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It’s time to take action

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How many times have you read a magazine article or watched a YouTube video and thought, “That’s what I need to do.”?

You read or watch it again and again and subconsciously think that merely by observing and absorbing that information you will be transformed into the golfer you deserve to be.

If fitness and lifting weights is your thing, do you believe that your biceps will start stressing the seems of your t-shirt by watching videos of bodybuilders training at the gym? Of course not. That would be a ridiculous concept.

You may learn the hows and whys but until you take action, no visible or measurable change or improvement will occur. Those sleeves will continue to remain stress free. It doesn’t happen by osmosis.

We’ve all watched videos of great putters holing putts to win tournaments,  observed their stance and stroke and thought “All I have to do is stand and stoke it like Tiger Woods, Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose or Francesco Molinari and I too could putt like a Major Champion.” Really?

Yes it is possible you could try to copy their style or technique in your imagination but until you drag yourself out onto the putting green and start holing putts, your pipe dream will remain just that, a pipe dream.

You get your golf shoes on, get all your gadgets and alignment aids out, take the cover off your putter and head to the putting green with a sleeve of shiny new Prov1s and a new sense of purpose.

Today is the day you will become a great putter, just like the guys in the videos. Only they didn’t have any alignments aids or gadgets on the 18th green and I’m pretty sure they only had one ball, one opportunity and one intention, to get the ball to disappear when they holed that winning putt.

So many instruction manuals, articles and videos tell you what you and your putter should do but more often than not, they forget to mention the most important aspect of any putt, or any golf shot for that matter, the golf ball.

In the best selling book “The Lost Art Of Putting”, Karl Morris and I encourage you to look at putting slightly differently to the way you have until now. We suggest you pay less attention to what you and your putter need to do and pay more attention to what your golf ball needs to do.

After all, we are trying to get the ball into the hole, not you or your putter.

Through a series of simple but highly effective concepts, principles and training exercises, The Lost Art Of Putting will help you reconnect with the artistic and creative part of your brain that has become numb through information overload and the futile search of perfection.

We hope you enjoy the book but until you take action and get himself out onto the putting green with your putter and a golf ball, if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got.

Take action and explore The Lost Art of Golf website.

Why does the putter always get the blame?

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How many putters do you or have you owned?

How often do you change your putter?

Why does the putter always get the blame?

Many years ago when I was a teenager who “needed” a new Ping Anser to transform my putting, my late father informed me that the issue in fact lay “With the Indian, not the arrow!”

I obviously knew better at the time and saved up my pennies to buy the aforementioned magic wand and guess what? I didn’t putt noticeably better immediately. I did after a while but that was probably down to the hours I spent holing putts on the practice putting green to win The Open and The Masters. At least that what I imagined they were for.

You know how it goes, you have a bad day on the greens the very same day one of your playing partners has a good day with his latest acquisition. Next stop – Pro Shop to buy a new one. It has to be the putter’s fault you missed four 3 footers on the back nine right? The putter and stroke always get the blame and it’s easier to buy a new putter than it is to actually figure out the REAL reasons you keep missing putts.

Straight to the putter rack you go, pick up the latest, counter-balanced, face groove technology, thick /  thin /  longer / shorter grip putter, make a few practice strokes on the Pro Shop carpet and before you know it, you’re handing over your credit card to pay for THE putter that promises eternal success and happiness on the greens.

You head home, remove your clubs from the boot of your car and take them indoors.  You take out your new putter, just to check it is actually the one you have just splashed out a good amount of your hard earned cash for. You remove the headcover, take a few more practice strokes but there is something missing. A USER’S MANUAL.

Regardless of how much you spend on a putter or any club for that matter, the one thing that is always missing is a user’s manual. Can you imagine spending a chunk of cash on a new phone, iPad or laptop, removing the packaging only to discover you have to figure out how to use it all on your own? I can imagine you would be less than impressed.

Buying a new putter is no different. Unless you know how to use the tool you have bought to perform a specific task, in this case holing putts, the chances of that new implement changing your putting fortunes are slim at best.

Every putter manufacturer promises a greater MOI, the best feel ever, a pure roll, you name it, your new putter will provide it. I’m not suggesting for a moment that these claims are false, there are some fantastically well designed and produced putters available but ultimately, you as the golfer must learn how to get the ball in the hole with it.

If you really want to learn how to hole more putts, shoot lower score and ultimately have a whole lot more fun on the golf course, postpone that visit to the Pro Shop for the time being and order your copy of the best selling book – The Lost Art Of Putting.

Work on creating good putts and watch your stroke improve

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Training aids are all very well, argues The Lost Art of Putting author Gary Nicol, but not if they become a crutch denied to you when you step out on the course.

