Tuesday's Tip: Most Important Skill to Improve Putting

Helping golfers improve their putting is a passion of mine. I firmly believe that just about anyone can be a good putter, and many can become great. But that doesn't mean that putting is easy. Yes… the physical skills required to be a great putter may be very different (and less strenuous) than having to bomb a drive 300 yards down the middle of a fairway. But putting presents its own unique challenges that seem to affect every player a little differently.

Keeping in mind that there is seemingly no “one way” to become a great putter, I wanted to share with you what I believe is the most important skill that will be required in order for you to improve putting to any degree.

SPEED CONTROL (aka distance control)

Speed control is so important because it not only helps you get closer to the hole, it will determine your read of the green.

Now that I am AimPoint Certified (click here to learn more about that) I have an even deeper understanding to how closely connected reading the green and controlling your speed is. It is so closely connected, that many AimPoint clinics will combine their green reading class with a speed control class.

The bottom line is this… you can’t effectively read greens if your speed control is off. And I’m not talking about blasting a 10 footer 5 feet past the hole. Your speed control will need to be way more precise than that if you want to make more putts.

How precise should you try to be? First of all you need to divide your putts into 2 categories:

20’ and Closer

• Your goal when you are 20’ and closer is to make sure you hit a putt with enough speed that if it misses, the ball will travel past the hole at least 12-24 inches (check out the picture that came along with this post). Anything shorter or longer than that and you risk over or under reading your putt.

Outside 20’

• Your goal when you are outside 20’ is to simply make sure the ball can stop within 10% of the overall length of the putt from the hole. For example; if you have a 30’ putt, the ball should stop within 1.5’ short or 1.5’ long of the hole (adding up to 3’). Just think of how many of your 3-putts will go away if you could accomplish this! Even from 60 feet… you’re just trying to get 3 feet short or 3 feel long of the hole!

To summarize, it is forgivable to leave putts outside 20’ just short of the hole. However, it is not forgivable to leave putts 20’ and in short of the hole. So the next time you are on the practice green, see how good you are at making the ball stop within the parameters above. Hint: golf tees are an excellent tool to help indicate where the ball should go if it’s not in the hole.

Knowing how long your putt is before you hit it is important for many reasons. If you keep stats (correctly) you will always need to know the length of your first putt so that you can calculate your make percentages (as well as determine your effectiveness in your approach shots/chipping and pitching). Knowing this information is important so that you can set your expectation level correctly and so you can begin prioritizing your practices to strengthen any weaknesses.

Too many times have players come in complaining about their putting, only to find out that they are statistically almost as good as the PGA Tour! After all, the make percentages on tour are very easy to find (i.e. the make percentage from 8 feet is about 50%) so in order to strengthen your mental toughness on the greens, you should probably know what putts you should be making.

Will improving your speed control directly lead to you making more putts? Maybe! Especially if your current speed control skills are lacking. Otherwise, sharpening your skill of speed control on the greens will then make the other two skills (1) reading the green and (2) hitting your line, much more useful.

Do you need help with your speed control? Come visit me at the High Performance Golf Academy and I can promise you’ll get what you need to begin improving immediately.

Tuesday's Tip: Thinking Out Loud (Launch Monitors Edition)

Disclaimer: This article consists of my thoughts and feelings about certain launch monitors I’ve had experience with. Others have thoroughly tested and conducted study after study to compare many launch monitors on the market.

So what is the best launch monitor on the market today? The answer to that is pretty easy (I think). Trackman. And for a smooth $25k it can be yours.

At the High Performance Golf Academy we have been very fortunate to have used several versions of Trackman over the years. The amount of information it spits out is truly amazing and is extremely valuable to players and coaches of any skill level. Can it be information overload? Sure! But this is where a good coach can help a player only focus on the data that matters to them.

More recently, we just acquired a new launch monitor from Bushnell (which recently acquired Foresight), that is called the Launch Pro. To be honest, I am in my infancy with this unit and you can expect much more information on my thoughts in the coming weeks/months. What I can tell you now is that the initial cost of the unit is much lower ($3k) while you can then choose a subscription level that gets you access to more data.

