Putting Technique Explained: Posture, Stroke, Strike And Distance Control

As anyone who plays golf regularly will know, putting is a game within a game. You can strike the ball well all day, mastering the seemingly impossible, but if you can't stop three-putting, you'll walk off disappointed. 

But how much time should you devote to your putting technique, and how much to feel? The answer to that question is that both are important but here I'll focus on the putting tips that will groove a more consistent stroke.

Proper posture

One of the worst things you can see is when the putter head wavers and wobbles off line as you take it back. This will kill your confidence in the basic mechanics of the stroke, but the good news is that it’s often easily rectified.

Once you have set your spine angle and got yourself into your putting posture, make sure your elbows are connected to your midriff. From there let your arms hang naturally down. It amazes me how often I see amateurs pushing their hands away from them, or pulling them towards them at address.

Fighting gravity in this way is a battle you’ll always lose and it is the biggest cause of a wavering clubhead. So why not set up in front of a mirror at home and check that your arms are hanging naturally at address. A simple adjustment here could make all the difference.

Rotate, don’t rock

It is one of the phrases you often hear coaches use, 'create momentum by rocking your shoulders back and forth’. For me, however, this thought provokes entirely the wrong move, as your elbows become disconnected from your body.

Instead, the way to think about it is to rotate your rib cage around your spine. Crucially, your arms need to be connected to your body, working together with this rotation.

Get it right and you’ll find the big muscles will take more control over the stroke, giving you the reliability and consistency you need.

Engage your chest and back muscles at address, and as long as your elbows are connected to your midriff, it will be the big muscles that dictate the length and speed of the stroke.

Stroke principles

You might think it strange for me to say, but many of the same factors apply between your full swing and your putting stroke. The ball is on the ground and you are side on to your target, so you need to swing around yourself. The two differences are the length and the speed.

It is important therefore that you understand the five impact factors – the angle of the clubface, the swing path, the angle of attack, strike point and speed.

All you need to understand is that the direction the ball goes in when you putt is reliant on the same factors as your main swing. If you are consistently missing putts right it is possible the clubface is open to the target line at impact (just as it could be if you were pushing your drives).

My advice is to learn the five impact laws and then watch out for any trends in your putting - are you missing right or left regularly? - and use this information to get your stroke back on track.

Strike check

To groove a consistent strike, build two gates using tees. Make the first gate just wider than the putter head, the second just wider than the ball and practise swinging the putter through the first gate to hit the ball through the second. Only with a pure strike will you achieve this.

Pace control

I have already talked about the importance of engaging the bigger muscles to control the swing. If you can do this then all you need to do to hit the ball further is make a slightly bigger swing, master it and you'll be far better at lag putting.

I often see players attempting to control the distance they hit the ball on the green through the speed of the stroke, but this will not deliver the best consistency. So engage the big muscles, turn around your spine and let the length of the stroke dictate distance.