I hope you all enjoyed watching The Open the other month - amazing result for Xander, and I really felt for Horschel and Rose. But I think the real star was the course - what a place! Maybe it’s a bit sadistic of me to say, but I do get a great sense of schadenfreude out of watching the best battle some terrible wind, cold driving rain and pot bunkers barely big enough to fit a ball in. Compared to the usual PGA Tour courses that are manicured to within an inch of their lives, it was rather refreshing.

However, like you all I’m sure, I found myself watching the best in the world, looking for any slight glimpse of something I could take into my game that might help me become a better player. “Why do I need a coach?! I have a TV that has YouTube!”

It was round two of The Open. I was not merely watching the golf, I was absolutely locked in on that Saturday morning, with no plans to leave the couch. The golf was seriously entertaining, sure, but the reluctance to leave the couch was primarily because I lost a battle with a few too many glasses of Merlot at my neighbours’ 30th birthday party the night before. Nevertheless, through my blurred vision and brain fog, I was watching as intently as I could.

Colin Morikawa appeared to be making a run, but I was fixated on his putting - he was using a claw grip. He shot a solid, if unspectacular, round of 70 (-1), but he was holing putts from all over the place.

“Maybe that’s what I need to do”, I thought.

It makes sense to me - take the right hand out of it, stabilise the face, and push the ball down the line. I closed my eyes, and visualised… “Could this be the answer that I’ve been searching for all these years? Yes. Surely! I can feel it now.”

In that instant, reality seemed to fade away, and I was transported to the main putting green at Royal Wellington. It was a beautiful sunny day. I had the whole green to myself, my putter, and a fresh sleeve of new Pro V1’s. I hit putt after putt, feeling the new claw grip in my right hand, and everything went in. Long putts, short putts, big breaking putts, putts up and down the tier - it didn’t matter! Wherever I put the ball, and whichever hole I putted to, the ball went in. Dead centre, and perfect speed!

This was the new me! This was it! With this, surely I could make it to the PGA tour. Maybe that could be me in a duel against Xander in a few years’ time at The Open. Sure, I’m 27 and my back doesn’t work, but if I putt like this then…

“What the heck are you doing?! Put the cat down!!” I heard my wife say suddenly.

I looked down, and to my surprise I saw our severely overweight 9-year-old chocolate Burmese named Louis in my hands. All this time that I thought I had been holing putts with my L.A.B Mezz.1 Max, I’d been gently rocking our cat. I thought the putter seemed a bit heavier than usual… maybe I need a heavier putter.

Then something occurred to me - why am I looking for a new way to putt when I’m putting great? In fact, statistically speaking, I’m putting the best I ever have.

Now, I’m not trying to brag; I’m just statistically putting brilliantly. Over the last two years, I have steadily improved to the point where I am now averaging about 1.7 putts per round better than I was when I was playing full time golf. This is despite investing about one tenth of the time, in terms of hours per week. Now, 1.7 putts per round may not seem like much, but at my level, that’s almost 7 shots over the course of a four rounds tournament. This is the difference between winning an event and finishing an irrelevant T14, or between finishing 20th and missing the cut. It’s huge!

“How is this possible? How can I achieve this power?”, I hear you ask.

Well, the secret is… Perseverance. What I have done differently over the last two years to dramatically improve my putting is, well, nothing.

I’ve done absolutely nothing differently. I haven’t changed my grip;, I haven’t changed my putter; I haven’t changed my routine; I haven’t had one or two bad days and then decided that I need to tear the whole house down and start again.

I just persevered.

I showed up at the course each day to practice, and went through the exact same routine, trying to hit putts in the exact same way with the exact same thought process, from the exact same setup, and just accepted the fate of each putt. Regardless of whether I putted well or terribly the day before, I didn’t tear the house down and start again. I just kept at it.

Liken it to planting a seed, If you plant it, water it, and after three days you don’t see anything poking through the soil, would you rip the whole thing up and start again? No, of course not. It takes time, consistent watering, exposure to sunlight…etc. I’m no gardener, but I think my point stands.

“Okay, but you’re an elite player. You already have a great stroke that’s repeatable. Mine’s awful!”

Flattery will get you everywhere, but that’s a valid point. However, let me ask you something: “Who is the best putter you know, out of all those people you play golf with regularly?”

