1. Charge the putt, or
2. Die the putt

Now charging the putt means that a golfer takes an aggressive attitude to the putt. They would rather be four feet past the hole than a couple of inches short.

Conversely, a golfer that would rather die a putt would rather be a fraction short than be continually faced with 4-5 feet putts coming back.

But there is no right or wrongs with this.

Dave Pelz has his theory that the best speed each putt should be hit is 17 inches past the hole. But that is only a general rule and you have to decide on which speed philosophy you are going to choose.

Now to help you do this I think you should look at your personal playing characteristics. For example, do you like attacking the golf course? Do you like hitting risky shots? Do you like to play aggressive shots?

If you do then you’re probably more suited to being a charge putter. Examples of charge putters that you would know are:

• Greg Norman
• Tom Watson
• Arnold Palmer

If on the other hand you choose less aggressive ways to play holes. You pick safer options on shots like hitting fairway woods and irons off the tees, playing for the middle of the greens, laying up on par 5’s etc. then you’re probably more suited to the die style of putting.

Examples of golfers that are die putters are:

• Jack Nicklaus
• Ben Crenshaw
• Tom Kite

Now here are some pro’s and con’s to the styles of putting…

Die Putting – Pro’s

• If the ball is moving slower as it hits the hole it has more chance of going in the hole.
• If your ball misses the hole it will most likely be closer to the hole leaving you with an easier next putt.

Die Putting – Con’s

• If you’re putting on slow and bumpy greens it will be harder for the ball to stay on line and it will not stay on the line you wanted it to.
• It can be frustrating if you often leave putts short of the hole.

Charge Putting – Pro’s

• Your putts will have a chance of going in as you will rarely be short of the hole.
• If your ball misses the hole you will have a chance to see the break of your next putt.
• On short putts you can take the break out of the putt because you’re hitting the ball harder.

Charge Putting – Con’s

• You have to have steady nerves because you’re going to be faced with a lot of 4-5 footers coming back.
• You will probably have more 3 putts than a die putter.

So let’s sum this up.

If when you’re putting you worry about having 3-4 footers coming back then charge putting is probably not for you. But if you hate leaving putts short of the hole then die putting is probably not going to suit you.

So those are two considerations ,but you’ve also got to look at your personality. If you are naturally assertive, confident and sometimes aggressive on the golf course then you’re more likely to do better with charge putting.

But if you’re a more conservative person and would rather strategize your way around a course than attack it, then die putting would probably be better for you.

The bottom line however is that you should pick one style and stick to it for 5 games and chart your putting progress. Then you should change to the other style for the next 5 games and then compare your results. Because there is no right or wrong. Simply choose a style and stick to it.

This doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t change depending on the greens or situations. For example, if you decide you’re going to be a die putter and you’re playing match play and you’re in a situation where you must hole a putt then you must putt more aggressively to make sure the ball get’s to the hole.

Then if on the other hand you decide you’re going to be a charge putter and you’re faced with a long slopping putt on a very fast green you would be stupid to try and charge that putt. You’ve got to die that type of putt to get it close.

So by all means, experiment on the practice putting green with both types of putting speed styles and then out on the golf course to find what works best for you. But remember to be flexible and putt according to the conditions.

That’s a HUGE chunk of the game, I’m sure you’ll agree!

So it makes perfectly logical sense to learn how to become a great putter.

Because when you do you’ll hole more putts which will lower your scores and this will allow you to get more enjoyment from playing golf.

And as I’ve already said (just in more detail this time) the great thing about putting is that anyone of any size, shape, gender, strength or athletic ability can realistically perform this task as well as, if not better than, the best golf professionals in the world.

However, to help you achieve that here’s the putting success formula you need to follow…

Step 1: Know where you are.

Step 2: Know where you want to be.

Step 3: Make a plan of what you need to do to help you to get to where you want to be.

Step 4: Take action on the steps outlined in the plan.

Step 5: Notice the results you’re getting from your practice and then if necessary make changes to what you’re doing to help you get where you want to be.

So let’s go through each of these steps so you understand what is involved.

The first step is to know where you are. And in putting you can do that simply by keeping track of how many putts you have each round. If you’re already doing this then great. But if you’re not then please start now and do this. And to do it simply add up every putt you have on every hole you play and keep the total putts you have for each game.

Important Note: When you’re doing this remember to only count putts that are on the green. If you’re on the fringe but are using your putter don’t count that as a putt towards your average putts per round total.

Then once you have done this for at least 5 games of golf then you can figure out how many putts you average per round simply by adding up your total putts for the 5 games and dividing it by 5.

So let’s say after doing this you find that you average 36.56 putts per round of golf.

After getting that information the next step in the putting success formula is for you to decide where you want to be.

Maybe you want to be as good a putter as a PGA Tour pro. And if you looked at the PGA Tour Putting Stats for period of 2001-2005 you would find that….

FACT…over the period of 2001-2005 on the PGA Tour the leading putters for the average putts per round category have averaged just 27 putts per round.