What does your current putting practice regime look like and are you sure it is helping you to hole more putts on the course?

All too often, we see golfers of all standards, from weekend players to tour pros, “working” on their putting with an array of all kinds of gadgets and training aids – from putting gates to alignment mirrors, and chalk lines to lasers.

While they might look like they are working hard, what are they actually achieving? What happens when you have to leave your putting aids in the locker room before you head out on the course?

Using training aids can be helpful but the main issue with the vast majority of them is that they focus your attention on what you and your putter need to do at the start line of the putt.

While starting the ball on line is part of the equation, that start line will depend greatly on the pace you hit any putt.

Think of all the training aids you use or have seen. Do they focus your attention on line or pace? What is more important, line or pace? Pace determines the line, pace gives you options on line. Conversely, focusing your attention on line, which almost all putting aids do subconsciously, limits you to one pace, perfect pace.

If all your attention is exclusively on line, how can you possibly get the pace right? Think about that for a minute. If pace determines line, why do we spend a disproportionate amount of time focusing on the line?

Over and above that, if you spend all your time practising with training aids, what happens when you have to pack them away in your golf bag or leave them in the locker room when you head to the course? If you become so reliant on certain aids that you can only hole putts when using them, what happens when you are in a situation where you are not allowed to use them – ie on the golf course?

You get to the green, mark your ball, read the green and now you have to create a putt with no mirror to check your eyeline, no rails to guide your stroke and no start-line gates to go through. You become so accustomed to having all these gadgets then all of a sudden, your comfort blanket has been removed.

Having spent so much time training your stroke and start line, generally hitting straight putt after straight putt from a fixed point, you are faced with a tricky 15-foot, downhill, left to right putt for par.

Now, you have to get the pace right as you don’t want to rush it 4 feet past or leave it 3 feet short bang on line. Your training aids haven’t exactly prepared you for this scenario.

You can’t rely on your gadgets on the course, so why spend so much time practising with them? All the training or practice you have done bears little or no resemblance to what you experience on the golf course, so why invest so much time and money on them?

To make the most of your time on the practice putting green, take what you will be using, and indeed are allowed to use, on the course. Namely, your putter and a golf ball.

Don’t take three golf balls: after all, you don’t get a second or third attempt on the golf course. Leave your training aids behind and focus on holing one putt at a time.

By using one ball, your attention will be on getting that ball into the hole – not on your stroke, not on your eyeline and not on the start line. By focusing on what the ball needs to do rather than you and your putter, you can now start to pay attention to the finish line – the hole.

In order to become a truly great putter, you need to learn the skill of predicting what the ball needs to do to go in the hole.

Prediction-based on one opportunity, just as you have on the course.

Not prediction-based on what you learned from your first or second attempt. If you hole your third attempt from the same spot, you are not learning prediction, you are basically learning from and reacting to what happened on your previous attempts. Again, this is not a luxury you are allowed when you play.

If you must use your putting gates, make better use of them and place them just short of the point you want your ball to enter the hole. After all, the finish line is more important than the start line.

To hole more putts, it is essential to create good putts not good putting strokes. The paradox here is that as you get better at controlling your golf ball, your technique improves.

We are led to believe that the stroke creates the putt, whereas we have seen sufficient evidence to suggest that the putt in fact creates the stroke.

Work on holing putts and your stroke and strike will improve and here is the evidence to support that.

“My stroke has improved technically in every area, and I have spent precisely no time working on my stroke.”

Sports Publications’ commercial director and scratch handicapper Tom Irwin is amazed by the transformation in his putting.

Before

“I have always been a negative putter. In all senses of the word: negative about my abilities, and with a negative approach on the course. I have never really been comfortable with my technique, I have always struggled with strike and therefore pace and distance control. Rounds with putts in the mid-30s are commonplace.

“When Gary and Karl asked us to work with them on The Lost Art of Putting it was a privilege to spend so much time with them, listen to what they had to say about the ‘art’ of putting and, of course, read the book.

“I have to admit that it took me a long time to convert, at first sceptical about what felt like a non-scientific, non-technical approach. In search of the answer I went on a SAM putting lab late last year and the results were predictably awful.

“So, over winter, away from competitive golf I have taken on board many of the principles of The Lost of Art of Putting. Like visualisation, reading putts from the low side and practice strokes while looking at the hole. Plus I have used many of the practice drills they recommend.

After

“I felt that my putting was getting better, but I wanted some reassurance so I went back on the SAM Lab and the results were staggering.

“As you can see from the numbers, my stroke has improved technically in every area, and I have spent precisely no time working on my stroke. Amazing!”

