Putting QuotesPutting Quotes help us to reflect from time to time on how our putting is stacking up. Sometimes we lose our way and need a simple thought to point us in the right direction. Below is a random selection of putting quotes in no particular order. Some are directly attributable to a specific individual; others just form part of a large library of unknown authors.
A pre-putt routine helps you stay nice and relaxed so you can make the best stroke possible. About all there is to putting is to keep your head steady and the face of your putter square to the direction as you stroke the ball. As I see it, the thing that hurt my putting most when it was bad, was thinking too much about how I was making the stroke and not enough about getting the ball in the hole. As regards stance and manner of hitting the ball, it is for the individual to discover on the green the means that suit him best with the club that gives him most confidence. Bad putting stems from thinking 'How' instead of 'Where'. Believe it or not, I’m not really thinking about anything when I putt. I let my instincts take over. When I’m putting well, I feel like I can make everything. Don't examine the line to the hole from both ends. It only confuses you. You see so many possible lines that you will end up by choosing the wrong one. Don't let your attention wander when your opponent is putting first. You will get valuable information as to the pace and slope of the green from watching the course of your opponent's ball. Don’t try too hard to hole every putt. A 'must make' attitude puts too much pressure on your stroke. Just do your best to get the correct line and speed and roll the ball at the hole on that line. Every putt should be hit as if it were a straight putt. The ball will break according to the pace of the putt and the contours of the green. Exactly what are the pros and top amateurs trying to do? They are trying to find some method of stroking so that the face of the putter when it meets the ball always will be at precisely right angles to the direction line they have chosen. For me, putting is all about good fundamentals and he has a very good stroke and believes in himself. Gripping the putter too tightly is one of the surest ways to miss a putt of any length, for it is proof in the first place that you are not relaxed and that you are over anxious. I am very aware of the weight of the putter throughout the swing, and to promote this feel I hold the club very softly at its end. I have never seen a good putter who stands with the ball well back in his stance, as this would lead to a downward hit, making the ball jump rather than roll smoothly off the putter. I recommend a rather long and unhurried backswing in putting because it makes the stroke smoother and eliminates the putting yips which sometimes besets golfers who have short, compact backswings. I think the only times I did something wrong was on those couple of putts where I thought about the outcome. That's what you can't do. If you're misaligned, if your posture is bad, any one of many different variables, your putter is not going to go where it should, and then you've got to make compensations. If you have a fundamentally sound setup you are going to have a stroke that's not only correct, but repeats. I'm not taking as much time over the putts as I have been doing. The quicker pace helped me relax my hands and stroke the ball better. It is easier to take what you learn on the green, and around the green, to the tee than it is to start with the full swing and bring that to the green. It is preferable to leave oneself an uphill putt because then, the ball has to be struck with power and only the line needs judgement. Downhill or sidehill brings force and borrow into a delicate manoeuvre. It is virtually impossible to make a confident stroke if you don't feel that you have control over your distance. It's Golf 101, keep your head still when you putt. If I could keep my head still, I might become a decent putter, because I'm a pretty bad putter, typically. I think the only time that it is of any use to pick out a spot on the green over which to roll the ball, is when one is making short putts. If the player will locate a spot on the line about halfway between the ball and the hole and hit for that, forgetting that his putt may turn off, he will putt infinitely better. It has often been pointed out, in connection with putting particularly, that the best judgment in the world and the most careful consideration of hazards and other dangers, are of little avail if the shot is not well struck. There is no magic formula to better putting that anyone can offer you. Sound and consistent putting is only the result of the mastery of the fundamentals. Yet mastery of these fundamentals can only be accomplished if they are thoroughly understood by the student. I treat a 100-foot putt the same way I treat a 3-foot putt. I choose a target where I want to start the ball, usually a little spot on the grass and hit it towards that target. Just see your break line, walk up to the ball and put a good roll on it. Don't putt to sink it, putt to make a good stroke. Mechanics are about 10% of putting - feel is 90%. But good mechanics lead to good feel. More three-putts are caused by pace control than poor alignment, so in order to control the pace of the golf ball, it is vital that the ball must come consistently out of the sweet spot of the putter face. Nothing matters more in putting than it should be kept simple and positive. Putt Reading starts with the hole's location. At every location on the surface of the green, there is a separate 'local' fall line. The fall line crosses the lip of the hole thru its highest point and thru its lowest point. Rhys has a good set-up, his eyes are very square to the target line. He has a good tempo in his stroke and hits the ball with acceleration and a good speed. All those kinds of things you need in putting. Such is putting! 