2005  -  27.79*

2004  -  27.96*

2003  -  27.88*

2002  -  27.57*

2001  -  27.90*

* #1 Position on the PGA Tour for Putts Per Round category.

So you need to make a decision as to how many putts per round you want to average.

To help you, as a general guideline, averaging below 30 putts per round should be the goal of every golfer (once you can do that consistently then you should set a new, more challenging goal).

Averaging less than 30 putts per round is very attainable for every golfer too, because with putting you simply need to know what you need to improve and then do it….no special athletic ability is required.

Just the correct knowledge and then the correct action.

OK, once you know where you are and you know where you want to be, the next step is to create or get a plan of what you need to do to help you get there.

Then obviously the next step is to take action on the plan and tweak what you’re doing to get the results you want.

So that’s an overview of putting and the putting success formula it’s now time to start finding out what you need to focus on to become a great putter. Let’s get straight into it…

The very first thing you must do to become a great putter is you MUST learn to love and enjoy putting.

If you don’t find out how to love and enjoy putting then you’ll never become a great putter. Trust me, this is the first and most important fundamental of putting.

So anytime you’re faced with a putt that you’re NOT looking forward to then it won’t matter if you have a perfect stroke or you’re a great green reader etc. because you’ll never putt consistently to a high standard if you have a negative attitude like that.

But great putters don’t only love and enjoy putting but they also believe and see themselves as great putters.

Conversely average or poor putters see themselves as streaky putters or bad putters. And the main reason I believe average/poor putters have a bad self image about themselves is because they “choose” to focus on the putts they’ve missed rather than the putts they’ve made. Sadly it’s impossible to gain self-confidence about anything if you’re focusing on the things that didn’t turn out how you wanted.

And talking about confidence, it’s obviously crucial that you have a lot of self-confidence if you’re going to become a great putter.

But as far as confidence is concerned you must understand that there are two types of confidence that can be created. The first one is external confidence.

And the extent of your external confidence is governed by what is happening outside of yourself. For example, if you’re holing lots of putts you will generally have high external confidence. But external confidence comes and goes depending on what is happening. For example, if you’re putting well you’ll have high external self-confidence, but if you’re not putting well then your external self-confidence will be low.

The catch 22 with external self-confidence is that you’re basing your confidence on something outside of your control, i.e. putts going in the hole.

The only thing you can control in putting is the starting line of the putt and the speed which the ball starts. Whether or not the ball goes in the hole is out of your hands.

So having external confidence is NOT very good.

Instead it’s much better to have internal confidence as this isn’t dependent upon results, but funnily enough it produces better results.

What is internal confidence?

It’s a deep belief about something, and that deep belief can’t be taken away from you by outside events and circumstances. This type of confidence is built up over a period of time.

An example of this outside of golf is a parent.

You see, if parents constantly tell a child they love them and show physical affection to that child then over time that child will have a deep belief that their parents love them. So if that child is disciplined for doing something wrong then that shouldn’t stop that child from believing that their parents love them.

So…you need to create a deep belief like this for your putting game. That way, no matter what happens you’ll believe you’re a great putter.

And when you gain internal confidence you will not be so tempted to make big changes to your mechanics even if you were to miss a lot of putts in a game.

If you look at great putters you won’t very often see them change anything about their mechanics. Also you’ll often see great putters using the same putter for many years. Because you should only ever change a putter if it no longer matches or enhances your setup and stroke, or if there is some technological advancement that warrants a change. But I doubt that is ever going to happen in the putting game because a good putter now will remain one for many years.

Another thing great putters believe is that they can hole every putt. Of course they don’t hole every putt, but they do hole a lot more putts than the golfers that believe they can’t hole every putt. So if you want to become a great putter you must think, act and fully believe that you can hole every putt you’re faced with.

The final thing that all great putters believe is that their putting strokes are solid, repeatable and they trust them 100%. If you doubt your putting stroke or you change your putting stroke a lot, that’s a sure sign you don’t trust your putting stroke.
So here’s a summary of the mental attitude you need to have to become a great putter:

• You must love and enjoy putting
• You must believe you’re a great putter no matter whether you hole a putt or not.
• You must believe you can hole every putt.
• You must believe your putting stroke is smooth, reliable and consistent so you trust it 100%.

Also, you need to improve the following mental skills:

• Relaxation
• Concentration
• Visualization

And finally on this topic of mental toughness/attitude, when you’re stroking your putts on the golf course you should NOT focus on anything mechanical. You should simply putt the ball automatically with your subconscious mind.

A non-golf example of using your subconscious mind to perform a physical activity is driving a car. Because instead of thinking of everything you should be doing as you’re driving you just do it –automatically! And when you’re making a putting stroke you need to use your subconscious mind as well.

You should never think your way through your putting stroke.

The place to improve and groove your physical putting stroke is at home. The golf course is the place to hole your putts…without conscious thought about your putting stroke. And to do that you must stroke your putts with your subconscious mind.

So that’s the first and most important aspects of your putting game that you need to improve.

