How to Putt in Golf

How to putt should be the simplest aspect of golf to learn, and I found the pendulum action provides the most consistent way on how to putt.  Most golfers never use a consistent putting style, but instead do something that works for them, and then when inconsistencies invariably develop, they start tinkering until something else works on the short-term.

Learning how to putt, like other parts of the golf swing, only require a basic knowledge of what makes for good, consistent putting and then practice to put it into effect.  Our articles on Golf Putting Tips will add to what we have to say here about putting, and Golf Short Game has some valuable information on how to putt in golf.

The Pendulum Action is How to Putt in Golf

The majority of golfers bring the putter back too far, therefore opening the putter face.  Inconsistency arises when the putter approaches the ball and must resquare itself to the ball.  At the instant of ball strike, if the putter is just a little early or just a little late getting square to the ball, it becomes a “push” or “pull”, with little chance of hitting the ball perfectly on line.  With a two foot putt you still may be able to drop it if your distance is perfect, but with a six foot putt, for instance, and it will surely be a miss.  The concept obviously is to develop a putting stroke where the putter never opens or closes, which is the pendulum action.

If the putter is never taken back past the point where it must begin to open, and never ends past the point in the stroke where it begins to close, keeping the ball on line should be a given, and the only variables will be reading the line the ball should travel and proper putt speed.  There is a further hidden benefit of the shorter putting stroke, and that is to cause the putting head to accelerate through the ball, enhancing ball control.  You may relate to how to putt in golf from the aspect of driving a car.  If the driver of a car accelerates around a turn, he will have better control of the car than if he approaches the turn fast and then attempts to slow through the turn.

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The Mental Variable in How to Putt in Golf

Once the mechanics of the golf putt are achieved on a consistent basis, how to putt in golf must take in the mental aspects.  A few that I will briefly talk about are:

1. Don’t clutter your mind with how much the putt will break while over your putt.  When reading your putt, decide the amount of break and then fix your attention on where the point is on the where you want to putt your ball.  In other words, if you expect the ball to break six inches, your focus should be six inches above the hole, and forget completely about the hole while putting.
2. Upon deciding where that point is, line it up with something on the green six inches to one foot in front of the ball.  It should be anything on the green you will be able to distinguish when over the putt.
3. Using that point on the green directly in front of your ball as the target, putt directly over it and let the ball do the work.  The only thing you can do at that point is give it an accurate stroke with the proper distance.

One last point I would like to share in discussing how to putt in golf  is develop a rhythm to your putting, using the same routine to read your putt, set up, and stroke the ball.  Your time to do all those things should be similar from putt to putt.  In case you are just getting started in the game, we now have an article that we expect could help in getting you started properly, called The Reality of Putting.  We hope this and our golf putting tips will help.