Putting and how to become elite level.

[Kjimsern]

So ive trained like crazy and my putting has improved but at times it still feels random.

In our club we have discussed that there is no blueprint or style, you just have to do whatever feels good for you and get reps.

I think if you have the foundation correct with a decent swing towards the pole you should be fine most of the time.

Ive tried many changes the last 4 years.

Wrist or no wrist action, finger pop, push,spin,pitch,hybrids. No elbow or elbow.

Different grips, tucket littlefinger etc.

Ive tried putting like marwede,corey,mcbeth,ricky,eagle,calvin.

in our putting league im like third this year and i also joined another club to join another putting league to get more practice.

I need some opinions on how to move forward, my putting stroke is fine right now but how do i get it to be top 2-3%?

Give me some advice and pointers, thanks.

 

[ru4por]

• Ive tried many changes the last 4 years.
• 
  
• Wrist or no wrist action, finger pop, push,spin,pitch,hybrids. No elbow or elbow.
• 
  
• Different grips, tucket littlefinger etc.
• 
  
• Ive tried putting like marwede,corey,mcbeth,ricky,eagle,calvin.

You have answered most of your own question. Top 2-3% of hundreds of thousands of players is pretty high hopes. Honestly, you simply may never be that good. Practice is the only real way to get better.

I am not personally convinced that putting leagues are great practice.

 

[Kjimsern]

• Ive tried many changes the last 4 years.
• 
  
• Wrist or no wrist action, finger pop, push,spin,pitch,hybrids. No elbow or elbow.
• 
  
• Different grips, tucket littlefinger etc.
• 
  
• Ive tried putting like marwede,corey,mcbeth,ricky,eagle,calvin.

You have answered most of your own question. Top 2-3% of hundreds of thousands of players is pretty high hopes. Honestly, you simply may never be that good. Practice is the only real way to get better.

I am not personally convinced that putting leagues are great practice.

I have a practice facility at work and home, i train putting with alot of different drills. Butterfinger,360, mcbethdrill, etc.

putting league is just for the competition part.

Maybe this post is kind of a therapy session for me and a little rant, knowing moving forward will be tough.

 

[elmexdela]

do you practice outside or inside

 

[Kjimsern]

do you practice outside or inside

Mostly inside 70/30

 

[HyooMac]

I admire your grit, but you're flailing around.

You might know the old saying that "practice doesnt make perfect; only perfect practice makes perfect." All these hours of repetitive drills might just be solidifying bad form.

Find a coach/instructor to watch you and give you feedback. There's only so much improvement you'll achieve without feedback from somebody who knows better.

Lessons can be hard to find, but local clubs, local pros, the PDGA are all sources to chase down. Expect to spend $30-$50 per hour of private lesson. One good hour could make all the difference in the world.

 

[RowingBoats]

Disclaimer: I am not a top 2-3% putter and I am not sure anyone that comes to this forum is, so I don't think anyone can truly give you advice proven to work.

I am a decent putter, and I only care about actual on-course putting to measure this. One of the things that made a difference was to stop putting with multiple attempts from the same spot.

Everyone knows the law on the course: Thou's second angry putt shall go in.

So I took this as possible evidence that it is more important to be able to sink that one, single putt than it is to let your body dial in for the subsequent attempts. For me this had a drastic impact because it FORCED me to just have a routine that I can just pull out and rely on.

There are lots of ways to take that concept and implement it into your practice, and I recommend playing around with it. It doesn't have to fully replace what you are doing already. There is value to just putting in massive reps, but I think a lot of people develop a false sense of progress ONLY practicing with a stack.

Mileage may vary!

 

[sillybizz]

Personally I find putting is mostly a mental thing. If you can do two things very well, you'll be a good putter and those things are : build confidence and clear your mind before throwing. It's kind of like in Ghostbusters, whatever you think about will come to life and destroy you so don't think about the stay puft marshmallow man or anything else.