The point of this topic however derives from some social media posts I recently came across. A picture was floating around of Justin Thomas putting in some work on the driving range using a Foresight Launch Monitor (basically the same thing we just acquired). The question was raised as to why Justin Thomas, who seemingly has unlimited funds and shouldn’t have trouble accessing the market’s leading launch monitor (Trackman), was using a less expensive unit (his was probably in the $11k range).

The answers to this question could be many. Here are some quick possibilities:

• Maybe he was simply testing the unit

• Maybe he has an endorsement to use that unit

• Maybe his battery died on his Trackman so he’s using it as a backup

This could go on forever. But maybe, just maybe he was using this unit because it was better. I know, Trackman is the best so how could I possibly say this?

Here is a potential rationale (and where I get to open myself to criticism most likely lol!):

Trackman measures everything the club does as well as the entire flight of the golf ball. Foresight measures what the club does, but only about 6 feet of the ball’s initial flight. Foresight then calculates where the ball would have likely travelled based on that info.

Obviously it’s better to measure something versus have to calculate and guess. But what if the player or coach isn't working on the current ball flight? What if the focus is simply on what the club is doing to the ball? This could be where Foresight has an advantage over Trackman.

Foresight uses a small reflective sticker on the club face to help the base unit detect what the club is doing through impact. Presumably this gives the unit a better capture of what happens. Trackman does not use a sticker, and that’s about all I’m going to say about that.

So if the player/coach is focused more on changing impact geometry, is the Foresight better? After all, do you need a Trackman to tell you where the ball went? You can still watch the ball flight with your eyes right?

Another difference to note is that Foresight will display many pertinent data points directly on the unit, avoiding the need to connect a computer or phone/app.

Anyway… if this seemed like a ramble, it was. The title “Thinking Out Loud” should have been a dead giveaway.

In conclusion, if anyone would like to give me another Trackman to use I’ll take it. That being said, I don’t think we should dismiss the value of what other launch monitors may have to offer. And we certainly shouldn’t make uneducated guesses about why one of the best players in the world may be using a machine not called Trackman.

Tuesday's Tip: Thoughts to Improve Putting

Are you a good putter?

How you answer this question will say a lot about your current ability (obviously) but also your potential. I’m going to go on a limb and say that never in the history of the game has there been a great putter that thought they were bad. I’ll even go a step further and say that there’s also never been a bad putter that thought they were great.

I know that’s subjective and impossible to measure, but my point is that the stronger your belief that you are a great putter, the more likely you can become one. There are many players out there that may underestimate how good they are. And there’s a few bad ones that think they’re not so bad. What is important is that the first step in becoming a great putter is to simply believe you can be one.

So enough mumbo jumbo of how to think about yourself… what else do you have to do in order to be a great putter?

Putting requires you to be good at three skills and three skills only:

1. Reading the Green

2. Hitting Your Line

3. Speed Control

Over the last 6 years I have been using Science and Motion’s Sam Putt Lab to help players identify what is making it difficult for them to hit their line and/or control their speed. Now, with AimPoint Express in my toolbox, I can help players complete their quest to putting greatness by showing them an extremely simple and effective way to read a green.

As much as I’d love to spell it all out for you here in this article, I’m contractually not allowed to do so. That being said, make sure you are on the lookout for AimPoint Express clinics that will be exclusively hosted by your’s truly at the High Performance Golf Academy.

I realize how boring putting is to most players, especially recreational golfers. But for those of you that care about your score, I would encourage you to let me help you improve your putting now! And if you’ve never used AimPoint Express, there’s low hanging fruit that you can pick to get that improvement going very soon.

AimPoint Certified!!

I am very proud to announce that I have completed AimPoint Certification and you can expect to see several clinics in 2022 teaching AimPoint Express, one of the world’s most simple and effective methods of green reading.

