Putting is almost certainly the most important skill to master in golf if you want to shoot lower golf scores. Having said that, for a golf skill that is one of the simplest skills it is amazing how many golfers lack confidence in it, which is puzzling when you think about it.

If you can swing your putter backwards and forwards rhythmically then you can learn how to become an excellent putter. Five year olds can hit a ball to a hole and so can you.

Putting successfully requires mastery of three disciplines.

1. Aiming the putter to where you would like to hit the ball to

2. Hitting the ball exactly on the line the putter is aimed on

3. Hitting the ball with the correct amount of force for the distance

These are the basics you must master in putting first. Reading the greens matters little if you can’t hit your ball where you putter is pointing, and at the correct speed.

Also it doesn’t matter about the style of the stroke you choose to use if you can’t hit your putt where you’re aiming and at the correct speed. But if you master these 3 disciplines you will hole more putts and have a lot more fun playing golf.

It is so easy to get caught up in the theories of how to stroke your putt but consider that the ball doesn’t care what you look like and only responds to the putter face and head.

Start with short putts of about 3 feet and master the 3 disciplines and when you can hit your putt where the putter is pointing 8 times out of 10 then you can increase the length of the stroke and force and increase your distance.

Ideally you will hit 5 putts a total of ten times per session or 50 putts in total.

Putt 5 balls to 5 coins at 5 different distances say 10 feet, 15 feet, 20 feet, 25 feet and 30 feet.

Hit the 5 balls so that they finish within 3 feet of the coin with a pass rate of 80 percent.

This will require a minimum of 2 putting sessions per week for a period of 12 weeks.

It is well worth investing your time in this and developing your confidence because the payoff is grand when you can face any putt and know that you will hit it in the hole more often than not from short distances and hit is close more often than not from longer distances.

Until next time,

Lawrie Montague

I came across these excellent video golf instruction lessons by PGA golf instructor Martin Hall. He is doing an instruction segment for the Golf Channel and thought you’d really enjoy watching them.

Golf Video Instruction Lesson 1

Golf Video Instruction Lesson 2

Until next time,

Lawrie Montague

“Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” –  Calvin Coolidge (30^th President of the United States)

Some people believe that PGA tour golfers are talented and born great golfers. I do not. When you watch golf telecasts you will often hear the commentators mention that “such and such a player is a talented player” or that they possess “raw talent” and so on.

I have always been interested in why it is so easy for people to describe anyone who is exceptional at something to describe them as ‘talented,’ so I went on a quick search on the web for a simple definition using the keywords of ‘what is talent?’ and here’s what I found at www.wordnetweb.princeton.edu

• Natural abilities or qualities
• a person who possesses unusual innate ability in some field or activity

It appears then that ‘talented’ golfers possess natural or innate or unusual abilities. I guess this means that if you can’t explain why someone can do something at an exceptional level then they must be talented. It’s the old ‘nature/nurture’ debate I suppose? Is someone born with the ability to play golf at an exceptional level or do they learn and develop it?

Here’s what I do know. My experience working with thousands of golfers from beginners to winners at my golf school over the past twenty five years has taught me that developing your key mental skills will make a much better golfer out of you than developing your technical skills. Yes you need a reasonable technique to perform at golf, but you need a lot more than that if you want to continually get better at this game.

I don’t care how good you swing your golf club, if you don’t believe you can play a golf shot at a crucial time in a round then this weakness alone will shine through and make your golf swing fail time and time again.

When you watch a PGA or LPGA tournament the first thing you realise is that every golfer competing in that tournament swings the golf club differently. From their golf grip to their back-swing position to their finish they all do it a different way. Talent therefore must have a lot less to do with how someone actually swings the golf club and a lot more to do with how they perform their golf swing when it really matters.

Innate ability might actually mean your ability to communicate to yourself in such a way that you can confidently perform with the same level of commitment and confidence anytime you want to. I don’t believe this is natural, I believe you learn how to do this.