2% technique, 98% inspiration or confidence or touch…the only thing great putters have in common is touch and that is the critical ingredient … none of them found it through mechanizing a stroke, nor do I believe they could maintain it that way. Swinging a putter over a straight line and seeing that you keep on the line is a great help to straight putting. The basic elements of putting – aim, setup, routine, visualisation, solid contact, pendulum-like stroke – all carry over into the full swing. The best way I know of building both confidence and a positive attitude on the greens is through sound technique. If you have belief in your method, that sureness will transfer itself to your mind and body. The best way to handle pressure is to establish a pre-putt routine and never deviate from it. It should be automatic, freeing your mind so you can focus on the task at hand. The best way to putt is the way you putt best. The first and foremost fundamental to learn about the putting stroke is: keep the hands even with or ahead of the head of the putter on the follow-through. The only purpose of the putting stroke is to move the putter through the ball square to the target. How this is done is of no significance, so long as the method enables it to be done consistently. The stroke itself is a minor, almost insignificant, part of putting. Much more critical are consistent setup, reading greens and—most important of all—aiming the clubface correctly. There are no points for style when it comes to putting. It’s getting the ball in the cup that counts. There is no 'right' way to putt any more than there is a 'wrong' way to putt. But there are smart and dumb ways to putt. These kids work so hard to get these swings, but their teachers don't help their putting. A lot of them think the stroke is right-handed. It's all left-handed for right-handed players. Trust the line you've picked, commit yourself to that line, and just make a stroke. Tai Chi taught me that you learn the feeling of the movements first and then perform them without thinking. If you are thinking, you are segmenting and therefore out of flow. The man who hits at the ball rather than through it has no sense of rhythm. Under pressure, one of the most important things I have to remember to do is breathe. When you have decided on what is best for you by way of preliminaries, and they should be neither too long nor too short, you must harden yourself to follow them through every time. When you make a decision on how you're going to putt, go ahead and do it. Even if it misses the hole, you win, because you've succeeded in doing what you decided to do. When you step up to a putt, remember you've got to concentrate like a sitting hen. Everything else in the world must be put out of your mind. Would you like to know how to sink those putts? Just hit the ball closer to the hole. When a putt of four feet is missed it is rarely because of a mistake in choosing the line. The mishap is almost always caused by mishitting the ball, either by striking it off line, or by failing to strike it cleanly. You can't keep your putter on line if you move your head. You do not focus your eyes on the ball when you putt. You pick a spot one inch in front of the ball that you want the ball to roll over, and that's where you look. You've got to stand over every putt with the intent that you're trying to make it. If you're not going to try to make it, then why bother to hit it? About all there is to putting is to keep your head steady and the face of your putter square to the direction as you stroke the ball. Too much looking from the ball to the hole, back and forth, simply tires the eye and is liable to engender doubt. One's first impressions are usually correct . It is important that you check the lie of your putter to see that it lies flat to the ground at setup and as you stroke the ball. If the toe of the putter is off the ground at impact, there is a good chance that the ball will go to the right of your target. Work on the set-up routine has a high pay-off with more consistent putting. Theoretically the eyes should be directly over the ball to see a straight line to the hole. With the eyes inside the line there is a tendency to push the ball right and with the eyes outside to pull to the left. The essence of putting is to bring the blade back to the ball in exactly the same position it was at address. The control of speed, or weight, is the vital factor in judging the amount of break the ball will take.
Aiming in putting is a challenge. If you don't believe it, stand behind people on the practice green sometime and see how few aim the face accurately to their target. All players, both dubs and pros, put too much strain on their putting by not working hard enough on short-iron improvement. Any time you win a tournament, you win with your short game. Whether it's chipping or putting, you win tournaments with your short game. As long as you live, the hole will never come to the ball.
