Your putts are bouncing because you’re hitting down on the putts!  Now, if you don’t believe that you’re hitting down on the putts OR you don’t believe that hitting down on the ball makes the ball rise, try this little experiment.

On your practice putting green place a ball down and then stand on the ball so it goes slightly down in the green.  Now putt this ball as normal.  You’ll notice that the ball jumps up first of all.  This same philosophy applies to your putts from a normal lie.

To get over this problem I suggest you place the ball just inside your left heel.  And check this using clubs because often people have the ball so far back and then when they put it forward, it’s not enough.  So check with clubs or get someone else to tell you how you’re going.

Once you’re setup with the ball opposite your left heel, you then need to take the putter back low and slow and then accelerate through and up.  This is about the only shot in golf where you should almost try to lift the ball.  Of course you won’t be able to lift it, not much anyway.  If you do lift the ball it will actually help the roll because you’ll get the golf ball to roll on top of the grass instead of through it.

To get this feeling of coming through and up I suggest you practice short putts with a wedge.  This is great for teaching you to accelerate through the ball and up.  You’ll find that if you don’t accelerate through the ball and up, the putt will be like a small chip shot.  To get the ball rolling you’ll need to hit the putts with the flange of the wedge, like blading the ball and you’ll also have to accelerate through the golf ball.

Keep practicing with your wedge until you’ve got the feeling grooved, and I’d say this would be after about 30 days.  So everyday do some putts with a wedge just to get the feel of this.  You don’t need to do it to a hole, so anytime at home just do this.  After a month of doing this you’ll notice a huge improvement in your putting.

Don't Try To Hook Your Putts Unless...

If you’re like me…you’ve probably seen in several places suggestions that you should try to hook putts to make them roll better. Well…

You should NOT try to put any side spin on the ball (e.g. hook or slice spin) when you putt, because research has shown that when a putt is rolling the friction from the green removes all side spin from the ball within about 20 percent of its roll.

So even if you did hook your putts it’s only going to have some effect on the first 20 percent of distance that the ball is rolling.  And as you should have learned by now, the most important passage of any putt is when it gets close to the hole.  So forget this spin theory.  BUT if by you trying to hook a putt makes you hit your putts with a better, more positive and aggressive stroke then keep doing it.

However do this with the knowledge that ultimately what you’re doing is just improving your putting stroke and not hooking your putts into the hole.

Grab a wedge and find a position on the practice green about 3 feet away from a hole.  You can even do this at home if you like.  Now setup to a putt as you normally would, but do so with your wedge.  Also hold the wedge off the ground so the bottom of your wedge is level with the middle of the ball.

Now simply putt as normal and you’ll find that to get a good roll on the ball you’ll have to blade the ball by hitting it with the bottom of the wedge.  You’ll also find that you are basically forced to accelerate and this drill becomes easier the more you accelerate through and up on the follow-through.

If when doing this you make the ball jump in the air, then that’s a good indication that you’ve decelerated on the putt.  So simply keep putting with the blade and accelerate and you’ll soon get the feeling of what you should be doing with your putter.

If I had to pick just one way to score better I’d say, “improve your putting.” Because it’s a simple formula. If you shot a 100 in your last game of golf and you had 8, 3 putts in that score then it doesn’t take a genius to work out that if you could turn those 3 putts into 2 putts then you’d score 8 shots better.

Ok, we’ve worked out that you need to practice your putting, but how?

Well it’s been proven that the better the putter is the better they are at long putts, so that’s where you should spend most of your time practicing. And don’t just practice your putting line but rather practice hitting putts a correct weight. Because it doesn’t matter if your ball is on the correct line if it’s 10 feet short or long. And think about how often your putts are 10 feet wide of the hole. It’s not often is it?

So practice long putts and one of the best drills to improve your putting touch is to putt balls to the edge of the putting green. Get about 5 balls and start about 30 feet away from the fringe and try to putt the balls so they end up as close to the fringe as possible.

During this exercise don’t worry about direction, only speed. Keep doing this and vary the distance from the fringe for each 5 balls you stroke. Do this at least 6 times so you practice at least 30 putts.

Also, to make this exercise more effective, putt with your eyes closed. And after you’ve hit each putt guess how close the ball has come to your target (i.e. the fringe). Once your ball has stopped rolling, open your eyes and see how correct you were.

Now here’s another great distance control putting drill.

On your practice putting green measure 30 feet from the fringe. Then place about 15 balls down there. Then putt your first ball and try to get it at as close to the fringe as possible. Once you’ve done this then hit your second putt and try to get it to finish as close to your first ball as possible without going past it. Then hit your third putt and try to get it to finish as close to your second ball as possible, without going past it.

Keep doing this and see how many balls you can get between yourself and the fringe. But if any balls go past the previous ball then it’s game over. You have to start again.

This is a fun putting game to see how many balls you can get between the fringe and yourself and it will improve your distance control at the same time. Plus you can keep record of your personal best and try and beat it.

Doing putting drills like this allows you to concentrate solely on feel and weight without worrying about whether the ball has gone in the hole. And if you improve your long putting your scores will improve and it will be easier than working on your swing.

You see, there’s no point in hitting the ball great but then 3 putting. So improve your putting first and then work on improving your swing.