 

[Kjimsern]

Disclaimer: I am not a top 2-3% putter and I am not sure anyone that comes to this forum is, so I don't think anyone can truly give you advice proven to work.

I am a decent putter, and I only care about actual on-course putting to measure this. One of the things that made a difference was to stop putting with multiple attempts from the same spot.

Everyone knows the law on the course: Thou's second angry putt shall go in.

So I took this as possible evidence that it is more important to be able to sink that one, single putt than it is to let your body dial in for the subsequent attempts. For me this had a drastic impact because it FORCED me to just have a routine that I can just pull out and rely on.

There are lots of ways to take that concept and implement it into your practice, and I recommend playing around with it. It doesn't have to fully replace what you are doing already. There is value to just putting in massive reps, but I think a lot of people develop a false sense of progress ONLY practicing with a stack.

Mileage may vary!

i will switch it up, see how fewer putts from different locations will work out.

Personally I find putting is mostly a mental thing. If you can do two things very well, you'll be a good putter and those things are : build confidence and clear your mind before throwing. It's kind of like in Ghostbusters, whatever you think about will come to life and destroy you so don't think about the stay puft marshmallow man or anything else.

Agreed

 

[RowingBoats]

i will switch it up, see how fewer putts from different locations will work out.

Try literally one disc, from one spot, and then change the spot afterwards no matter what. Practice with one putter only so you have to retrieve it and fully reset. That is what I personally recommend that a lot of people don't seem to do.

 

[HyooMac]

One of the things that made a difference was to stop putting with multiple attempts from the same spot.

There's a lot of wisdom here. Changing position for each putt keeps the brain engaged, because you have to size up every putt.

The other advantage is that you inevitably lose concentration when throwing a stack from the same distance - and you miss a few purely because of the mental lapse (and then beat yourself up for "only" making 8 of 10).

Think about it this way: attempting multiple putts from the same distance, one right after the other, has NO relation to actual playing conditions. But, looking it over, steeping up, making calculations about how and how hard to putt is what you do many times in the course of a round. So, practice that.

 

[RowingBoats]

There's a lot of wisdom here. Changing position for each putt keeps the brain engaged, because you have to size up every putt.

The other advantage is that you inevitably lose concentration when throwing a stack from the same distance - and you miss a few purely because of the mental lapse (and then beat yourself up for "only" making 8 of 10).

Think about it this way: attempting multiple putts from the same distance, one right after the other, has NO relation to actual playing conditions. But, looking it over, steeping up, making calculations about how and how hard to putt is what you do many times in the course of a round. So, practice that.

Yep, exactly.

But I will say that my goals are indeed just course success. If someone does putting leagues just for the sake of putting leagues themselves, you probably do want to do a lot of full putter stack practice.

Your point stands: Practice the exact way you want to be able to perform.

 

[jupiterboy]

Good comments. I'd add, that from a personal perspective, I make leaps while I'm not practicing sometimes. It's like I need some time for the repetition to settle into my neuro system. If you find yourself practicing with some thought of making yourself instead of enjoying it, take a break and do something else. It may be that you simply can't hurry the process by practicing more. Use the down time to pick the process apart a bit and replay the positive results and how they feel.

 

[Sheep]

There's a lot of wisdom here. Changing position for each putt keeps the brain engaged, because you have to size up every putt.

The other advantage is that you inevitably lose concentration when throwing a stack from the same distance - and you miss a few purely because of the mental lapse (and then beat yourself up for "only" making 8 of 10).

Think about it this way: attempting multiple putts from the same distance, one right after the other, has NO relation to actual playing conditions. But, looking it over, steeping up, making calculations about how and how hard to putt is what you do many times in the course of a round. So, practice that.

Been teaching putt and move for years at this point.

To many people stand in one spot and huck discs.
Gotta re-set every time.
You have to practice the WHOLE routine, every putt.
That is of course assuming you have a settled on putt.