Next, in part 3 of this putting improvement series I’m going to discuss the two most important aspects of a putter and why you must get them right for YOU. So make sure you come back to find out what those two things are.

Putting is a separate game within the game of golf, because no other shot in golf has the same objective as a putt has, which is to….

Roll the ball along the best line
with the best speed, so the ball
rolls gently into the hole.

And if you want to become the best putter you can then you SHOULDN’T use a throttled down driver swing. Equally you won’t want to use your putting technique to drive with.

You see, to become a great putter you need a different technique than you do to become a great driver of the ball (or any other part of golf for that matter). And that’s a great thing because it means you don’t need any special athletic ability to become a great putter.

You simply need to know what to do to improve and then do it.

Now knowing what you need to do to become a great putter is not easy. Because there’s a million and one things you could focus on to improve, but a lot of them will simply waste your time or even make you worse!

And here’s a very real, personal example of this.

When I was about 15 years of age I was having some problems with my putting. So I went to my local pro and asked him what I could do to putt better.

He told me that all good putters put a good end-over-end roll on the ball. And if I wanted to be a good putter I must do the same thing. So of course I then asked him how do you do that, i.e. put an end-over-end roll on the ball.

He then told me about Bobby Locke and how he was a great putter and he used to hook all his putts.

My local pro told me that by hooking your putts the ball rolls better. And to do this, the local pro simply told me to hook my putts by taking the putter on an in-to-out path so the ball would have hook spin on it.

So I tried doing this, but guess what?….it didn’t improve my putting one bit.

In fact, I got worse!

Do you know why?

It’s simply because I was focusing on something I didn’t need to. I had the wrong “what”.

And I was focusing on something that was completely wasting my time and taking me further away from the goal I wanted, i.e. to putt better.

Important Note: If you’re not sure who Bobby Locke is this is what Gary Player is quoted as saying about him:

“One six-foot putt, for my life? I’ll take Bobby Locke. I’ve seen them all, and there was never a putter like him. In the 100 or so competitive rounds I played with him, I saw him three-putt just once. … You had to see it to believe it.”

Now here’s the reason why I was completely wasting my time.

It’s been scientifically proven that within about the first 20 percent of the roll of a golf ball, the friction from the green removes all side spin, top spin or back spin. In other words, no matter what you do to start a ball rolling on a green, in the end it will be rolling end over end.

The bottom line was that I was wasting my time trying to hook my putts!

Important Note: Do NOT try and put any spin on the ball when you’re stroking your putts. You’re wasting your time on something that does not matter!

Hopefully that true story has proven to you how crucial it is for you find out “what” you need to do to improve your putting game.

And that’s why I put this putting improvement series together.

To explain exactly what you need to do to improve your putting. Because I don’t want you to waste anymore time on things which won’t help you to improve, like I’ve done. So this putting improvement series will give you a clear focus on the areas you need to work on to improve. It will tell you what the things are that matter.

This putting consistency and success series will be your roadmap to putting success.

It will save you a lot of time and effort too.

Because instead of trying one thing after another in a desperate attempt to improve your putting you’ll know exactly what you need to focus on to improve. Then once you know what you need to focus on then you need to have a proven step-by-step practice plan that outlines exactly what you need to do to improve. Then it’s simply up to you to put into action the steps in the plan.

It’s only through having an intelligent practice plan and then action will you really make a noticeable difference to your putting.

I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that trying one thing after another without any real plan will NOT lead you to improvement. You’ll be wasting your valuable time doing that.

Important Note: A planned, structured, step-by-step approach to improving your putting will always get better, more consistent results than any other approach.

Reading this series for putting game success is the start of you becoming the great putter you’ve always wanted to become. So in my next post we’ll make a start by looking at perhaps the most important element needed to be a great putter.

If  you’re lacking putting touch here’s a good putting drill to help you improve it.

Simply go out to your local practice putting green and place tees in the green at 10 feet, 15 feet, 20 feet, 25 feet and 30 feet.  Now setup to a ball and putt to the first tee.  The objective when doing this putting drill is to simply leave the ball as close as possible to the tee you’re aiming at.  Once you’ve got the pace of this first putt then move to the second tee and keep putting until you get consistently close to that tee.

Keep doing this putting drill over and over again and then once you’ve improved your touch, practice putting to a different tee for each putt.  Then once you’ve got that nailed, then practice this same exercise with your eyes closed and after you’ve struck the putt keep your eyes closed until the ball has stopped moving.  And then simply guess as to where the ball as ended up and see if you were right.

Doing this putting drill will take some time, but if you put in the effort you’ll receive some great results in the form of having less putts.  And the less putts you have the more fun you’ll have, so the effort you put in with this putting drill will be worth it.

So, set yourself up about 2 feet away from the hole and simply putt, but when you follow-through I want you to follow-through so your putter head finishes over the hole.

Keep doing this over and over again so that you groove this feeling.  After days of practice you’ll feel so different over these short putts.  And even if your stroke is a bit shaky, simply by doing this exercise you would’ve naturally built in more putter acceleration than you ever would have before.