How to set up a putt in golf

To professionals, amateurs and beginners alike, shots are won and lost on the golf course with the short clubs. These clubs are known as the scoring club and the most important club in the bag is the putter. It is not for nothing that Tiger Woods has gone through around 10-15 drivers in his career, but only one putter. The putter is the club with the most feel, the most consistency, and is the club that is used the most often. During a round of golf for a 20 handicap, only 10-14 shots will be drivers or woods, 5-15 shots will be long irons, 15-25 shots will be short irons, and around 30 shots will be putts, and maybe more.

Stance When Reading a Putt

When putting, like most other aspects of golf, stances and styles tend to vary greatly. However, as is the case with tee shots and fairway shots, what matters is the area of impact. When lining up your stance, keep your feet close together to maintain a simple balance, around six to eight inches apart. Keep the ball in the middle of your stance and keep it less than 15 inches from your body. Your upper body should be bent slightly over the ball, and you should be looking down at it almost directly.

Routine When Setting up a Putt

Important for all athletes in any sport, maintaining a consistent routine with a proven effectiveness is essential to success. Tiger Woods, for example, has used the same putting routine for years, and it almost always clocks in at around 16 or 17 seconds. In his routine, he reads the putt while addressing the ball, takes two practice swing, looks up at the hole, puts his club to the ball, moves his feet into position, looks at the hole again, brings his head back down and makes his stroke.

Figuring Out the Putting Speed

Like reading any shot in golf, reading a putt means knowing where the hole is, knowing what the area around the hole looks like and knowing what path the ball must travel to get to the hole-including the speed, direction and slope of the green. Reading putts are done differently by many different golfers, and much of reading is a matter of practice and experience.

How To Putt Like a Pro

Some putts could be judged by looking, but other must be felt through practice. Know that balls speed up greatly at the bottom of the slope, and that many common laws of gravity apply. Putts will curve more drastically when hit slowly, and putts that are hit solidly will have much less break. You can best learn putting breaks by analyzing every green carefully, and practicing the different situations that you will be presented with.

How to Improve Putting, Golf Putting Stroke Tips

To improve at putting requires various skills to be practiced. To avoid three putting, touch and feel are needed to be able to roll the ball up close to the hole. To hole more short putts, a golfer must be able to set up correctly and return the putter to the ball with a square blade. Use these tips to help improve putting stroke and achieve better touch.

Drill for Set Up and Putting Stroke

To hole more putts and improve putting from short range a golfer must learn to set up with the putter pointing at the target. Surprisingly few club golfers find this easy, and unfortunately being reasonably accurate is not good enough if you want to hole more putts.
Find a piece of string about ten feet long. Take eight books, separate them into two piles and under the top book of each pile slip the ends of the string. Stretch the string until it is taught and is about three inches off the floor.
The idea is to put a ball down under the string, line up the putter making sure the line on the putter is lined up accurately with the string. With a target, like a glass, near the far pile of books you can guarantee you are lined up correctly.
If you practice with this method, very soon your eye will become accustomed to the new aim. At first it might seem as though you are lined up incorrectly but trust it and practice until it feels more natural.
Being lined up correctly will automatically help you make a better putting stroke. Good alignment is essential for being able to hole more short range putts

Drill to Imrove Touch Putting

This exercise is about practicing touch under pressure. Take three balls and stand about fifteen feet from a wall in your house. Hit the first putt as close to the wall as possible but without it actually hitting the wall. Then try to hit the next ball closer and finally the third ball closer still but without any quite reaching the wall.
This might seem an incredibly simple and mundane exercise but it develops touch, and if you decide to carry on until you successfully complete the exercise, it puts you under pressure. If the first two lie close to the target the last one has to be just right.
These two exercises, for correct alignment and touch, will improve your putting and will enable you to save shots on the green.