Jack Nicklaus is considered to be one of the absolute greats of the game and so you would imagine that he would pass his ‘golf genes’ on to his children and they too would become great at golf. It didn’t happen, he passed on his genes and some of them played golf and even played on a tour for a while, however they never got close to playing as good as their father. The same can be said for many other children of great golfers and in fact children of exceptional performers from many other different domains.

The bottom line is that there is no substitute for hard work. You have to put in hours and hours of deliberate effort to extract the performances out of it you desire. You develop your innate or natural skills by applying yourself to your craft as often as you can. Now you might be thinking to yourself that you know of golfers who have put countless hours into their game and still they fail to achieve the results they desire, so what gives?

There’s no doubt that there are many golfers who desperately want to improve their golf and when they fail to achieve someone might be inclined to say to them that they simply lack the talent they need to be successful. Baloney!

Here’s what you do to change your situation and get on track to acquiring success at golf no matter what your current level. I call this the 5 Step Pro Tour Golf Confidence Mental Routine.

Decide exactly what you want from the game of golf.

If you want to become a better golfer then define exactly what that means to you. What would it look like? What would it feel like? Use your amazing natural and innate imagination and dream a bigger and better dream. Not the one that has you where you are, but the dream that takes you to the place you want to be. A place you’ve never been before perhaps.

Do something about it today.

Once you have decided what you want from the game of golf go to work on getting it. Every ounce of effort you apply must directly relate to what you want. No wasted mental or physical effort, just well thought out daily and weekly action plans that move you slowly but surely towards your big exciting goal.

Notice what happens

The big thing is to develop your awareness of the two critical mental skills that make all the difference.

The first is pointing your intention at your bigger goal. That is; the longer term goal that inspires and motivates you to work at your game to get better. This could be a lower golf handicap or winning the club championships or even winning on the golf tour. The key is to never take your eye off this big, important goal.

The second mental skill is to keep your attention on the smaller intermediate goals that lead to it. Focus on the small daily goals that drive you towards the bigger ones. Every golf shot you hit requires that your attention be as sharp as possible. The better the job you do at this the better the results you will get. Make a personal commitment to hit every golf shot with your full attention on the process and let the outcome take care of itself.

Change your approach

As you work at your game some of the things you do won’t work the way you want them to, so simply change them. I mean it, don’t make a big deal out of it and waste your valuable time on techniques that don’t work.  Change them and get on with the job achieving your big goal. No one gets it right all the time; you have to continually change your approach to find the techniques that work the best. Look for proven models that do work, whether it’s a special putting technique, or a specific short-game system or full-swing technique. Apply them continually until they work for you.

Never give up on your dream

Believe me when I tell you that you will get distracted. Some people you know will never understand your goal and because they don’t have something as exciting as you to strive for they might try to talk you out of yours. Don’t let them! Stick to your goal like glue and build efficient processes that move you towards it every day.

Find the teachers or mentors that will help you to stay focused on your goal and believe in your ability to achieve it. If you don’t have a teacher now, you will. You will attract the help you need to achieve your goal by sticking to achieving it at all cost.

If talent is about people with natural or innate qualities then realise right now that you already possess these natural qualities. Every golfer has the ability to dream bigger dreams and apply themselves to the task of achieving them. Be patient, stay the course and believe that you will make it to your goal and somewhere along the way you will run into it.

I think that’s what talent really is.

“Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.” – Albert Einstein (Physicist)

There is a multitude of golf instruction books published every year by authors eager to share their knowledge and experience to a thirsty crowd of amateur golfer’s searching for the elusive secrets to unlock their golf swing from its shackles.

Still others enroll in golfing school to learn how to control their badly behaved ball flight. With all the golf books and golfing schools you’d think that golfer’s would be starting to get on top of their game and reap the rewards of their efforts.

But you would be wrong.

Nope, sad as it is, most golfer’s just aren’t improving, even with all the information available to them. Do they care? I believe they do care a lot.  I also believe that if the average golfer could develop a better understanding of what’s important in a golf swing from what’s not they would make consistent progress… in the right direction!

