GOLF.com
Short putts will always be easier than putting putts, but they also come with more expectations. When you’re close to the hole, you expect to make more putts, so when you don’t, you can seriously screw yourself up.
Once you miss a few shortcuts, your confidence will plummet. Self-belief is everything in golf – especially on the greens – and keeping it high is a must.
GOLF.com’s Jessica Marksbury knows this fact all too well. Although a former collegiate golfer, her confidence in the short putt has been shaken in recent years, with a detrimental effect on her putting — and her scorecard.
To help restore her confidence in the short stuff, Marksbury teamed up with LPGA pro Angel Yin for a quick lesson to improve her short putt. Check out the video below, or read on for more.
1. Find the line
This may seem obvious, but sometimes when we get close to the hole it’s easy to ignore. Even when you’re three feet from the hole, your line matters a lot. Short shots can have a lot of break so you need to make sure you start the ball on the right line. Yin suggests standing behind the ball first to read your shot and then move on to the rest of your routine.
“Maybe outside [left edge]Yin says. “Because it’s downhill, it’s going to be a little faster so it’s going to break a little bit more.”
2. The club goal is down the line
Once you find the line where you want your ball to start, you need to properly line up your club face. Even if you have the correct reading, if you can’t aim correctly, it won’t matter. Yin explains that she likes to get her battered face pointed first and then step in and adjust her body afterward.
“I speak first,” says Yin. “Then I put my body in order.”
3. Focus on the stroke
Rather than focus on the hole, Yin likes to focus instead on the top of the first stroke in his putt. The medium target allows her to free herself and inflict a stroke. From there, all you have to do is focus on rolling the ball over the intermediate point and watch the ball come close to the hole.
“I will focus on that part and the speed he needs to get through [the apex]Yin says. “So instead of looking into the aperture, my point of focus would be a little further.”
If you can follow these 3 steps, you should make short-court curls much easier.