Week Three

This week should be devoted to a basic that precedes all other basics: You have to determine your dominant side in your putting stroke – your right or your left. This doesn’t have anything to do with whether you putt right-handed or left-handed -- it’s about which arm has more control of your putting stroke.  It truly is an overlooked "super basic"- something many players neglect or have never even considered, yet it influences everything else in your putting game so this is the week to get it under control.

DO THE DRILL, HONE YOUR SKILL

Here’s a simple drill you can do to determine which arm is the dominant arm in your putting stroke: Hit 10 putts with just your right hand holding the putter; then hit about l0 putts with only your left hand.  The dominant side will feel fairly solid to you, and you won’t have any trouble controlling the clubhead, that is to say, keeping it square.  The non-dominant side (or for the sake of simplicity, the wrong side) will feel as if you must struggle with the clubhead to keep the face square to your putt line so the putts go in the direction you aim them.  You have to admit, that's pretty simple. Once you know which side is your dominant side, here's what you do with that information:

IF YOU'RE A LEFT-ARM-DOMINANT PUTTER. . . [Right handed putter]

. . . your left armpit should act as the "center" of your putting stroke.

. . .you should use a heel-shafted putter designed to swing open and closed like a gate

. . .you should play the ball forward of center in your stance, somewhere around the inside of your left heel.

. . .you should stand tall at the ball with your arms hanging fairly loose but straight.

. . . even though the face of the putter swings open and closed to the target line it stays square to the putter arc.

IF YOU'RE A RIGHT-ARM-DOMINANT PUTTER. . .

. . . the top of your spine should act as the "center" of your putting stroke.

. . . you should use a center-shafted.

. . . you should play the ball in the center of your stance.

. . . rather than hanging straight, your arms are folded because you are bent over. 

… the clubhead moves away from the ball on a straight line and returns through the ball on the same line.

 

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IMPROVE YOUR GOLF

Your Improvement Golf Calendar

When I know a student is serious about improving and has the time to devote to a program I give them a calendar – a “when to do what” guide for improvement. To give this guide some sense of chronological order, I've broken it into weeks—13 of them—which gives you roughly 90 days to reach your goal – here is week 2.

DIGITIZE YOUR GAME

Review the relative strengths and weaknesses of your game in preparation for creating your strength and weakness profile. Take a yellow pad and draw a line down the middle then label the two columns Strength and Weakness.  Down the left side list all areas of your game from chipping/pitching, lag putting etc.. Also list each club in your bag. Down the right side honestly evaluate each entry by annotating the appropriate columns. Keep a running list until you have a handle on your playing profile.

DEVELOPING A STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS PROFILE

Rate each of your clubs using 3 for weak, 2 for average, and 1 for strong.  If you like, add decimals as in 1.5, to create a more sensitive range. In addition to rating your clubs, it's helpful if you keep a journal where you record important golf experiences and observations.

What do you do with this information? You use it to play the game by evaluating each situation and then choosing a club that is on the strength side. Plus it tells you what to practice to improve. For example keeping your stats you discover that you're a not very accurate with your short irons. When it’s time to lay up on a par five you use this information to govern your lay-up choices i.e. lay-up so you have a six iron [a mid-iron you hit well] vs. a nine iron you have trouble with.

The Takeaway: A major aspect of playing your best golf is fitting your Strength and Weakness Profile into the defenses set up by the architect.  To do this you must make an accurate assessment of your playing skills, which are often different from your practice range skills.  For this reason I encourage you to develop both a practice and a playing profile, and be sure you never confuse the two.  You’re playing profile reveals how well you perform when shot selection depends not only on the conditions but also on your ability to execute under the one-ball-success-rate, that is, a situation where every swing counts.