I think that’s pretty damn solid, especially if it’s gone down since last year
Just make putts bro
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I’m truly terrible at it. I sort of use aimpoint express, kinda, I find the flat uphill and then go off a clock system. I’d say my lines are generally good, but my speed is slow and tenative. Send help
Difficult to do if you practice on the same practice green all the time since you know the break already but
- Find a 10’ that breaks, read it. Pick a spot to putt to (if its a cup out, put a tee pin high a cup out) and hit a ball at that tee. See what happens. Did you under read or over read? Rinse and repeat from various distances. This also helps you gauge your speed with how you read.
Doing that same drill but on a green you have no idea what it does is the most helpful. Whether its aimpoint or using your eyes - you have to practice actually feeling or looking at slope, feeling it or seeing it, and training your brain how far out you have to hit a putt to make it at your personal pace
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Also do kinda this.
I usually have practice putts from various distances.
Usually I’ll constantly hit putts back and forth to distances 30ft away to try and get a feel for pace. Not fussed about holing stuff, just try and get an idea of pace
I really need to jsut drive the extra 10-15 and rotate my practice greens.
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I have a 10-year-old son who loves soccer and baseball but is golf indifferent. Match that with limited resources, and Daddy doesn’t get to play rounds of golf very often. However, I hit the practice green for 45 minutes, 4-5 days a week on my way home from work. I’ve been doing this for almost two years now.
I won’t bury the lead: it’s working.
Generally, I start with lag putting for 10 minutes, hit shots around the green with my 58-degree wedge, then finish with another putting session. My short game is nasty.
Here’s the observation I want to share: when I’m executing my best—hitting the ball close or holing out because my speed control is dialed—my focus, my mind’s eye, is centered somewhere between my left eye and my left ear. I assume it’s engaging my peripheral vision. I try to visualize the ball rolling along the intended path with specific focus on some midpoint spot along that line.
A few years ago there was some conversation about Scottie (Scheffler) throwing down a Chapstick in the middle of the green when he practiced putting. I never heard many details, but I drew some conclusions. I believe the Chapstick was a visual reference he used to help with lag putting. He would hit putts and imagine the ball rolling past the Chapstick—above it, below it, near it—on the way to the intended hole.
There are lots of ways to skin this cat. My educated hands clearly have a good idea of what to do if I can just get my analytical mind, full of mechanical thoughts, out of the way.
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I have been in an absolute abyss with my putting. It used to be a moderate strength in my game and it completely disappeared about 2-3 years ago. I have been playing tournaments where I will hit an average of 15+ greens in regulation per round and shoot between 70-74. Just wasting good ballstriking left and right. It has been very frustrating. I’ve tried different putters, grips, employed green reading systems, grinded hard on block practice with putting aides, etc. All to no avail. They’ll work for a round or two max and then I’m back to putting terrible.
I haven’t played a round putting heads up yet but I have been tinkering on the putting green. Figured I might as well try it. I’ve probably hit 100 putts the last two days with 20-ish of those being from 4-7 feet. Haven’t missed one yet. Speed control on 12-30 ft seems improved. Hitting my start line on 30+ft putts seems a touch worse but the distance control seems to negate the results of the slight offline I start the ball on. Going to start using the Stack app to track putting to see how it measures up.
In 40+ years of playing I never imagined trying this so it is a bit weird to admit and I will feel a little awkward doing it the first time or two in an event should I go with it due to the stigma of conforming. But I’m hopeful for the first time in a while that I might have found a way out of the abyss. We’ll see!
One last thing… when I putt I don’t ever recall seeing myself hit the ball with the putter anyway. That goes for every shot. It’s like I’m blind at impact on all shots, or grayed out. Not seeing the putter head seems to have taken any subconscious/conscious effort to manipulate the putter mid stroke if it appears “off”. I find that freeing.
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I’ve gone heads up for my last two rounds and early returns are very positive. It still feels weird, especially on short putts, but my speed control has been really good and I’m not nearly as yippie on the short ones. It’s weird because it almost feels like a surprise when putts go in, but they keep going in.
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I have questions
Could you expound on the left eye / left ear thing?
I very much enjoyed the pod and I’m gonna give heads up an honest shot… but when Sasho was coming at anchoring and said something to the effect of “why isn’t just holding the putter in your hands anchoring?” when very clearly the “anchoring” is in reference to the end of the putter creating a fulcrum almost invalidated everything he said to me.
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Agreed 100%.
Tested heads up myself and feel like it’s just awkward more than anything. I get the logic behind it and there’s something to be said for not being able to watch yourself take the putter back and think “I’ve fucked it up” when the takeaway isn’t perfect, but I think the comparisons the Good Doctor drew with other sports are a bit null and void.
I’ve played a limited amount of pool/billiards, but I feel like the main focus is on the cue ball when aiming and striking. Hockey/basketball/etc. are different because these sports are dynamic, constantly moving, and there are other factors at play. Putting in golf requires rolling a ball at a certain speed and line across a surface with various undulations. Not sure there’s any sport where the motion is 1:1 with putting.
Like many other aspects of golf, making a minor change can feel like you’re getting big results at first. I’m sure many of us know the feeling of switching to cross-handed putting and feeling like you’ll never miss before, eventually, it’s as bad as the way you always did it. Everything regresses to the mean.
I don’t think it was so much of a equivalence thing rather “the rule is vague and vague rules are dumb” type of thing
Based on his comments on other pods I’m comfortable saying he really dislikes the USGA. Though I think he dislikes it mostly because he finds their rule-related decision making process to not be scientifically rigorous enough and thinks they’re just making it all up. Which fine that might be true. But it’s a sport, all the rules are just made up, we didn’t find them on stone tablets.
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I like this. Very good point. I think some of the basics though - i.e. play it as it lies - is so ingrained in the game that it’s as if they were carved on stone tablets.
That said, we’ve got lots of exceptions to that one now! 
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Yes, been doing it for 7 yrs with great success especially from 50’ and in. I make a lot more short putts and 2 putt lags than prior. It will feel different for a bit until you get used to it. I learned about in below book to practice then ultimately in play for 7 yrs.
If ya want a quick read, The “heads up” book I am familiar with is called instinct putting (2008) by Apenfels (pinehurst director of golf), Heath, etc.
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The info comes from 2015. This isn’t “peddling” info. That’s not really what a scientist does… he’s sharing the results and talking about the ramifications. He’s a golf geek, a golf nerd.
And for many, a 5-10% improvement in their putting would be significant. Amateurs have horrible speed control for the most part. I tell students ± 10% but that’s a wider range than Tour players… and yet they still don’t get 90%+ of their putts inside that range. I preach the same things with students — speed control is far and away the most important part of putting, properly delivering the putter head with even a tiny bit of deceleration… etc.
AimPoint is your entry point (and done correctly it’s fast). From there, as David Orr would tell you… it’s just about being aware of the situation. Taking stuff in. Processing.
I’ll ask him about it at some point, but yeah, his issue with anchoring isn’t that it was scientifically or mathematically valid… it’s that it’s not a “swing” if you’re anchoring it to your body. It’s not the idea of a “golf swing.” The real issue with it wasn’t performance based, but ideology, or methodology.
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A question for anyone that currently uses the Stack app to track putting during a round -
Do you input during the round or do you mark up a card as you go? I can remember yardages and distances pretty easily so normally do Golf Metrics after but as you’re introducing misses and reads/speed seems a lot to remember.