How trusting his technique has transformed McIlroy’s putting

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What can you say about Rory McIlroy the hasn’t been said before? His ball striking is off the charts. He is arguably the best driver of the golf ball in the modern game. When he plays his best, he is virtually untouchable. His recent run of form has been incredible!

Over the last six weeks, Rory’s record has been pretty special and elevated him to the top of the FedEx Cup rankings, amassing a cool $4.5 million along the way.

  • Sony Tournament of Champions: T4th
  • Farmers Insurance Open: T5th
  • Genesis Open: T4th
  • WGC-Mexico Championship: 2nd
  • Arnold Palmer Invitational: T6th
  • The Players Championship: 1st

Rory is currently the hottest player on the plant right now but the general consensus among the armchair experts is that he can’t putt.

En-route to winning at Sawgrass, he made 21 birdies and an eagle over four days, finishing on 16-under-par, one shot clear of the evergreen Jim Furyk.

Can’t putt? Really?

Trust me, it is impossible to win round that course, or any other golf course for that matter, if you can’t putt. Granted, his putting may not quite match up to the exceptionally high standards of his long game but he is working on it and it is clearly paying dividends.

As he approaches his 30th birthday, Rory is becoming a more complete golfer than ever before and I would not be at all surprised if his best days are ahead of him rather than behind him, as many have been suggesting in recent weeks.

All the doubters who have been calling him out and saying he can’t get the job done at the weekend will hopefully be overdosing on humble pie after his history-making performance at Sawgrass last weekend.

McIlroy is not just a great ball striker and a phenomenal athlete but a serial winner. He may not have won as often as some might think he should have but he has won all over the world and won big.

Rory McIlroy putting

Rory is a bright guy. He knows what he needs to do in order to improve and embraces that at every opportunity. In an interview after winning The Players, he said: “Honestly, I think it was all those experiences coming close and not winning early in the season that helped me today.”

Rather than beat himself up for not winning, he put those experiences to good use, knowing one day they would be beneficial to him.

The first time I saw Rory in the flesh was during a practice round in Qatar way back in 2008 when he asked if he join one of the guys I was coaching for the back nine. At the time he was a slightly chubby with a shock of curly hair sticking out from under his cap. He hit the ball a country mile, his short game was razor sharp and he putted with incredible confidence and freedom. While he didn’t hole everything from from everywhere, he certainly looked like he could.

Above all, he was very tuned in to what he needed to do on the golf course in order to construct a score. It was fairly evident way back then that he had a very high golf IQ.

Rory McIlroy putting: So what’s changed?

Since that first encounter, his body shape has obviously changed, he has become an even better ball striker, he has fantastic imagination and creativity, and while his putting may not have progressed at quite the same rate, he has continued to work that aspect of his game.

He has sought counsel from Phil Kenyon, who has done some great technical work with him. He also spends a good amount of time with Brad Faxon, universally recognised as one of the all time great putters. He has looked at putting from both a technical and an artistic point of view in a bid to find the best way forward for Rory McIlroy.

Faxon’s take on the art of putting allowed Rory to “free up my head more than my stroke”.

He added: “I sort of felt like I had been complicating things a bit and thinking a little bit too much about it and maybe a little bit bogged down by technical or mechanical thoughts.”

Rory McIlroy putting

When he trusts his technique and just lets his talent and considerable skills take over – guess what? – he starts to hole putts like he used to when he was winning majors and making the rest of he field look decidedly average at times.

Long may that continue.

With the Masters looming large on the horizon only a few weeks away, Rory’s current form will surely make him one of if not the favourite to slip on that coveted Green Jacket on April 14.

Can you imagine the looks on the faces of the players at the Champions Dinner in 2020 when they sit down to an Ulster fry and pints of Guinness?

Golf is in a much better place when its superstars are grabbing all the headlines and McIlroy is unquestionably a superstar. Even those who think he “can’t putt” must agree with that.

Keep up the good work, Rory, and we all look forward to seeing you ease into that Green Jacket some day soon.

Improve your putting with this ladder drill

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Gary Nicol and Karl Morris are co-authors of the best-selling book The Lost Art Of Putting, so who better to give us some putting tips? This time, they show us a drill that involves just a few tees…

The ladder drill involves a handful of tees and will help you to improve your putting. The first thing you do is make a semicircle of tees around the back of the hole, a grip length away from the hole.

You then place a tee a few feet away, then another tee a few feet past and so on depending on how far you want to go back. The aim of the game is to hole the putt but make sure you don’t go outside of the tees behind the hole.

If you come up short or go past the tees you need to start again. If you hole the putt or finish in between the tees and the hole, you can move onto the next station.

