it miles or sweeping it off the fairway. All of these articles were backed up by new miracle club reviews and 2 page pull out adverts.
The saying goes that you Drive for Show and Putt for Dough but the industry depends on "Putters Sell Slow and Drivers make Dough".
You only use your driver for maybe 10 shots in a round of golf whereas you make at least 36 putts minimum if your are good / lucky.
Why then do we spend a massive amount of money EVERY year on a new driver when the putter stays in the bag as a forgotten tool of the trade? How many of us have been taken in by the promise of gaining an extra 10 /15 yards by buying the newest hi tech user friendly driver that has the ability to allow me to set up for a draw or fade, changing the weight and lowering the MOI. What codswallop.
Last year I resisted the urge to buy a new driver and spent the money on having my favourite putter custom fitted to my stance and the rest on some putting lessons. Guess What. I didn't gain any length on my drives but I reduced my Handicap by 5 shots. That was a massive improvement and got me thinking.
WHY don't the Pro's push putting lessons and the custom fitting of your putter more to the general public?
Answer: Repeat business. Once your putter has been custom fitted to you and you have had at least 6 putting lessons you should have started to build a solid putting technique. I mean come on, you only have to move the putter head 36 inches at the most.
Whereas your golf swing has to incorporate 13 different clubs all of a different length and require different setups and stance positions. The club head on a driver may have to travel 16-18 feet to complete the striking of the ball, there is a lot of room for mistakes and it's easy to build repeat business for the future.
All Tour Pro's still have coaches and lessons and they practice every day.
The bottom line is this. You are not a tour pro and can not practice every day for 4 -6 hours a day. But you can start to putt like a pro by practicing and developing a solid putting technique. Take a look at the putting averages on the PGA tour. They are all around the 1.7 putts per hole. If you could get down to 2 putts per hole then you will reduce your handicap month on month.
HOW's This? I hear you say. Well if you are confident that you will get down in two on the green you will not take as many risks when approaching the green. You will start to aim at the heart of the green instead of trying to fly the bunker and stop the ball on a dime.
Remember for every ball you hit on the driving range you MUST PUTT TWO ON THE GREEN.
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