How to fall in love with your putter
Most of us have a lot of carelessness over our putting and, if there’s one area of the game where we can find ourselves in the past, it’s this side of it. We all watch golf on TV and see a lot of putts being thrown but this is not a true view of what actually happens on the greens.
A favorite statement of all time is that a PGA SPIT player is more likely to miss an 8-footer than to make it sound like it sounds like everything else.
Mental Performance Coach Duncan McCarthy explains how to get the most out of your putter.
More freedom
One of the reasons why some people are good papers is that they have freedom in the outcome. Their confidence and self-esteem is not driven by whether or not the ball goes into the hole. If it comes in, obviously it will help but they are put in a lot of missing teeth like other people.
They will not stay in the Miss as they advise less on the results of the putt and more importance, it is possible, to enjoy the opportunity to throw it. It may be more along the lines of whether they want to roll the ball down or they may just want to get rid of this dead weight. The focus is on happiness and contentment. YOU DON’T WANT TO BREAK THE BALL FOR THE LAST WAY EITHER.
The process
It will help you to look at how you can do your job well so that the steps and part of the process. If you don’t like your putter, it’s likely that you’re not hitting enough putts. But you may not be hitting enough putts because you want to cover more rocks, if that makes sense.
It’s about letting go of the ball – you want to bend the putt, but you don’t need to bend the putt. There is a big difference between that. A bad putter needs to cover the putt to feel the best yet. A good putter doesn’t need to be sharpened to feel better.
We can all be caught. Everyone will have a good day with the putter. For some people, it might be last week. For some, it may be a year ago but we will all have good days with the putter.
Memory
Most people have a clear memory, and we can create a good memory of putting, the best putt we felt, the course it was on, who we played with and where we played. We don’t spend enough time looking at our old fond memories and we only remember those times when you did well.
So be more selective about your memories. Remember the ones you make the hole and, if you miss, stop them. It’s Putt. It won’t change the way your life goes.
Be mindful, what is holding you back? The reason you don’t like your putter is probably because it’s buried so much that it bends a lot when you hit the putt unlike other pieces, like technique, thinking, learning.
Foole-footers
Try and go into this work more and have some clarity about it. People struggle with short putts because if you miss that short, you can’t get it. Even at the lowest level, people know that. And for most people, with a par or a bogey and they start applying pressure to that.
So you focus more on this effect, the closer you are to the hole and the more difficult it is.
You see the finish line, four feet of the hole in front of you and you hit the last problem because you forgot about this task.
You are close but you have work to do first. What is a line? What speed do you want to enter? Just choose that spot behind the hole where you want to roll the ball, or slightly in front of where you want the ball to pass. After that the eyes return to the ball and leave.
That keeps us away from the future and too much of the present at work. And I think people can be better at that, much better.
A lucky sight
It’s good to choose a ball rolling position as that helps take our focus away from trying to comfort him. So you can pick a place in front of the ball, which is good for alignment, or you can choose a place like three of the way to the hole.
I like to recommend the last one against the 20-footer as it focuses on the strength in it. It may be the apex of the break, and if you can do this, then do less.
About Duncan McCarthy
Duncan is a mental performance coach who has worked with golfers on every major tour, helping Erik van Rooyen on both his PGA Tour and ASHLEBOS World Tour.