We all have that friend we play with who holes everything they look at. You know who they are. They’re that person you have played with for the last 20 years who, despite playing off a 26 handicap, putts like Tiger Woods in 2001. They shot 94 last week and had a grand total 20 putts for 18 holes. The bugger has had 40 points, with 20 putts, and they’re still complaining that they missed a few!

They have a perfect stroke though, right? Wrong! It's horrendous! It looks like they’re trying to swat a fly with an spaghetti noodle. To make things worse, they use a putter that looks like it was fashioned out of the propeller of a World War 2 era fighter plane (maybe it was; it’s old enough). It has a wooden shaft. It’s bent at all sorts of angles, and there may or may not be a few bullet holes in it.  They’ve used the same putter for as long as you’ve known them, and the stroke seems to be getting even worse. Yet, the putts still keep dropping!

My version of this person was the best man at my wedding - he plays off a 6 handicap, and he’s the best putter I’ve ever seen. He has used the same “Yes!” putter since our first year of highschool, and his little flicky-poppy stroke that I’d liken to a batsman in cricket trying to flick one down to fine leg for a quick single, it hasn’t changed one bit.  But if that man is 40 ft away and putting for bogey, the hole must be terrified. It’s also incredibly common with tour pros – the best putters are the ones who think the least about their putting, and just do the same thing every time. Tiger used the same putter for 14 of his 15 major wins just to make the point.

Here’s the Good Stuff

Putting is a skill that is best viewed through a wide lens when it comes to the passage of time. Statistically speaking, it is the skill in golf that has the highest day-to-day variance. So we must look at it over a long period of time in order to get an idea of improvement. It’s not as simple as “I had 36 putts yesterday, but changed my grip, and I’ll have 30 tomorrow - problem solved”. Sure, that happens sometimes, but it’s no more than the normal day-to-day variance. Then the next week, you’ll have 38 putts and be dropping $700 on a new Scotty Cameron putter with a fat grip.

It’s like looking at the S&P 500 index. You can isolate a short period of time of a week or two where it’s trended downwards. But in the long run, if you’d invested money in it back when your golfing buddies putter had been carved out of stone, then you’d be very rich indeed.

“Okay, I hear you. These are good points. How can I practically do this?”, you may be asking.

Easy. Create some simple measurables and be patient.

Creating measurables is massive when it comes to repeatability. What I mean by this is: create a system that enables you to set up to a putt in the exact same way in practice. Your stance should be the same width’ the ball should be in the same place’ your clubface should be pointing in the same direction. Consistency in setup is the most important factor to nail to improve your putting. If you set up differently each time, then how can you expect to hit the putt on your start line? Ultimately, it doesn't matter too much how textbook this setup is - just look at the hundreds of different styles on tour - what matters is that you can repeat it. 

When I’m on the road, I use an alignment stick that I keep in my bag. I have put markings on it with a Sharpie that show where my left foot goes, my right foot goes, the ball’s position, oy distance from the ball…etc. When I’m practicing, I can use this stick to measure out my setup position and place tees down in the spots where my feet and the ball need to be. I then hit putts in this “perfect” setup. “Perfect” may be the wrong word. There is no such thing as a perfect setup, but it’s MY perfect setup. This way, I know that I’m setting up the exact same way every time, and I get used to hitting putts from here. Muscle memory is a powerful thing, so let it work in your favour.

Then, I also use a simple system of two gates, placing tees either side of my putter head, and either side of my start line to ensure that I hit the ball in the middle of the face and start the ball on my desired target line. If I can do that consistently, then I know I’m controlling everything I can.  All I have to do is get the speed right.

The second part of that is just being patient. It’s not going to happen overnight; it won’t happen in a week, or a month. But in the long run, it will get better! Consistency in the little elements is key. And persevere! Don’t cash out and burn the house down after the first bad day, or even after 3/4/5 bad ones in a row -  just stick with it. Like the S&P 500, or like the property market. Imagine, all you property moguls, if you’d sold your first investment property at the first sign of the price dropping - you’d have lost hundreds of thousands if not millions. You don’t lose, if you don’t sell.

Thanks for taking the time to read all of this. It’s a long one, so you’ve all done really well. If you feel like you want a putting lesson, then get in touch with me via email, or just book through the link here. Also, if you’re curious about my alignment measuring stick, and see me at the club or in the shop, come and ask me about it.  I might even show you my stick if you ask nicely!