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.
If you have a fundamentally sound setup you are going to have a stroke that's not only correct, but repeats. 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. A pre-putt routine helps you stay nice and relaxed so you can make the best stroke possible. 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. Trust the line you've picked, commit yourself to that line, and just make a stroke. There are no points for style when it comes to putting. It’s getting the ball in the cup that counts. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Bad putting stems from thinking 'How' instead of 'Where'. 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? The best way to putt is the way you putt best. Mechanics are about 10% of putting - feel is 90%. But good mechanics lead to good feel. 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 can't keep your putter on line if you move your head. 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. 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. 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. The basic elements of putting – aim, setup, routine, visualisation, solid contact, pendulum-like stroke – all carry over into the full swing. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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. Under pressure, one of the most important things I have to remember to do is breathe.
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.
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. 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. 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. 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.
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. 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. The only club in the bag specifically designed to get the ball in the cup is the putter. Why not learn it first? If there's a key to being a good putter it's having a deep understanding of how to hit the ball squarely. There is no similarity between golf and putting; they are different games one played in the air, and the other on the ground. 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. 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. Golfers who try to make everything perfect before taking the shot rarely make a perfect shot. 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. Putting is like wisdom – partly a natural gift and partly an accumulation of experience. 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. 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 just had a hard time with my pace. And if you have a hard time with your pace, it's hard to read greens. There is no faster way to lower scores and raise confidence in golf than to become a better putter. Putting is a fascinating, aggravating, wonderful, terrible and most incomprehensible part of the game of golf. It's funny, when you feel good with the putter, the rest of your game starts clicking. The putter is very important. That's half the game in professional golf. 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. The guys in contention are holing putts and the guys who aren't, aren't. As long as you live, the hole will never come to the ball. 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. 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. There is no tragedy in missing a putt, no matter how short. All have erred in this respect. 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. If you are not confident, you start dribbling putts to the hole because you are afraid of the 2½-footer coming back.
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. It isn’t the hours that you put in at practice that count. It’s the way you spend those minutes. The teacher experiences no grave difficulty in having a student understand the importance of putting. Getting them to practise it is quite another matter. They say practice makes perfect. Of course, it doesn’t. For the vast majority of golfers it merely consolidates imperfection. 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. 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. In golf, more harm comes from wrong teaching than from not being taught at all.
For lack of practice a golfer's putting remains uncertain and he continues to look for some magic putting system. They say Sam Snead is a natural golfer. But if he did not practise, he’d be a natural bad golfer. 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. There is a huge gap between intellectual understanding and physical feel. You bridge the gap with repeated execution. In other words, practice. Practice without science or a system is like a pilot on a ship without a compass. He knows not where he is going.
I honestly believe that with a strong mind, you can literally will the ball into the hole. The prime requisite for putting? An abounding confidence in one’s ability. Approaching a putt with doubt in your mind is nearly always fatal. Good putters believe they are good putters. The ball doesn’t care how positive you are thinking when you hit it with a putter moving and aimed in the wrong direction. What separates great players from the good ones is not so much ability as brain power and emotional equilibrium. 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. The prime requisite for putting? An abounding confidence in one’s ability. One thing I’ve learned from golf psychology is how my unconscious mind automatically follows where my conscious mind leads. 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. 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. I never missed a putt in my mind. On the putting green, the mind can be a grave source of trouble. You're only hurting yourself if you don't have an ultra-positive attitude about putting. 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. If you worry about the ones you missed, you are going to keep missing them. 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. 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. I never pray to God to make a putt. I pray to God to help me react good if I miss a putt. 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. 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.
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.
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