7 Things Every Golfer Can Do To Putt Better (According To A Specialist Putting Coach)

Many golfers fail to give putting the full attention it deserves. They might receive conflicting advice on putting improvement, leading them to focus on the wrong things or overcomplicate what should be fairly simple.

I've coached more than 3000 golfers in my career, helping them to improve their putting, but there is not single 'perfect' way to putt.

So, in this article, I share the 7 key concepts I consistently see in great putters – ideas around set-up, movement, green-reading, speed control, aim and the mental process that will help you better understand what really drives performance...

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7 Things Every Golfer Can Do To Putt Better On The Course

1. Set-up essentials

In the putting stroke, ideally I want to disassociate the legs, core and head, leaving the shoulders, arms and torso to create the motion. My set-up should help to make this as easy as possible.

I let myself fall slightly forwards, almost rounding into posture, rather than simply bending at the hips.

I relax the spine and shoulders with no arm tension. We will all look different due to body proportions but I aim for the arms to hang naturally. Without a putter, my hands should brush somewhere around the knees.

You don't need your weight to be on the balls of your feet necessarily because you're not shifting pressure around in your feet.

If you have it slightly toe-side, that will encourage the legs to stay pretty quiet. If weight shifts towards my heels, the legs tend to become more active.

My fellow PGA coach David Orr has a great expression: “Putting posture is not good posture.”

Traditional ‘good posture' creates too much muscular tension in the shoulders, lats and upper back, whereas in putting I want those areas to stay soft and free to move.

2. Understanding movement

The putting stroke is a coordinated movement, not a robotic one. Robots often have one degree of freedom while humans have over 200!

I don't want to isolate movement to one or two joints – I want the upper torso, chest, shoulders, arms and hands to work together. The arms should swing in sync with the pivot of the upper body. There is no need to lock the arms to the body.

I see many golfers trying to create connection through muscular tension. This is not what great putters do – they appear ‘connected' through impeccable coordination and timing but it is often not connection in the literal sense.

A good putting drill to feel this is to get into a relaxed posture without a putter and let the arms hang. Face your palms towards each other and attempt to maintain the space between them while keeping the palms opposing.

This requires coordination of the arm swing and pivot. You may benefit from placing an object between your hands to feel how to maintain that spacing. Avoiding tension is key.

Rocking the shoulders doesn't mean isolating them, it means everything moves together. The arms swing, the torso tilts and turns, and the shoulders respond as part of that motion.

3. Work on speed control

The key concept here is simple: to hit a putt further, the putter requires more speed at impact. I am not just trying to make a longer stroke, I am making a faster one.

The speed of the stroke determines its length. So, rather than thinking about how far I take the putter back, I focus on the pace of the stroke.

On both longer putts and shorter putts, I look to control pace rather than trying to create a specific stroke length. The further I want the ball to travel, the more speed I need at impact, so the entire stroke must be faster.

This starts in the backstroke. The faster the putter moves away, the further it will travel (a longer backstroke) and the more speed it will generate.

Across different putts, your tempo should remain reasonably similar. A consistent stroke time across varying putt lengths and green speeds is a basic theory that can certainly help you.

However, this is not rigidly true as stroke times do show some variance in great putters, but the key idea is that the pace of your putting stroke should dictate the speed of the ball.

Finally, your practice strokes should match the feel required for the putt that you are about to hit.

4. Become more adaptable

Simply put, speed is distance over time. You can learn to visualise this with the following drill.

Place two alignment sticks down, one at the top of a slope and the other at the bottom. The distance between them can vary – perhaps start at 10ft and then move to 20 or 30.

You now have one fast putt and one slow putt. Many speed drills for putting involve hitting similar-length or similar-direction putts, which does not reflect the demands of real on-course play.

Start with a downhill putt and try to stop the ball at the opposite stick. Before you execute the stroke, try to picture how long the ball will take to arrive at its destination.

Downhill, the ball should take longer because it is travelling more slowly. As you begin to understand this, you should be able to adjust the pace of your stroke accordingly.

Next, move onto the bottom stick and make an uphill putt, back towards the other stick.

Again, picture the time it will take to reach its destination. Uphill, the ball will arrive in less time and travel faster. You should adjust things here via a faster-paced practice stroke appropriate to the putt, and then execute.

You'll quickly begin to understand the difference in time it takes for the ball to reach its target, thus developing your adaptability.

5. How is your aim?

The first element of consistent, accurate direction is aim. There are many ways to aim the putter well and it is not one-size-fits-all.

Rather than telling you how to aim, I'll give you a few ideas here.

First, try using a lined ball versus a blank ball to see which gives you the best results. Be empirical, this does not have to be the same for every putt.

Another option is what I call a perpendicular aim, simply asking if the face is square rather than trying to point a line at your target.

For some, that's a much clearer way to aim. I would encourage you to trust your spatial awareness; aim is not always about matching line upon line.

I like to line the ball up from behind then match the leading edge square to that line. Think of it like aiming a gun. You align it in the same plane you're looking from, not across yourself, as that is far harder.

6. Green reading

Green-reading is about interpreting slope and understanding how it will influence the ball's roll.

Everyone visualises putts differently. I might focus on the entry point and work backwards or see the entire path. Others visualise forward or in reverse, identify key points along the route, or picture the whole putt.

Generally, you'll be able to work out a slope by looking at it from beneath it. Now you need to picture the curve.

The key part is creating a clear picture of it to predict the start line. Most golfers can visualise reasonably well but often have a poor concept of the start line relative to that curve and hit the putt differently.

It's interesting how few club golfers will actually use any training aids on the putting green while elite amateurs and pros use them all the time – it doesn't have to be too technical but I would strongly recommend practising with feedback tools such as ghost holes (circular discs) or string lines as they are very effective.

7. The mental part

Clarity is the starting point. Before you do anything, you need a clear picture of the shot – how the ball starts, breaks and finishes.

Once you've created a picture, your focus and attention move entirely to the task. Stand behind the ball and visualise its journey.

Then make a few practice strokes to match the pace and build a feel for the movement, picking up any key kinaesthetic sensations.

During this phase, you should have a strong interaction with the target and a clear sense of how the ball should roll.

For these few seconds, this putt has your undivided attention, rather than the consequences of it or what other players are doing.

As for practice strokes, these can be next to the ball, behind it or, for some, even unnecessary – whatever works best for you. I know what works best for me.

Once you step into the ball, take a final look at the target, bring your focus back to the ball and let the stroke happen with no manipulation, no overthinking and no fear of the outcome – trust in the process and commit to the picture you created.