With the different types of clubs on the market, and the different practice tools, there are hundreds of ways to change your game and alter your stroke. Some clubs are heavier than others, some have larger heads, some are hit from the belly, some have thick grips and some look like futuristic tools. However, on the green and under the pressure of a 4-footer, a 14-footer or a 40-footer, putting comes down to your stroke, and this is a matter of preparation, technique and execution.
How To Use Your Hands Putting
While many golfers, even some highly accomplished professionals, utilize unorthodox grips with their front arm below their back arm, the techniques behind the reason remain the same. For more practical purposes, and to introduce you to more commonly used methods, when gripping the putter, place your front palm around the top of the club, nearly to the tip of the shaft.
How To Hold the Putter
Place your back hand at just below your top hand, just as you would when gripping an iron, a baseball bat or a broom. Extend your thumbs on the shaft as you would on driver, but instead of locking your fingers, keep them in and extend you two index fingers along the length of the club. These fingers keep balance and help maintain a steady swing.
How To Putt
Keep your knees slightly bent and your arms slightly out in front of you. Keep your elbows just off of your side and extend your arms down to the club. Your shoulders should be relaxed and pushed forward, and your hands should be gripped loosely on the putter. Your wrists should remain locked and your head should be done over the ball. Your should be able to easily trace the path of the ball to the hole by moving your neck, and still be able to return your neck and your eye line to your beginning position over the ball.
Making a Putting Stroke
Your putting stoke is one of your most important acts on the course, and should be the same for different distances, different angles and different speeds. When putting, your stroke is made with your shoulders and upper body, not with your hands, elbows or wrists. After lining up your putt, lining up your ball to the hole, addressing the ball, seeing the line of the putt and readying your feet, move your putter to just behind the ball.
When putting, your shoulders should swing and pivot with your hips, as a pendulum, moving the club away from the ball without moving your hands or wrists. Slowly move the putter through the ball without stopping the club. Stopping at impact will alter the line of your putt, and your follow through will naturally carry itself to a distance around the same as your back swing.
It is also important to set up and read your putt correctly, and hitting shots out of the bunker will help you to lower your score as well.
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