Posted by Charlie King on Wed, Apr 28, 2010 @ 06:18 PM
I gave you a full swing tune up last week and this week it is time for a short game tune up to start your golf season in earnest.
I am giving one putting drill and one chipping drill. Don't be fooled by their simplicity. These drills are the real deal. Enjoy.
2 Key Tune Ups for your Short Game
- 2 Club Tracks/Rails Drill
- 2 Ball Gate Drill
- 2 Ball Line Drill
- Up Down Up Motion
Posted by Charlie King on Thu, Dec 10, 2009 @ 05:12 PM
Sam Froggate and the good folks at eyelinegolf.com are dedicated to golfers improving their putting. They specialize in putting training aids for golf that are innovative and practical.
You know my New Rules philosophy is all about developing skills. Good drills and solid training aids are how you build habits. My favorite putting training aid is the Putting Plane. I just did a putting tip for eyelinegolf.com and will let you know when it has been edited and ready for viewing.
In the mean time I want you to click on this link to take you to a page that has two indoor putting lessons that are skill builders.
http://www.eyelinegolf.com/Articles.asp?ID=233&utm_source=streamsend&utm_medium=DPPS_comments_WS
Enjoy and improve.
Posted by Charlie King on Sun, Aug 23, 2009 @ 06:51 PM
Don't just leave the putter face down there to fend for itself. I want you to put your right hand in charge. Picture your right hand as the equivalent of your putter face. Get used to the notion that, if your right hand is pointed toward your intended target at impact, the ball will go in.
Another option: Left hand low. Some players prefer to make their left hand the lower hand on the putter, putting that hand in charge of the stroke.
Either way, your putting stroke will have more authority, and your putts will fall with greater frequency.
My book "Golf's Red Zone Challenge" has come out as a second edition with added tips and some updated pictures. The golfer's who follow the program in the book get 70% better on average. Go to http://www.amazon.com/ to order the book or call Emily at the Reynolds Golf Academy 706-467-1660
Posted by Charlie King on Mon, Apr 13, 2009 @ 05:35 PM
Do you find yourself nervous on the short putts? When we get nervous, it creates a tentative, shaky stroke. Here's a drill that can help. And it proves that you don't have to be perfect, which is good news for all of us.
Take two clubs and create a track between your ball and the hole. To hole these short putts, just try to keep the ball between the tracks, because this is a much easier task than trying to putt to a precise spot. If the speed is right, then the size of the hole increases.
Trying to be too precise or perfect leads to tentative strokes. This drill can be invaluable, once you realize you have more room for error, you can putt freely.
THE 3 TRAITS OF A GOOD PUTTER
1. You can square the putter face to the intended line at impact.
2. You've got a great sense of touch and feel.
3. You have developed the experience to read greens.
Posted by Charlie King on Tue, Jan 20, 2009 @ 05:20 PM
Putting has been described as a "game within the game." Ben Hogan once said, "There is no similarity between golf and putting: they are two different games-one played in the air, the other on the ground." We as golfers need to develop a personal style and routine which we are able to repeat under game situations, and achieve our desired results.
To be a good putter there are two tasks you want to accomplish.
1. Roll the ball well- Rolling the ball well happens when the putter is swung smoothly, the ball is hit solidly and the speed takes the ball into or near the hole.
2. Roll the ball on line-Is the more detailed part of putting. Having good essentials, such as grip and setup, stance, aim and path will help us in rolling the ball on line.
For three drills that will help you roll the ball well, click on this link for Charlie's video putting lesson.
Having confidence in your putting plays a major roll. Practice short putts to build up confidence for the course. You want to practice drills that are specific to your needs. One example is Charlie's credit card drill.
Remember Tour Players don't make everything they look at. They focus on making a good stroke and having good speed control. I wanted to share some statistics from the PGA Tour that I found on-line. These statistics might surprise you and help you with your confidence.
Percentage of Putts Made by PGA Tour Professionals-
2ft 99% 8ft 47%
3ft 91% 9ft 43%
4ft 81% 10-14 ft 31%
5ft 70% 15-19 ft 19%
6ft 62% 20-24 ft 14%
7ft 54% 25 ft & greater 6%
Feedback is so important to improvement. To continue in finding the best ways to help our students improve, we have purchased a T.O.M.I. putting system. The Reynolds Golf Academy will be running a Winter Video Swing Analysis Special that includes the T.O.M.I. analysis from Feb. 16th through Feb. 28th. The analysis lasts 30 minutes and the cost is $30 by appointment only. Come have your putting stroke analyzed on our new putting analyzer. A university in South Florida had its golf team practice on a system similar to ours and the golf team improved their putting statistics by 25% during a three tournament stretch. For more information on our special please call 706-467-1660.
