This is the right place.

So today we are going to look at some things that are going to help with our short putting.

And one thing that I've learned in the last 33 years of coaching and the last 50 years

of playing golf.

Is that if we can hole more short putts.

We enjoy golf more and our score gets lower.

So if you are interested in this stay tuned.

[MUSIC]

Hello.

I'm Brian Fitzgerald The Golf Doctor.

And I have been a golf pro now for 33 years.

And I have got a lot of tips and tricks that I like to show along the way.

If you are new to this channel.

Welcome.

If you want to be kept up to date and not miss anything.

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So today we are going to be looking at short putting tips.

So I am going to give you a list of things for you to do that will all help you to hole

more short putts.

So the first thing I notice when I watch a lot of my clients.

With their short putting.

Is they have a lot of movement.

And it's a lot of leg movement.

So any time we have a lot of leg movement.

It is very difficult to control one, the pace of the putting stroke.

And two it is also difficult to control the club face alignment at impact.

So we want to keep leg movement to a minimum.

So if I try and putt this hole and I have got a bit of leg movement.

I just missed it to the left.

So that's what I see a lot of people doing.

And I did exaggerate it there.

You really don't want to have too much in the way of movement.

So a good visual image I like to get my clients to do is to pretend they are standing inside

a wine barrel.

And you put about 100 bags of rice all around the wine barrel.

So if we get into that situation there is just no way in the world you will get the

feeling that your legs can move.

So my legs are nice and secure.

They are packed in tight inside the wine barrel.

So if I keep my legs nice and still I am just swinging my hands, arms and shoulders.

And the ball can go in.

So that's the first thing.

Keep the legs quiet.

The next thing along the way is we don't want to watch the ball go in the hole.

It's when we start to watch the ball going in the hole that we start to miss.

So Gary Player once said the more important the putt the less he looked.

He tried to listen to the ball going into the hole rather than see it going in to the

hole.

So this is just over three feet.

So on all of these 3 footers we want to try and listen to the ball going in.

Try to avoid moving our head.

Just in my eyes and I think it's my eyes following the ball.

It actually moves my head and moves my shoulders.

So we want to keep our head nice and still.

Swing it back and through.

And we listen to it going in.

I hear it going in.

If you don't hear it obviously you missed.

But the more important the putt.

The longer we just listen to the ball going in.

So the next thing we need to focus on with our short putts is.

We want to make sure.

We practice with our eyes closed.

Practicing with our eyes closed or hitting balls, swinging with your eyes closed is a

great propreoceptive way of training.

With our eyes open we get distracted.

And we start looking at the putter going back and we can look at an ant crawling across

or a fly.

It is very easy to get distracted in this game.

So It's a great training drill to practice with our eyes closed.

So I have got my set up here now.

When I am comfortable.

I am going to close my eyes.

And then I hit the putt.

So my eyes were closed.

As soon as I heard it.

A little bit like the last tip.

I heard it go in so I knew it had gone in.

I was able to open my eyes.

So if you can practice this with your eyes closed.

It's great.

I know a lot golf pros actually putt with their eyes closed when they get a bit twitchy

over the putts.

So ah it's a good way of focusing your attention and just going by the feel.

The next thing we want to do is we want to make sure that under pressure one part of

us is in control of the putter.

And I think one of the biggest mistakes people make is they try and get both hands equal

or they are trying to get both hands not in control.

And they are trying to rock the shoulders.

The shoulders do rock but it is not something you really want to try and achieve.

Because if you think about rocking the shoulders.

You are going to be moving your body as well.

So I always like to think that it is my right hand that is in control.

And of ll of the digits on my right hand.

Its my right thumb and it is my right pointer finger.

So as I take my grip and set up there.

I put my hand in it's rightful place.

I put my left hand behind my back and I just practice letting my right hand pull the putter

back and push the putter through.

It might be that you find it better with your left hand.

It doesn't have to one or the other.

You just need to find out what is best for you.

Over all of my practice.

I feel my right hand is better.

But I have other people that I know putt with their left hand.

So you just need to work out which is better for you.

So we stand here.

We get our hand in the right position.

Put the left hand behind our back.

And then we putt.

It wasn't the smoothest of putting strokes.

But the beauty of this is with your right hand only your brain will find a way to square

up the putter face at impact.

You will see it wobble.

It won't look fantastic.

But you will find it much easier to square that putter face up at impact which is going

to help you to hit a lot more putts.

The next thing we need to work on is speed.

That last putt just barely fell in as we did that.

You notice that if I had of hit it harder it probably would have missed so it's a great

idea to work on speed control.

There are two types of golfers.

There are those that like to ram the ball in the back of the hole.

And there are those golfers that just like to let the ball die into the hole.

Ah and when I picture it I must admit I have tried banging it in the hole and it works.

Some of the time for me.

But I don't like it when I hit the lip and it horse shoes out.

So am more conservative by nature with that so I like to see the ball going in at the

right speed.

So the mental picture that I have is that when the ball goes in the hole.

It goes in and it sits on top of th hole where the flag stick goes.

I really don't want to watch the ball hit the back of the cup.

I like to see the ball just fall into the hole that the flag stick rests in.

So as I am putting here I am trying to hit it that the speed that I need to get that

putter just rolling on the front edge of the hole and into the bottom of th cup.

That one just fell straight into the bottom of the cup and that is my right speed.

As I said it may not work for you.

Yeou might feel a lot more comfortable taking the break out of the putt and hitting it straight

at the back of the hole.

And there is nothing wrong with that.

You just need to train.

Try both methods.

And see which one works the best for you.

The other thing that I like to do is when I am approaching a putt.

I like to try and look at the back of the hole.

Because when I look at the back of the hole.

So this part around here.

As I stand here and look at it.

The back of the hole is much bigger than the front of the hole.

The problem with the front of the hole is it's a bit smaller.

It's actually the same size but just my perspective from this angle.

I can see a lot more of the back of the hole than a lot more of the front of the hole.

So as I am standing over the putt.

I am really looking at the widest part of the hole that I can.

That really helps me mentally.

Well there is a lot of hole there.

There is a lot more.

If I just focus on the very front.

It's a bit narrower.

So start looking toward the back of the hole and I think you are going to start holing

more putts.

And the next tip is quiet eye.

I have made a video on quiet eye.

And I will put a link at the top of the page all about that.

But essentially Dr Joan Vickers discovered that if we can keep our eyes nice and quiet

we can hole a lot more putts.

So one of the best ways of doing it is to put a dot on the golf ball.

So I have put the dot at the back of the ball.

And I take my setup and I have a couple of practice swings.

Then when I am comfortable and ready to go.

I set up.Get my alignment and what I now do is I am just thinking of that black dot.

Just staring at the black dot.

And I need to stare at it for about 2 seconds.

And then I am ready to pull the trigger.

And that is going to give me more of a chance of holing the putt.

So there are my 7 golf tips for holing more short putts.

So any one of those tips is going to help you to make a big difference to how you hole

short putts.

But if you can work on all 7 of them.

I think you will find that your putting average is going to go down.

And if your putting average goes down you are certainly going to have a better score.

So if you like my videos you can click on the subscribe button down on the bottom there

and don;t forget to click the bell notification so that you get notified of all future tips.

And I look forward to seeing you on another tip next week.