Top 5 Putting Tips from one Minnesota’s Best Golf Courses

How to Improve Your Short Game

Making or missing a putt can have a big impact on your golf game. It can mean the difference between making par or adding a few strokes to your score. Giants Ridge PGA Professional John Kendall offers great advice on improving your short game. If you want to get better at putting – try these tips.

Top 5 Putting Tips

Use a mirror to check your setup
To check your setup for a putt, use a full-length mirror at home or in the golf shop. The putter shaft should form a straight line from behind your forearms. John says the most common mistake is to have the putter shaft on a shallower plane than your forearms. This will lead to a motion that will move the putter in an outside to outside path. What you want to do is move the putter in a similar motion to your full swing – slightly inside to inside.

Check your grip

Make sure your hands are placed in a neutral position on the putter grip. Your palms should oppose each other on the club with your thumbs straight down the top of the grip. If one of your hands is turned too far under or on top of the grip the putter head will be much more likely to twist during the stroke.

Turn your shoulders, not your wrists

All of the motion of the putting stroke should be from turning your shoulders. Keep your wrists and hands steady to hit solid putts. This will also give you a better shot at controlling your distance. To practice this, place a golf glove or tee between the middle of your lead arm and your ribs and hold it there as you hit putts.

This will give you the feeling of using your shoulders and will give you instant feedback if you use your wrist and hands instead.

Keep your head down

Keep your head down until the putter stops moving on your through-stroke. A common mistake golfers make is to peek at where the putt is going. But if you peek at your putt, it changes your posture. Stay down until the ball is well gone and your putts will feel much more solid and your distance control should dramatically improve.

Practice, practice, practice

Practice your putting more than you do now. While we all have some physical limitations on hitting full shots – there are no physical limitations when it comes to how well you putt. Improving your putting is by far the easiest way to take strokes off of your score, so practice and you will see results.

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