I hear a lot of clients coming to see us all saying the same thing… ‘Why can’t I putt well on the course but can putt really well on the putting green?’ Which could mean that something is changing psychologically from the putting green to the course.
Dr. Robert K. Winters, who is a mental coach and has worked with many professionals including Jonathan Moore, Sandra Gal and Drew Weaver wrote an artice for GolfChannel.com in 2009 explaining what he believes the difference is between a good putter and a bad putter. (ARTICLE HERE)
A lot of club golfers go on the putting green 5 or 10 minutes before they are teeing off and will either putt well or poorly but either way will be immediately thinking about their stroke rather than the pace of the greens or how much they break. This means that the mind is thinking mechanically therefore the mind is overthinking the stroke and underthinking outside matters.
How often do you practice your putting? If you think about how much you practice your driving compared to your putting, does your driving out-weight the putting even though more shots are used with your putter than your driver. If we look back at Lewis’s blog you can see that the lower handicappers have fewer 3 putts and more 1 putts than a 20 handicapper (LEWIS’S BLOG). If you want to become a better putter then you probably need to start practicing your putting more often to become more confident in the mechanics of your stroke and 3 putt less often.
Three balls for putting practice from the same spot? This doesn’t replicate what you do on the course when you have one chance. Try putting with only one ball and try and read as much of the green as you can to try and get a feel of what they could be like on the course.
Read the link below for more drills to help develop and strengthen your mental game!
https://golfstateofmind.com/my-top-ten-mental-game-putting-tips/
If you would like to chat further with us on this and how we could help you please pop in or email us.
Jasmine Campbell