The only time I suggest standing and not moving is dialing in the base swing making sure its correct. Then moving and aiming with your feet then.

 

[HyzerRoc]

Been teaching putt and move for years at this point.

Thats also what Barsby shows to do here, although he sometimes has multiples laying at one spot. He doesnt hold a stack in his offhand but instead takes a new one from the ground for every putt.



He also talks a fair bit about him finding his putting stroke which might be interesting for you kjimsern.



And a very helpful guide by SpinTV. Just make them.

 

[Nick Carroll]

Putting Leagues definitely help with distance, accuracy, and overall skill. I sometimes run them, and I often will compete in them. It's basically it's own set of mini sports, depending on the types of challenges. Horse-style games. Cornhole-style games. Either single or multiple stations per basket. Par 2 style rounds. You can get away with just doing them, but I think they're best considered a supplement along with more structured options.

I'm a fan of changing up putting practice routines. From the 1 disc per random shot, up to 10 discs at different spots, or 5 in a row, then move. I'll practice at home, at the course on a practice basket, or even play practice rounds where I'm putting from different lies each hole. That said, for played rounds I don't like to do extra putts for even the most casual rounds, but from time to time I might add a second putt if I feel I can learn something from it. I do think there's value in immediate correction, and multiple reps from the same lie - even if rapid fire. I usually do no more than 5 from any one spot, since that's about all I carry in my off hand.

 

[Thediscgolferguy]

A lot of the essentials and good tips already mentioned, I think the way I would (kind off am) going about this would be in this order:

1. Find your putting form and style. With form, I'd say if you expect to be one of the best, you have to make sure you do the essentials, all the successful pros do wildly different, but they still do the essentials that allow them to get a strong weight shift and a putt with power and also with great consistency. If you already have the form fundamentals that allow you to put from 9 - 12 meters without a lot of effort and strong-arming I would assume you got the fundamentals in. Then the next thing would be to consider consistency and choose the style of putt that gives you the most consistency in all types of weather and mental conditions. Some styles are only great with no wind, some styles are very finesse and hard to do with lots of pressure for some people.

2. If you have the fundamentals down and you stick to one type of style this of itself should lead to improvements by just practicing, if you are not getting improvements, try practice in a different way and I like the advice here about resetting between every putt and putt like one would do in a tournament, this will also help with my 3rd point which is.

3. Build your routine, the routine can have a huge impact on your putt, I like to do a practice swing and feel my weight shift and get my aiming point down and go for it, other people like to just go for it, others might be just staring down the basket forcefully, etc... I think the routine part is about doing whatever makes you feel confident, one of previous parts of my routine has simply just been actually getting my body and posture in a confident posture with my chin up and this really helped my not missing low but also kind of made me feel a little more confident, the mind follow the body and vice versa. One thing to experiment with here can be to consider your weak point, what are your misses? Are you missing right? can you do something in your routine that can help that? are you missing low like in my example? are you nervous and your misses are because of that? well, what can you do in your routine to help with that? maybe not using too much time and just being more casual with your routine can be something to try out... Do you even have a strong routine and what is it?

4. After working on the form (which I think you probably already have locked in) I would work on the way you practice and also practice your routine or contemplate if you should even try changing your routine and then solidify it. I think after all of that the next thing to consider is your mentality, if you're finding that to be an issue, but I definitely would work on routine first because that can often help and eliminate a lot of mental issues and nerves. Even if you don't struggle with this going through how you think about your putts, how your aiming, visualizing and all of that can also be avenues to get even stronger as a putter.

Also, do you love to putt? I think you also need to keep the fun in the practice and learn to love doing it if you want to become the best of the best. I think to get that mentality of looking forward to hitting the putt, instead of being afraid of missing the putt is a huge mental issue with most people.