Posted by Charlie King on Sun, Nov 09, 2008 @ 06:25 AM
Dumb question, right? Putting is so important that it has been described as a "game within the game." Another way to put it: The object of the game is to put the ball in the hole in the least numberof strokes.
Finding the hole is accomplished over 96% of the time with the putter. In other words - you complete your ultimate objective with the putter in your hands. It doesn't get much more important than that.
To putt well, you must accomplish two simple tasks. First of all, roll the ball well. Secondly, roll it on line. This seems obvious, but there are some psychological and visual barriers to doing these two things.
Barriers to Good Putting
1) The size of the hole
-The small diameter of the hole (4.25 inches) gives the golfer the feeling of having to be perfect.
2) Standing sideways causes a visual distortion
-When reading the putt from directly behind the hole you can see the line as it is. When you stand sideways as you address the ball, you are seeing a distorted image that may be fooling you.
3) Poor practice habits
- Haphazard practice leads to less than stellar results. By practicing in a way that insures success, you develop good habits and your confidence grows.
4) Fear
-Fear, anxiety and nerves - a time-tested recipe for poor performances on the greens.
Click on this link for a putting video that will help your game. The putting video is about halfway down the page and explains my thoughts on rolling the ball well.
Posted by Charlie King on Mon, Sep 29, 2008 @ 03:10 PM
What athletic putting means to me is trusting, believing, feeling and having a sense of touch. It's also a sense of relaxation and confidence. Athletic putting means instead of being locked up and trying to be too careful and too perfect, you relax. That's really how your brain operates at its best. For example, if you were throwing a dart at a dartboard the first time, you would have no idea how hard or how high to throw it. So you throw it and it goes low and sticks in the wall instead of the board; that would be pretty typical. As a kid you get a ball and try to throw from third to first base and you throw it down to the ground or to the right or to the left. But, little by little you start to figure out the feeling of where the ball releases. It's one of the things you don't really think about, it just starts to happen.
In athletic putting we use three drills in conjunction with each other so your touch and feel is uncovered and comes to the surface. So we start out with what seems to be a very unconventional drill: the Look at the Hole Drill. In this drill instead of looking at the ball, you look at the hole. The ball is not moving in golf, so you don't have to worry about hitting the ball. Instead, you get to feel the stroke; you get to sense it come off the putter face and you get to see the ball the entire way. This gives you a lot more information than with your head down. And by getting that information it starts to unlock the sensors. So if you hit the first one too hard you know to athletically adjust and hit the next one a little bit easier. Let's say you hit the next putt too easy, you then know to hit the next one somewhere in between the two and that contrast is what touch and feel and athleticism is all about.
The second drill is the One Hand Only Drill. So, a right-handed person will do the drill right handed. When you putt with one hand, you will feel if you start to muscle the club around. We start to get more of a swing of the putter, more of a rhythm. We feel the weight of the club head. We swing the putter. We get the momentum of centrifugal force working in our favor. And because of these consistent natural laws, the ball starts to come off the face in a very similar fashion time after time. I have seen a lot of people who putt as good or better with one hand and then they learn from that drill and become a better two-handed putter.
The third drill is really a test of what your sensors have "learned" from the first two drills. It is the No Look Drill. Normally, you putt without looking at the hole. You putt looking at the ball, so you are not really seeing your target. So your mind's eye keeps the hole in mind but you don't literally see it. You are sensing what direction to hit the ball and you're sensing how hard to hit it. How well developed those senses are will determine how good of a putter you are. So you putt, without looking where the ball goes, then make a call if you think it came up long, short, left, right, or just right, and then you rotate your head to see if you made the right call. This is a really good drill to wake up those senses, to really get your feel going. These three drills together work to make you an athletic putter who can trust their feel, their instinct, make more putts and reduce the number of three putts in a round.
Click here to watch the golf video that demonstrates these 3 Red Zone Short Game drills.