- Hi, Adam Bazalgette back here in Naples, Florida.
I'm two-time PGA Teacher of the Year
Award Winner, founder of Scratch Golf Academy.
Today's subject, and an important
one, how to putt better in golf.
What are some of the general thoughts
that would make you a functional putter, stay tuned.
(dramatic music)
So how to putt better in golf, well,
hey listen, if you can two putt consistently
and make a couple of putts now and again,
if your average is less than two,
you're a pretty functional
putter by most people's standards.
I'll show you something today in this video
that you've really gotta be able to do.
It regards distance, control, that's
kind of the underpinning of that level of putting.
And also, another thing at the beginning of
the video is how to clear your mind a little bit.
How to make it simpler so you can
really put your mind on the things that count, there.
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Okay, let's get started.
Okay then, so if you're gonna
putt better in golf, we're talking
about really getting to be functional
and a really reasonable at least two-putter,
you have to have good distance control.
If you don't have good distance control,
if you're not really cozying it up
there on the longer putts, you're
gonna have some problems with being a functional putter.
Now, two things I wanna show you here
in this video that I think will be helpful to that.
First thing, I should say, the second
thing and the most important thing
as to my ideas about distance control
that I think you'll like, but firstly,
your mind's gotta be pretty clear
if you're gonna focus on distance control.
So for that, the stroke has to be simple.
Let's touch on a couple of things
here you wanna avoid, and a couple
of things you wanna emphasize,
and then we can talk a little bit about distance control.
So first thing is, these little hand
and arm muscles, the more you try
to manage and control your stroke with those,
the more challenging it becomes to control a putter,
and the more your mind is gonna be engrossed with that.
So here's my tip for that, grab your putter
there in front of you, and just pull
it in there where your arms
touch your ribs a little bit.
So there's a little fold of the arms,
you feel a slight connection there.
That is very, very important,
because once you've connected to your ribs,
you can start to move more from
your core for your stroke and not
out here with your hands and arms.
Think you're taking a photograph with a camera,
you'd rest your arms on your ribs there.
So do that, grab your putter if it's
in front of you, touch it up against your ribs,
and then make a few strokes here at about level,
at about tummy high, and you'll start
to feel hey, if you keep your legs
and head still and get a little energy from your core,
you don't have to think about anything.
And best of all, it's super repeating.
The stroke isn't gonna wobble all over the place.
So once you've felt that, tip over there,
make a couple of strokes there,
and just engage your core and maintain that connection
so that there's absolutely no active hitting
or controlling from the hands.
Now just hit a few putts without a target
until you're starting to feel that.
Once you're there, not only will
that help your accuracy in putting,
but again, it frees up your mind
to work on distance control.
So let's have a look at a couple of
thoughts about distance control, then.
So I have good distance control,
that was about the right speed.
Obviously, it affects the break on shorter parts,
but it affects how close to the hole you get,
especially on longer putts.
Crucial if you're gonna be an effective putter.
To have good distance control,
you have to have a couple of repeatable elements,
and the number one repeatable element
to me is a pendulum type motion.
Now, what's critical about a pendulum type motion?
First off, it's natural, you're always
gonna do better in golf if you do things that are natural.
You can learn to do things that are counter instinctive
and unnatural if you practice enough,
but you're better off with natural.
And things are naturally prone to swing in pendulums.
That's just the way things work.
I'll show you a great little drill here
in just a moment that I think will
bring out the natural within you.
But instead of thinking how hard to hit putts,
just trust a pendulum, a pendulum not only
has equal back and through, of course,
but the pendulum, the beauty of it,
is the first spot is right at the bottom,
right at contact would be if you're using a pendulum.
This is what the best players are doing.
So again, get into summing it's natural
physiology, or physically I suppose,
a pendulum's a natural thing.
Get into that flow, and let me show you
a little drill here that I think will demonstrate
to you that this is something you do in every day life
or at least in certain athletic activities.
Okay, so I've got three tennis balls here,
let's say I'm just playing a little
game of underhand toss to a friend there.
I'm not going to take the ball back
and try to throw it the right distance.
What I would do is just kinda get
a measurement there with my toss,
and then just let the ball go,
and you would find there was a natural
buildup of speed, and you'll find
if it's anything close to natural,
that you're gonna release that ball
right around here at the vertical point of your arm,
right here, somewhere near the bottom.
You're not gonna release it over here.
In other words, your fastest point
isn't gonna be there or back here,
it's a natural thing to build up speed,
release the ball, and then again,
you find we don't try to keep accelerating
the arm, that would be very unnatural.
Once the ball's out of hand,
the arm naturally just draws to a
natural conclusion, and slows down naturally.
And the less you think if you had
a friend out there, the more naturally
you'd find that sort of pendulum motion there
and get that swinging motion.
You'd have a sense of how far you had to throw it,
but you wouldn't be thinking about
rhythm or acceleration or anything like that.
It's a very natural movement.
Okay, so pretty natural really,
now how are you gonna apply that to golf?
Well grab your putter again if it's with you,
you've already practiced the kind of motion
taking your hands and arms out.
Here's the best starting drill I know,
and that is to make several putts in a row,
or several strokes in a row, I should say, without stopping.
And you'll find after five, six, seven strokes,
you naturally start to balance out to a pendulum.
I have yet to see the person making
continuous strokes that has one
end way bigger than the other.
That doesn't happen, so just make some strokes
till you take all the thinking out of it.
You're starting to feel your rhythm,
you're feeling that natural flow of the pendulum,
which again, is a natural thing.
And then the next thing I would do,
and I'd recommend it without a target.
I've got one hole out there to
add a little visual interest here,
but see if you can hit three putts in a row
without taking much time the same length
or very close to the same length,
and then on the next, go vary it.
Maybe make it a much bigger putter
or a somewhat shorter putt,
and just see if you can roll balls
consecutively the same length.
That would demonstrate to you your rhythm is
very, very consistent and repeatable.
So let's roll a couple over there.
Get over here, have a little look.
And I'm not trying to control my distance,
I'm just getting in there and just
feeling the same energy, the same
size pendulum in each stroke.
Obviously those are a hair low,
but you can see they went pretty much the same distance.
That's your benchmark, so get your stroke.
If you want to become a better putter,
a functional putter, get your stroke
where it's simple, where your mind
is calm and relaxed, then it can focus
on good visualizing, good distance control
and develop a pendulum and apply it
to different sorts of putts.
One little thing to remember, one final
point here that's very, very important.
The rhythm of your pendulum, if you
had a metronome out that, let's say, tick, tock.
Whatever that rhythm, it should be the same
regardless of the length of putt.
So if it's a much longer putt,
if it was twice that long, I'm gonna
have a bigger stroke with more energy,
so tick tock becomes tick tock.
Always that same rhythm, picture tossing
the ball, if I'm tossing it to someone
a few yards away, this toss, if they're
a lot further away, more energy,
same kind of rhythm, so it's still a pendulum.
It has the exact same rhythm, your mind
gets good at that, just adjust it
a little for how far the ball should go.
And again, it frees up your mind
'cause you're not thinking about how hard to hit it.
You're just looking at it,
getting a good mental picture,
find your pendulum and just go with it.
I think if you'll do these things,
you'll really start making yourself
a more functional putter.
Well I hope that was helpful for you.
Again, I have a full course on putting,
covers every aspect of putting.
Green reading, strategy, practice, et cetera, et cetera.
I hope you'll check that out at scratchgolfacademy.com,
I hope you'll subscribe to the channel if you haven't.
Got a lot of content and plan to bring a lot more your way.
I appreciate your attention and
your interest in my videos, thanks!