You don’t need to move to the next station on the ladder. If you want you can go from the first to the third or simply whatever range of putting you want to work on the most. The only rule is that to move onto a new station you must either hole the putt, or make sure the ball does not travel past the tees.

Watch the video at the top of the page for more advice from Gary and Karl.

How to make the most of your time on the putting green

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How can Trackman performance software help you to improve your putting? Gary Nicol is joined by Trackman expert Matt Wiley at Archerfield Links to talk through a few of the parameters that will help you improve on the greens.

Here, they ask what you would do if you had 10 spare minutes on the putting green before a round.

“If you get the pace right all of a sudden putting becomes a lot easier. You take away the opportunity to three-putt if you get the pace right as you tend to be not too far off with the line.

So if you can do some exercises on your pace putting you really can help towards getting rid of those three-putts altogether.

If you are able to use a Trackman whether that be with your local pro or have access elsewhere, being able to measure your putts is a great ability to have. It really shows you your tenancies and being able to know your distances is a great way to learn.”

Gary hit four consecutive putts around 16.5 feet. Without Trackman, he wouldn’t be able to appreciate the distance the ball travelled.

The Trackman putting performance software is there so you don’t have to guess. Knowing what numbers your putts are generating is key to learning what you need to improve.

Watch the video at the top of the page for a full explanation from Gary and Matt.

Want 2019 to be your best year ever? Take action now

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As you reflect on your year in golf, ask yourself these questions:

Was 2018 a good year on the golf course for you?

Did you achieve what you set out to? Were your expectations met?

What can you learn from this year?

Reflection is a vital piece of the jigsaw if you are to take your golf game to where you really want it to be.

Is it possible that 2019 might be your best ever year on the golf course?

What does a good year look like?

If you don’t know the answers to these last two questions, could it be that you are essentially going through the motions every time you play golf without really having a clear intention of what you would really like to achieve on the golf course?

We all play golf for different reasons. As golfers, we all clearly like to be outdoors. We like to spend time with our friends in a relaxed and informal environment. We love the challenge that golf presents us but how quickly do we lose sight of all of the reasons we love the game when we slice a tee shot off the first or three putt yet again?

Grab a notebook and pen and write down what you really love about playing golf. This may sound like a strange thing to do but trust me, this is a worthwhile exercise. Before you know it, you’ll be writing down reasons you play golf that you have probably forgotten about or lost sight of.

If that is the case, perhaps it’s time for a rethink, time for you to create a new you as a golfer. Time to start afresh. If you don’t do this, the likelihood of you ever making any real, measurable progress as a golfer is minimal at best.

If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got.

If you want to avoid another disappointing year on the golf course and believe that 2019 could possibly be your best ever, you must do one thing. Take action!

You can think and talk about it all you like but until you actually do something about it, until you take action, nothing will change.

This time last year, Karl Morris and I were talking about writing a book on putting. We could have talked endlessly about it but the fact if the matter is, we took action and put pen to paper.

Twelve months down the line and The Lost Art Of Putting has been a best seller on Amazon and the feedback we have received from around the world has been extremely positive.

It is incredibly rewarding to hear so many putting success stories from our students and people who have read the book and ultimately taken action on the principles we share in the book.

If you haven’t read it, put The Lost Art Of Putting on your Christmas wish list and we look forward to hearing your very own success stories over the coming months once you have done the one thing you need to. Take action!

Seasons greetings from everyone at The Lost Art Of Putting which is available in both hardback and Kindle on Amazon.

The Lost Art of Putting Podcast – Episode 6

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Episode 6

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The Lost Art of Putting

The Lost Art of Putting, by Karl Morris and Gary Nicol and featuring a foreword from 1999 Open champion Paul Lawrie, is available in hardback and for Kindle from Amazon in the UK and US.

The Lost Art of Putting Podcast – Epsiode 5

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Episode 5

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Try this two-ball drill to improve your putting

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Gary Nicol and Karl Morris are co-authors of the best-selling book The Lost Art Of Putting, so who better to give us some insight into how to improve our game on the greens?

The first of a series of eight instruction videos from Archerfield is about line and pace…

Bradshaw’s Balls

This is a drill used by the late Harry Bradshaw, one of Ireland’s greatest golfers and three-time Ryder Cup star.

Before heading to the 1st tee, almost every golfer will head to the putting green and take three balls out of their bag. Next time, take two out and putt your first ball to somewhere on the green – but not to the hole.

Pay close attention to how your ball reacts.

With your second ball, try to imagine a spot under the first ball and dislodge that ball with enough pace so the second ball comes to rest on that very spot.

If the second ball dislodges the first ball you will have hit your second putt on the right line with exactly the right pace.

Watch the video above and give it a try next time you’re working on your putting.