Bad putters are always looking for the instant cure. But no matter what, you still got to get the ball in the hole. No matter how well you play, if you're not knocking in those putts, it's hard to get the job done. Generally when your putting gets better, your scores get better. Great golfers frequently disagree on certain principles, and that is perhaps one of the main reasons we keep everlastingly at it, grasping each new thought with the hope that perhaps we can solve the mystery. Golfers who try to make everything perfect before taking the shot rarely make a perfect shot. I do hit it a long way. However, I don't care about that. I care about getting the ball in the hole the fastest. I just had a hard time with my pace. And if you have a hard time with your pace, it's hard to read greens. If a player can't aim the putter, then it doesn't matter how good the stroke is. There is a good chance that the putt is going to miss. If there's a key to being a good putter it's having a deep understanding of how to hit the ball squarely. If you are not confident, you start dribbling putts to the hole because you are afraid of the 2½-footer coming back. If you hit the ball to 20 feet, it doesn’t matter how good a putter you are, you are going to two putt nearly every green and you are going to walk off thinking you are rubbish. A good putter is somebody who hits the golf ball inside eight feet. In putting you are confronted by two truths difficult to reconcile. If you don't get the ball up it can't go in. But for each added bit of speed it has less of the hole to hit. It's funny, when you feel good with the putter, the rest of your game starts clicking. I’ve come to realize that I perform best when I’m letting my subconscious mind hit the ball and my conscious mind is otherwise occupied. I've relied on my putting more than people think. I've never been too technical. Just see the hole and hit the putt.. Most amateurs, when they have that 10-foot putt for birdie on the first green and miss it left, they haven’t got a clue. Unless they know the difference between a good and bad putt it’s pure guesswork. No golfer has looked up on a shot and seen a good one. Remember this when you are putting. Players these days rarely miss from short distance and if you do, you just can't compete. Putting is a fascinating, aggravating, wonderful, terrible and most incomprehensible part of the game of golf. Putting is like wisdom – partly a natural gift and partly an accumulation of experience. Putting is the department of golf which lends itself to experimentation and the exploitation of pet theories. Putting is where it's at. You can drive it a mile, hook it on purpose, pitch it over a phone booth from 2 feet away, but if you can't roll it you aren't going to beat many people. Reading a green is like reading the small type in a contract. If you don't read it with painstaking care, you are likely to be in trouble. The easiest way to become less bad at golf is to become less bad at putting, and the easiest way to become less bad at putting is to become less bad at pitching. The finest way to putt is the way that gets the ball into the hole. And confidence is half the battle. Without it, putting is not merely difficult; it is impossible. The guys in contention are holing putts and the guys who aren't, aren't. The only club in the bag specifically designed to get the ball in the cup is the putter. Why not learn it first? The putter is very important. That's half the game in professional golf. There are three ways of learning golf: by study, which is the most wearisome; by imitation, which is the most fallacious; and by experience, which is the most bitter. There is no faster way to lower scores and raise confidence in golf than to become a better putter. There is no similarity between golf and putting; they are different games one played in the air, and the other on the ground. There is no tragedy in missing a putt, no matter how short. All have erred in this respect. When all is said and done, and whatever the method and whoever the man, successful putting surely must be a matter more of nerve than technique. When you inject the word 'Try' into golf, you'll start to feel like you're brushing your teeth left-handed. It's been said a thousand times, and it's true: There is no place for conscious effort in golf. Without any question or debate good putting has won more matches and poor putting has lost more matches than any other single virtue or fault in golf. You can always recover from a bad drive, but there's no recovery from a bad putt. You don't necessarily have to be a good golfer to be a good putter, but you have to be a good putter to be a good golfer. You know you’re a sad case when you spend your spare time reading books on Putting or going on YouTube to watch slow motion golf swings. You take three putts through getting the distance wrong, not the direction. The putting game becomes difficult when you try and consciously control the putter,
think too much about what you’re doing, and take too long over the ball. You take any top player, make them No.1 for the week in putting and he will be tough to beat. Feel in golf is the ability to decide on a putt of medium strength and then hit the ball with medium strength. No matter your scoring goals, you can attain them faster by improving your putting. Whatever the manufacturers say, nothing on earth can enlarge the sweetspot - but we can enlarge the area of forgiveness. For most tour pros, good scoring comes down to making putts. Many players hit it great from tee to green. The winner's check usually goes to the player who is draining putts.
