Start Making More 3-Footers
STOP PULLING THE SHORT ONES
It never seems to fail. You drive it right down the middle of the fairway on the first hole, hit a beautiful second 25 feet past the hole and then you roll your first putt three feet past the hole. It NEVER fails. You seem to always have those dreaded three footers staring you in the eyes in the first hole or two. Or, the match is all square on the 18th green and again, here comes yet another three footer.
Let me give you a piece of advice my mother gave me 100 years ago. Hun-”those little guys are not going away”. She used to say to me “I had to make them, the golfers before me had to make them, your going to have to make them and long after your gone, golfers are still going to have to make them”.
Many years ago I decided I was going to figure out a way to not only make more of those three footers myself, I was going to figure out how you can make them also. Of course my dad thought he had the best answer on three footers “hit it closer to the hole so you never have one”. Of course he never broke 100 a day in his life.
Let’s take a minute and figure out the different ways you can miss a short putt. Left, right, long or short. Period. That is it, there is no other way to miss a short putt. If you come up with one that I have missed, please let me know. Over the next three days I am going to cover one miss at a time. Today we are going to work on eliminating the pull.
The most common three-foot miss in putting is a pull. The most common reason golfers pull their short putts is the shoulder alignment at address. If your shoulders are aimed left at address the putter head has a tendency to follow your shoulder line in the backswing (outside the correct path) and follow your shoulders in the downswing (inside the correct path). At impact the clubface will arrive left of the hole and you will pull the putt. Correction: Your feet, knees, hips and SHOULDERS must aim parallel to your target line. Have a friend aim your shoulders for you (make sure it is a friend and make sure they aim them parallel to your feet line. You have just cured pulling your putts.
Join me tomorrow for the lesson on pushing your putts.
Golfingly yours,
Bobby
