A-Z Putting (K): Key to holing Putts

The key to holing putts is a pure roll: Here are two drills will help you achieve that

Putters are built with two or three degrees of loft to help get the ball up and out of the little depression it creates through its weight. It does though mean that even the purest putt has an initial period of skid before the ball starts rolling. Get the ball rolling earlier and it has more chance of staying on line.

Here are two drills that will help:

1. Constant lead wrist angle

At address we create a certain angle between our lead arm and the putter’s shaft. The red tee in the grip illustrates it. If that gap changes during the stroke we will add or reduce loft on the face, creating excessive bounce or skid.

Peg guide
Use the tee peg to practise maintaining that lead arm/putter relationship through the ball. Hit a series of putts, checking the head of the peg moves neither towards or away from your lead forearm during the stroke.

2. Get the logo to disappear

At address, set the ball so its logo looks straight back up at you… ideally square to the putter’s blade. Before you start back, picture the stroke you would need to execute to make the ball rotate and the logo disappear.

Brush Stroke
Clearly, that would take the form of an upward brush through the back of the ball. Now put that stroke into action – see if you can get the logo to turn over, out of sight. This intention promotes the ideal attack angle for quick roll.