You can't read a putt until you know the speed you are going to hit it. Then if you don't hit at that speed, the read is no good. In putting, for example, the best putters in the world rely on their vision, imagination, and experience. You can't reduce putting to a formula – it isn't like the problems you solved in high school physics or geometry.
Don’t spend your golfing life in one putting experiment after another. Too often a golfer will continue experimenting simply because he is too lazy to perfect a technique through practice. Effective practice should really fall into one of two categories: improving mechanics or simulating 'game' conditions. The key factor is to know very clearly which kind of practice you are undertaking at any given time. For lack of practice a golfer's putting remains uncertain and he continues to look for some magic putting system. Golfers think too much about holing their practice putts. Great putters like Horton Smith concentrate on their stroke when they practise. They know if they are stroking the ball correctly, they will get their share of putts. I regret to say an instructor as a rule experiences the greatest difficulty in inducing a pupil to devote himself to putting. He is willing to admit its importance, but he fails to devote sufficient time to the task of mastering its details. If for some reason the player does change his ball, he should make a point of practising with the ball until he is quite accustomed to it before he plays, otherwise he cannot expect to obtain a good result. If we don't know how to finish, what is the point in starting? That's why, for golfers of all levels, I always start our lessons with putting. If you really want to learn how to putt, putt with only one ball. You putt and then you have to retrieve it. You have to get it before you can hit another putt. That's how you learn to putt. Once you start hitting more than one ball from the same spot you're wasting your time. In golf, more harm comes from wrong teaching than from not being taught at all. It isn’t the hours that you put in at practice that count. It’s the way you spend those minutes. Most players try to get better by working hard. Putting is not about long hours of work. It's about the subconscious. She had to believe that she could make a putt. I had to get her to visualize making putts. One thing I don't spend a lot of time on is putting. That's a personal thing, but for me, putting is mainly about feel, not mechanics. I can practise my stroke all day long and it won't make a damned bit of difference if I don't have a feel for it. Practice without science or a system is like a pilot on a ship without a compass. He knows not where he is going. The approach putt is an all-important shot - finishing near the hole it spares the player all the holing-out anxieties and jerky snatches. The teacher experiences no grave difficulty in having a student understand the importance of putting. Getting them to practise it is quite another matter. There is a huge gap between intellectual understanding and physical feel. You bridge the gap with repeated execution. In other words, practice. There is no secret in golf that a teacher can give you. You have your own way, your own vision and your own feeling. If you practise constantly, that's the secret. They say practice makes perfect. Of course, it doesn’t. For the vast majority of golfers it merely consolidates imperfection. They say Sam Snead is a natural golfer. But if he did not practise, he’d be a natural bad golfer. My personal opinion is that more men are good putters from practice than because they have any pronounced superiority, to begin with, over other men.
