How to Break 80: Putting Tips

If you ever want to have any hope of breaking 80 on the golf course, you must learn how to avoid three putting.  You either have to hit most greens in regulation, or you must have a great chipping and sand game so that you can get up and down on a routine basis.  In this article, I would like to share several of my favorite putting tips that will allow you to improve your score.  After all, almost half of the golf shots in a round are putts.

Just like most people are right-handed, most people are right eye dominant but fail to take that into account when putting.  As a result, the golfer will tend to miss putts to the right of the hole.  You can test which eye is dominant by focusing on a distant object with both eyes open.  Then bring your outstretched arms in front of your face and hold your hands in a small circle.  Center the object in the circle and close your eyes one at a time.  The eye that still sees the object is your dominant eye.

Use your dominant eye when addressing your putt by making sure that your dominant eye is directly over the ball and that both your eyes are directly over the target line.  This means that a perfect plane will be formed with your two eyes, the ball and the target line.  You can check your alignment over the ball by closing one eye at a time.  The ball should not appear to move if your dominant eye is directly above the ball.  You really have to think about putting like lining up to shoot a rifle.

Putting is one golf stroke that can ill afford to have extraneous movements of the hands, wrists, or arms.  It is important that you keep the putter moving straight back along the target line and straight forward through the ball.  Any slight deviation from the line will cause the ball to veer from the desired line and miss the hole.  I really try to focus on forming a Y with the putter and my forearms and then keeping my arms still throughout my putting stroke.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever read regarding longer putts is to aim to the uphill side of the hole and try to hit the ball about 18 inches past the hole.  The natural tendency on some of the longer putts is to underestimate the amount of break near the hole as the ball slows down.  You still want to try to make the putt, but have to think about giving it just a slight bit more speed than you honestly think it might take.  It is difficult to put into words.  It really takes some practicing on the putting green.

Speaking of the putting green, another important aspect of putting is spending a few minutes practicing every time you go to play a round.  Spending five extra minutes at the beginning or the end of your round will go a long way toward getting those 30 footers within the 2-3 feet necessary to make it a two putt.  Leave yourself 5 or 6 feet and you will likely be recording an extra stroke.