With the “scoring zone” being 50 yards and in, this area is essentially the most important part of the game and it is worth spending a good portion of your practice time here.

In this video, Jeff Ritter shows us an effective way to read greens and improve our scores through better putting. Green reading is an integral part of any good pre-shot routine on the putting green and we can always get better at it.

In the Golf State of Mind Audio Teaching, I talk about how to develop a strong routine for better green reading and this video includes a few of those elements. We can hugley increase our chances of holing a putt before the ball is struck and this is why this it is considered to be part of the “mental game“.

Helpful tips include visualizing where water would run if you poured a bucket of water on the green and feeling the ground beneath your feet to better judge the slopes. Remembering to look at the putt from as many different angles as possible (not just behind the ball) and not under-reading the break will also help you make more putts.

Technorati Tags: green reading, spot putting

Here’s a quick mental game tip for more consistent putting.

The best putters in the world are “spot” putters.

This means that (after reading the break on the putt) the focus is on the direction you want to the ball to travel in the first 2-3 feet of the putt. You pick a spot that you want the ball to roll over in this range and then focus on executing this. This spot can be a discolored piece of grass, a spike mark or anything that gives you a target to aim at within 2-3 feet, the closer to the ball the better. This achieves the following objective which is key for good putting. Firstly you are not concentrating on the hole, so you are less likely to come out of your posture prematurely and look at the ball’s final target, which causes miss-hit putts. Staying over the ball until the ball has been hit will improve your ball striking leading to more consistent putts. You achieve a much more consistent “roll” on the ball, which is the most important factor in good putting. Not “trying” to make putts, but instead hitting a solid putt to an intermediary target will make you a much better putter. Try it!!!

Would be great to hear how you get on with this new thinking.

I have also written the following articles on putting:

The Art of Putting

Routine and Commitment will make you a better putter

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Technorati Tags: spot putting