In this article I want to share with you the some of the critical alignment check points that I use when working with PGA tour golfers and LPGA golfer’s. These alignments are just as important in your golf swing as those of pro golfer’s so I hope you gain some new insights into what makes your golf swing more reliable and in turn you increase your golf confidence.

The following set of photographs is of one of my professional students He Yong Choi (Pronounced ‘HayYong’) who is one of the up and coming stars on the Korean LPGA tour. I  have helped He Yong to increase her distance from the tee and develop a more penetrating and straighter ball flight on her irons by focusing on three important aspects of her golf swing.

1. That her golf club maintains its relationship to the plane it started on
2. That the maximum force is applied at the right time in the downswing
3. That the clubface rotates the correct amount in the backswing and through swing

Under each photo I’ll describe the instruction process to you and offer helpful advice on how you can develop and improve your golf swing technique using these pro golf swing keys.

BODY IN BALANCE
In the address position you need to establish a sound base of support so your golf swing can remain stable during the backswing and forward swing phases. I teach my students to build a balance triangle formed from the inside ankle bones to a central point just below the navel. I want them to keep their upper body mass over this triangle as much as possible during the golf swing. I explain how a ferris wheel can only operate if it has a stable base of support.

The other important relationship to understand is that the centre of the shoulders should maintain their position in relation to the centre of the pelvis durng the backswing and forward swing.

GOLF CLUB IN PLANE
I explain to my students that “the swing plane gives force a direction.” In the mid-backswing phase of the golf swing the goal is to get the handle end of your golf club to point as close to the base of the inclined plane as you can. Since a golf club is built on an inclined plane it should maintain its relationship to its plane angle throughout the golf swing.

ALIGNED AND READY
At the top of the backswing two things are common in a pro golf swing. The first is that the upper body is still on top of the balance triangle, and two, the golf club has maintained its relationship to the base of the inclined plane. (white line)

THE MYSTERIOUS RIGHT ARM
The right arm’s participation is very misunderstood in the golf swing. Pro golf swing’s use the right arm skillfully because it provides the golf club with direction and supplies it with the energy to drive the golf ball powerfully down the fairway.

There are two thing’s to focus on in the photo above. In the left photo notice how the right forearm is in plane with the golf ball? This alignment is critical if you want to hit longer, more powerful golf shots. In the photo on the right notice how the right elbow has advanced the hands past the golf ball? This ensures that the angle of attack of the club head will be steep enough to produce a divot in front of the ball, and that the energy in the club head is released as late as possible.

IMPORTANT POST IMPACT CHECK
Just after impact the golf club ideally aligns itself with the left shoulder as the left photo displays. The key here is that the left arm and club shaft are in line well beyond impact. He Yong  is at least 60 centimetres into the follow through and has maintained the club head to left shoulder relationship. The other thing to keep in mind is that the golf club has maintained its relationship to the base of the plane which is displayed in the top left photo.

FULL ROLL IT
As the golf club travels towards the finish it must maintain it’s relationship to the plane it started on. To do this the golf club rotates or rolls over until the club face points towards the ground. The centipetal forces involved in the golf swing keep it on its track and at right angles to the middle of your chest.

THE FINISH
At the end of your golf stroke you should finish with your upper torso positioned over your front leg to reduce lower back pressure. Also notice in the upper left photo how He Yong has maintained the postural angle that she started with? This suggests that she was able to maintain her balance throughout the stroke by swinging at a tempo that allows her to maximise her timing whilst minimising excess motion.Finally she has rotated her body completely to where she would be pointing well left of where the golf ball ended up.

So there you have it, a summary of the important keys in a pro golf swing technique. I hope you enjoyed the article and if you have any questions you can contact me through golf confidence academy. Otherwise you can email me at golfconfidencepro@gmail.com.

Until next time.

Lawrie Montague