Winter Putting Game Improvement

[One of our regular readers, Morgan in NC, submitted this article about how he took advantage of the winter months to improve his putting.  If you too would like to be famous and write an article for 72strokes.com, send me a note at - Derek]

I evidently, according to the guys in the cigar shop, have a terrible problem with decelerating on my putting stroke. Of course they gave me putting tips during our games and I would try to implement them during the round, totally ruining my poor but serviceable putting stroke. As a result I lost several cigars, which I think was their intention!

Having had enough of this “help”, I decided to focus on fixing my putting stroke over the winter. So I picked up a Sklz Putt Pocket, a Sklz Tempo Tray and a FanMats NHL Putting mat. The mat is OK. I primarily picked it up so I’d have a truer feel while practicing short putts in the house. It’s supposed to be an 11 on the Stimpmeter. The Putt Pocket gives me a target when I’m going for longer putts across the room on my Stimpmeterless carpet. The Putt Pocket can be used indoors and outdoors where it can help you focus on hitting the high side of the cup.

The best value though was the $7.99 Tempo Tray. It attaches to the shaft of any putter and has two dimples, one shallow and one deeper. You rest a golf ball in the dimple of your choice while you’re putting. If your tempo is off the golf ball in the dimple is going to drop out. The shallower dimple is even more demanding on your tempo. Heck, I have a tough time keeping it in the shallow dimple while gripping the club!

I also read through “The Art of Putting: The Revolutionary Feel-Based System for Improving Your Score” by Stan Utley and Matthew Rudy. I radically changed to a much lighter grip as a result of reading this excellent book. I also moved the ball a little bit more forward in my stance. As a result of these changes I feel much more relaxed and confident before I even take my stroke. By the way, I bought the Kindle edition which allows me to just read the parts I’ve highlighted when I want to do a quick review. I found this to be very helpful since I don’t have to “page” though a hardcopy book to find the highlighted stuff. (Who knew the Kindle could help my golf game?) I also did a Google search on “putting tempo” and found some great articles, drills, and videos focusing on tempo.

After a short time using the Tempo Trainer, along with the other changes, I feel my stroke is much smoother and is definitely accelerating through the putt. The ball seems to be rolling better as well. In fact I’m getting deadly on the carpet at 15 feet and plan to try taking it to the putting green this afternoon. (BTW, since there is a crack in my foundation that needs repair, there is a slight right to left break in the man-cave at my house).

Hopefully when we get more consistently warm weather I’ll be able to take it all to the course and win some cigars back from Derek, Phil, and especially Ron! That’s MY motivation.

Hopefully this motivated you to work on your game before the warmer spring weather arrives in your part of the country and we can all get back to our first or second most favorite activity!

Tagged as: Putt Pocket, Putting Improvement, Putting Mat, Sklz, Tempo Tray