AimPoint Express is a green reading technology that is used by countless players across all major professional tours, as well as elite college and junior golfers. The nice thing about it is that you don’t have to be an elite player to learn AimPoint Express and to begin reading greens at a championship level.

Below are the two ways that I will be teaching AimPoint Express:

Group Clinics

• 2 Hours

• 8 players max (minimum of 3)

• Cost: $150 per player

• Look for dates coming soon!

Individual AimPoint Session

• 1 Hour

• Cost: $200

• Can be scheduled using my online lesson book CLICK HERE

Want to learn more about AimPoint? Click Here to visit the website.

Tuesday's Tip: Hit the Center of the Clubface More Often

Why is it that golf can be so addicting? Answers can vary to that question, but a phrase that is often repeated in our academy goes something like this:

“That shot felt great! That’s why I keep playing!”

99.9% of the time a phrase like that is spoken, the player is simply referring to how great it felt that the ball hit the center of the club face. Hopefully you’ve experienced this at least a few times as a golfer, but hitting the center of the club makes so many other worries sometimes melt away.

I’ve even seen players hit it right in the screws (aka the center of the clubface) and the ball travel wildly off line and still feel overwhelmingly positive about the shot. So how can we increase the number of times the ball hits the center of the club? Try some of the tips I’ve picked up over the years the next time you go out for a practice session:

Know where the ball is hitting the face.

• Having quality feedback is necessary for any form of practice to be effective. Therefore, having the feedback of knowing where the ball hit the club face is very important. The most obvious, and the form of feedback most players rely on, is feel/sound. This can be a misleading form of feedback since many clubs on the market today are designed to increase forgiveness (meaning you can miss the “sweet spot” and it still sounds and feels good). Since we can’t smell or taste center contact, that only leaves visual feedback. Here are some ways to make sure you can visually see your contact:

  • Dr. Scholl’s foot spray/power (most recommended and pictured above)

  • Impact tape/stickers

  • Simply keep your club clean and you can usually see where contact was made after each shot.

What is your impact pattern?

• This is a question that any good instructor is going to ask or will be trying to find out very early in a lesson. Typically, impact patterns fall into the following categories:

  • Heal, toe, or center contact

  • Low, middle, or high contact (high contact usually limited to drivers)

  • Roaming contact (a.k.a. no obvious pattern)

How do you change your impact pattern?

• If you’re reading this, you probably don’t need me to tell you that if your pattern is center contact, there’s no need for change. Otherwise, what are some things you can do to improve your impact pattern?

  • Check your pre-swing fundamentals

    • Anyone that has come to see me for a full swing lesson will tell you that I will not let you get away with a poor grip or setup. Especially if you have a roaming impact pattern, there may be an issue with how you are gripping the club, and/or positioning your body (alignment and posture)

  • Focus on your finish

    • One of the first things we teach beginner golfers, whether they are juniors or adults, is how to swing through to a balanced finish. There is a really good reason why every good player you see has a similar looking end to their swing. The major key elements to a good finish would be to make sure your entire body is facing the target, weight is 99.9% on your left foot (RH golfer), and your club is behind your head. These are very basic suggestions, so feel free to pick your favorite professional golfer and copy their finish!

  • Drills

    • Use the following links to see some drills I’ve recorded in the past that address improving your contact:

      • Impact Drill #1 (This is very old lol!)

      • Impact Drill #2 (Maybe even older!)

      • Finish Drill #1

P.S.

This isn’t just about full swing! Controlling where the golf ball is hitting the club face is just as important in chipping, pitching, and putting.

GOLF TIP: Aligning the Club Face at Address

If you have directional issues when hitting golf shots it could be that your club face is misaligned at address. Check out this tip to get back on track!

GOLF TIP: Thoughts on Grip and Grip Pressure

I recorded this video tip for one of my lessons recently and thought it would be good to share.

GOLF TIP: Clubface Control

This was a brief video tip I recorded for one of my coaching sessions that describes how you can prevent the clubface from getting too closed at impact, caus...