 

[Kjimsern]

A lot of the essentials and good tips already mentioned, I think the way I would (kind off am) going about this would be in this order:

1. Find your putting form and style. With form, I'd say if you expect to be one of the best, you have to make sure you do the essentials, all the successful pros do wildly different, but they still do the essentials that allow them to get a strong weight shift and a putt with power and also with great consistency. If you already have the form fundamentals that allow you to put from 9 - 12 meters without a lot of effort and strong-arming I would assume you got the fundamentals in. Then the next thing would be to consider consistency and choose the style of putt that gives you the most consistency in all types of weather and mental conditions. Some styles are only great with no wind, some styles are very finesse and hard to do with lots of pressure for some people.

2. If you have the fundamentals down and you stick to one type of style this of itself should lead to improvements by just practicing, if you are not getting improvements, try practice in a different way and I like the advice here about resetting between every putt and putt like one would do in a tournament, this will also help with my 3rd point which is.

3. Build your routine, the routine can have a huge impact on your putt, I like to do a practice swing and feel my weight shift and get my aiming point down and go for it, other people like to just go for it, others might be just staring down the basket forcefully, etc... I think the routine part is about doing whatever makes you feel confident, one of previous parts of my routine has simply just been actually getting my body and posture in a confident posture with my chin up and this really helped my not missing low but also kind of made me feel a little more confident, the mind follow the body and vice versa. One thing to experiment with here can be to consider your weak point, what are your misses? Are you missing right? can you do something in your routine that can help that? are you missing low like in my example? are you nervous and your misses are because of that? well, what can you do in your routine to help with that? maybe not using too much time and just being more casual with your routine can be something to try out... Do you even have a strong routine and what is it?

4. After working on the form (which I think you probably already have locked in) I would work on the way you practice and also practice your routine or contemplate if you should even try changing your routine and then solidify it. I think after all of that the next thing to consider is your mentality, if you're finding that to be an issue, but I definitely would work on routine first because that can often help and eliminate a lot of mental issues and nerves. Even if you don't struggle with this going through how you think about your putts, how your aiming, visualizing and all of that can also be avenues to get even stronger as a putter.

Also, do you love to putt? I think you also need to keep the fun in the practice and learn to love doing it if you want to become the best of the best. I think to get that mentality of looking forward to hitting the putt, instead of being afraid of missing the putt is a huge mental issue with most people.

Good stuff, thanks.

Golf is not a game of perfect has helped me alot with the mental aspect. (Sound book, bob rotella)

The only thing that worries me is the thought of training really hard with a putting stroke that might not be the right one.

How do i know i have the correct one for me?

Maybe there lies my problem right now.

 

[Thediscgolferguy]

Good stuff, thanks.

Golf is not a game of perfect has helped me alot with the mental aspect. (Sound book, bob rotella)

The only thing that worries me is the thought of training really hard with a putting stroke that might not be the right one.

How do i know i have the correct one for me?

Maybe there lies my problem right now.

Sounds like you've already experimented a lot, so you probably have some strokes to choose from. I'd just go with the one you feel most comfortable with and what works best in different conditions, you could even test them out for some weeks time, write down stats, and see which of them gives you the best scores if you'd like to be more analytical about it. Also consider this, even if training hard with a stroke that not might be the "perfect one" you'll still get better at putting if you practice well, even some pros have changed up their style and have been able to adapt pretty quickly.

Things to consider might be which stroke you enjoy the most? Most effortless? Which stroke tends to eliminate your most typical mistakes like hitting low or right? Or if you short putt and think you'd gain from having more speed in your putt consider the putt that gives you that? Which stroke is best in all conditions, especially considering wind and nerves (tournament play), just some ideas. You could always go the more analytical route of coaching, but seems like you already have a great putt from looking at some of the stats you've posted earlier so I'd think in your case you're probably doing most things right, On the other hand, it can always be nice with a second opinion though.

 

[drk_evns]

Putt with something heavy.