- Welcome back to Naples, Florida.
Adam Bazalgette here,
two-time PGA teacher of the year award winner down here.
Today's subject, how to putt straight.
(upbeat music)
So how to putt straight?
Well, I'm gonna show you a little bit about technique
that I think would help you with that,
but I'm also gonna show you what I think
is one of the leading problems people have in putting
and that really affects it.
So we'll get into that.
If you like the video, please subscribe to the channel,
we have a lot of free content already and more coming
your way here at YouTube.
My home website scratchgolfacademy.com
have courses in every aspect of the game,
a whole course on putting
and you can also go there to learn how we can do
a one-on-one internet golf lessons,
so let's get started.
So the first thing let's just say,
is that in reality, all putts are straight putts.
At least from the perspective of the person hitting it.
This putt breaks a little bit approximately
towards where I've put that white tee in there for me,
I'm tryna hit a straight putt towards that tee
and of course it's simply gravity
that will cause the ball to break,
so let's have a look.
And then you can see the ball if I hadn't left it short,
was tapering back to the hole
so straight putts are every putt.
Now let me just say one thing here,
'cause this is critical as we touch on technique,
your posture, probably more than anything,
will affect how easily you can get the putt on line,
or at least I'd say it's a major effect.
And what I mean by that is the taller you stand,
the more rounded your pivot becomes
and unless you're manipulating the club with your hands,
your stroke starts to get a lot rounder.
You could certainly hit a straight putt
if you time it right for the precise part of that stroke,
but it's more difficult so great players bend over
a lot more when they putt which gives them more of this look
and it really helps get the putter on a more true line
or at least closer to one relative to the target line.
Lemme show you a great player and show you the difference
between regular posture and putting posture.
So I couldn't resist, I want to use Jack Nicklaus,
one of my favorite all-time players.
These are two famous shots.
On the left is the putt he beat Doug Sanders with
in the 1970 British Open play-off
and of course on the right's the famed 1986 Masters
and that's the tee shot.
But just look at the difference in the overall bend
of his back and his posture
and there's a dramatic difference
and you wanna see some of that
when you relate your putting posture
to what might be normal posture in other shots.
So as you look at the putting posture what's gonna enable
you to bend over the ball a little bit more
is you've gotta let your arms fold a little bit.
If you stick your arms and you can do this at home
straight out in front of you there
and then let your arms crimp and fold,
relax your shoulders as you do that,
until your triceps kind of touch the inside of your ribcage,
that's how much your arms should be folded.
Club's in a nice, straight line with my forearms
and once I've created this crimp here,
it allows me to bend over a lot more.
Another factor that's critical of course
is the length of the putter.
I see a lot of lady golfers, junior golfers,
little bit shorter in stature,
putting with putters that are sort of men's standard length
which by the way fits about a six-foot-two guy
as an average.
I've got a whole course on putting
back at Scratch Golf Academy
and we touch on approximate lengths
of putters for height of people,
it might be kind of helpful for you.
But if you have a putter that's the wrong length for you
it's gonna effect your posture.
But let's say this,
if you can connect your arms,
get a little crimp in your arms,
relax your shoulders and if your putter is appropriately fit
you'll have approximately the sort of bend
that you see the best players have
and it's gonna help the path of your stroke.
Now let's have a look at that most common fault
that I see and check that out.
So I'll go ahead and say it and that's this,
I hope it doesn't sound like blasphemy to you,
I'm not a big believer in head down,
I don't like to see people putt
and just keep their head there indefinitely.
The reasons for that,
hey when you watch the ball roll,
you learn a lot about pace, distance control,
you have to watch a lot of balls roll over time
to get good at that.
And you learn about your own stroke a little bit
and your brain can make minute subconscious adjustments
when you get feedback now.
Certainly let's say if you're three feet away,
hey the balls just gotten started
I think then you should listen to it go in,
you shouldn't have looked up by then.
But again if you watch the ball roll,
not only can you learn a lot
but if the ball rolls by the hole four or five feet
you'll have watched the break,
you'll have previewed the break a little bit
for the comeback putt.
So it's not so much looking up that's the problem,
it's the way people do it.
And what they generally do
is they move their entire body
and look at the hole like that
which dramatically and very negatively affects
the direction of stroke.
So my old buddy and compatriot at Leadbetter Scott Holden,
great teacher, used to tell students,
hit, hold, look, and what he meant by that was,
strike the ball, as soon as the putter has stopped
that's hold then look.
So it was, hit, hold, look.
And it's the way your head moves, it swivels that's key.
Let's change angles.
So the problem is that when people do look at the hole,
they look at it as you would look at things in
everyday life or close to it, level shoulders, level eyes.
And when you go through and you look at a putt like that,
what's gonna happen is the club's gonna wheel around you
this way it's gonna completely change the arch of the stroke
but we just get used to doing it.
So, if you're gonna look at the ball
as I've suggested you do on slightly longer than,
let's say, three, four, five foot putts,
once you've hit and hold and you look,
you should just swivel your head
and the key is you'll be looking at the hole
with a tilted eye angle,
something that more matches your body tilt
and if you can do that,
hey you're gonna stay in a good steady position
with your spine and you're not gonna add this in
so remember hit some putts without a hole initially
and train yourself that when you swivel your head
you'll be looking at it like this.
You'll get used it in no time flat I promise you.
Little awkward at the beginning,
but in no time flat that will seem natural to you.
Well I hope that helps you with how to putt straight,
if you liked this video please subscribe to the channel.
We got a lot of free content,
planned to get more coming your way.
Leave a comment if you like,
I'll try to get to whatever subject
that you find of interest.
scratchgolfacademy.com is my website,
we have full courses in every aspect of the game
as I said earlier we have a whole course in putting
and of course you can learn there how we can do
one-on-one internet golf instruction.
Thanks again for your time!
(mouse click)