Approaching a putt with doubt in your mind is nearly always fatal. Bad putting is due more to the effect the green has upon the player than it has upon the action of the ball. Generally speaking if pressure starts to become an issue it will show up in putting and chipping first and then work its way back to the fuller shots. Good putters believe they are good putters. I felt I was so mechanical I lost any type of intuition I had in putting. I had to get away from the mechanics of it and just roll the ball. I honestly believe that with a strong mind, you can literally will the ball into the hole. I need an attitude readjustment. I need to care a bit less about the game. You can't wait for the golf ball to make you feel happy because it ain't going to make you feel happy every day. I never missed a putt in my mind. I never pray to God to make a putt. I pray to God to help me react good if I miss a putt. I think good putters see the ball going in; bad putters see the ball staying out. I didn’t miss the putt. I made the putt. The ball missed the hole. If you worry about the ones you missed, you are going to keep missing them. It isn’t your game; it’s your bad mental reactions that can give you real fatigue. A missed 18 inch putt can be more exhausting than a well-hit 225 yard drive and the walk to the ball. Never berate yourself on the golf course. It has disastrous results. Be your best friend out on the fairways. Staying positive can only do great things for your game. Never blame yourself. Tour pros realize it, and it's why they tamp down imaginary spike marks after missing short putts. Blaming outside agencies for a bad shot is much better for your frame of mind than telling yourself you're a lousy hack. On the putting green, the mind can be a grave source of trouble. One thing I’ve learned from golf psychology is how my unconscious mind automatically follows where my conscious mind leads. Putting is not mechanical, it’s a state of mind. The key thing for someone who doesn’t putt well is get them to see the ball going into the hole. The ball doesn’t care how positive you are thinking when you hit it with a putter moving and aimed in the wrong direction. The finest way to putt is the way that gets the ball into the hole. And confidence is half the battle. Without it, putting is not merely difficult; it is impossible. The prime requisite for putting? An abounding confidence in one’s ability. The putting game becomes difficult when you try and consciously control the putter, think too much about what you’re doing and take too long over the ball. There's an old saying, 'It's a poor craftsman who blames his tools.' It's usually the player who misses those three-footers, not the putter. To play well you must feel tranquil and at peace. I have never been troubled by nerves in golf because I felt I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. We know so much about technique that the last frontier in golf is mastering the mind. When a putter is waiting his turn to hole-out a putt of one or two feet in length, on which the match hangs at the last hole, it is of vital importance that he thinks of nothing. At this supreme moment he ought studiously to fill his mind with vacancy. He must not even allow himself the consolations of religion. What separates great players from the good ones is not so much ability as brain power and emotional equilibrium. What we really want people to understand is that it is having fun putting and being creative and getting your mind out into the target rather than worrying about doing everything perfectly with your stroke itself. You can't improve your putting on off days by trying harder. The best move then is to ease up, lighten your grip and slow down the pace of the putter. You're only hurting yourself if you don't have an ultra-positive attitude about putting. What we really want people to understand is that it is having fun putting and being creative and getting your mind out into the target rather than worrying about doing everything perfectly with your stroke itself. It's so hard to get it close if all you're trying to do is get it close. You've got to try and hole every putt. It's difficult to try your hardest and not care about the results. They contradict one another. If you want to putt your best, you have got to love to putt. While putting makes up 40 percent of our strokes, it makes up 80 percent of the anguish. To maximise your performance on the course, never get over-excited after making a putt or distressed after missing a putt. Putt better and you'll gain confidence. Gain confidence and you'll putt better. It's a magic circle.
Hold your breath during the putting stroke. Of course don't forget to resume breathing after you finish the stroke. I've heard people say putting is 50 percent technique and 50 percent mental. I really believe it is 50 percent technique and 90 percent positive thinking, see, but that adds up to 140 percent, which is why nobody is 100 percent sure how to putt. An interesting thing about golf is that no matter how badly you play or putt; it is always possible to get worse. Half of golf is fun; the other half is putting. There are three ways to improve your putting: take lessons, practice constantly – or start cheating. I miss the putt it’s normal. I don’t kill anybody so I forget about it. Don't buy a putter until you've had a chance to throw it. Putting allows the touchy golfer two to four opportunities to blow a gasket in the short space of two to forty feet. Love and putting are mysteries for philosophers to solve. Both subjects are beyond golfers. The least thing upsets him on the links. He missed short putts because of the uproar of butterflies in the adjoining meadows. If I'm breathing heavily while walking on a green, I'm going uphill. If I trip, I'm going downhill. How about a little noise? How do you expect a man to putt? But during the last quarter century, as we all know, greens have become more difficult to putt. The main reason, of course, is related to the solunar tables, and the gradual warming of the earth's atmosphere. Then, of course, there's the new multi-dimpled golf ball. Drive for show, putt for dough, shank for comic relief. A 'gimme' can best be defined as an agreement between two golfers; neither of whom can putt very well. My favourite shots are the practice swing and the conceded putt. The rest can never be mastered. The opinion of a man who has just missed his putt, about the state of that particular putting green, is usually accepted with some reserve. I think it is slightly straight, Mr Faulkner. Lord, give me strength to hole a putt, so that even I, when telling of it to my friends, may never need to lie.
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