THE ELLIOTT 

PRACTICE PUTTING ROUTINE

Do you want to dramatically improve your putting?  

Are you having 28-30 putts per round or more like 36-40 putts per round?

Do you know how to get to 28-30 putts per round?  Do not be in the dark any longer on the putting green!

There is a way to practice putting that will get you to 28-30 putts per round.  It is my method of putting practice. My method of putting practice will push you to drastically improve your ability to visualize the making of breaking putts and to read the break on putts, and it is learning by doing.

Give it a try!  My Elliott Putting Pracice Routine can be found in Chapter 8 of my instructional book, "BREAKTHROUGH IN GOLF" which can be obtained on Amazon for a very modest price.

Good luck!

Curtis Elliott

 PUTTING CALIBRATION PART 4:

In Part 3, I indicated to putt well you must (1) read the break to line the putt up before addressing the ball, and (2) must line up the putt correctly at address.

This part 4 is short. BUT the point of this Part 4 is crucial. In order to instill the right mind's eye of reading the putt break line, the secret is that you have to FIRST LINE UP PUTTS AT ADDRESS AND PRACTICE PUTTING THEM into the hole to build up your mind's eye!

WHY?  This  is the secret:  practicing lining up and putting along the correct break line with "made" breaking putts is a pre-condition or reinforcement of building up your line up or putt break reading skills when lining up the putt before putting!  

The best way and the only essential way to build up your break reading ability to get the line of the putt clear in your mind's eye is by actually making the putt in the first place.  Every single golfer of any putting ability will tell you that they have good days and bad days of "reading the line" on a putt.  Sometimes you see the line as clear as a bell, and some days it's just plain hard or evem impossible to get the line down and to "see" it before standing up to the putt.  But the way to improve how to "see" or read the break line is by the practice of making that putt and watching it break into the hole repetitively - that is what builds up your "seeing the line" before you line it up!!

This is why making EACH PUTT  5 TIMES IN A ROW AND WATCHING IT GO IN BUILDS UP YOUR ABILITY TO READ THE PUTT IN THE FIRST PLACE.

In part 5, I will explain why a full array of putts has to be grooved to improve putting confidence and to build up your skill in reading the break.

 PUTTING CALIBRATION - PART 3

In Parts 1 and 2, I explained how putting improvement is so much more than putting mechanics, which is the entire focus of the golf industry on the part of both instructors and players and the golf media.  This fanatical focus on mechanics is so far out of line, because once your basis putting mechanics are ironed out TO A REASONABLE DEGREE, the pathway to improved putting is then to shift focus on shot by shot and putt by putt practice - without thinking of mechanics.

In Part 2, I compared putting to a basketball player practicing and grooving 3 pointers.  That is fundamental to understanding the acquisitoin of the essential "feel" for putting, based on eyesight not only in reading a putt's break but in lining up and executing the putt.  The mind's eye has to have BOTH:  (1) THE LINE READ BEFORE THE PUTT AND (2) THE LINE UP OF THE PUTT AT ADDRESS.  

You cannot putt these two crucial components together until you understand how each one of these two parts is achieved and how they interact with one another..  

1.  HOW DO YOU ACHIEVE MIND'S EYE CALIBRATION IN READYING PUTTS?  The answer is likely not satisfying to you because it is not easy.  It is acheived by hard won practice in reading putts over and over.  You keep looking for the break line and at first it does not even appear, then appears very spotily, then when you get to the "zone" at your best, you actually do read and "see" the line.  When you are totally dialed in to seeing and reading the line, you stand up over a putt, KNOWING that you have the line down and the level of confidence you have standing over that putt is, use your own adjective, "tremendous" , "formidable" , "certain" , "strong" or "in the zone."  Anyone who has ever putting really well, even for just a round or two, knows this feeling of confidence, because it is based on the fact that, at that time, you did correctly "read" the break line on the putt before standing over it.  But why is this so ephemeral?  That is the million dollar question.  And the answer is tied back to question Number 2, which actually needs to be asked in reverse before you read a putt.

2.  HOW DO YOU ACHIVE MIND'S EYE CALIBRATOIN WHEN ADDRESSING AND STANDING OVER A PUTT?  The answer to this question is a deeply crucial putting fundamental, not quite a mechanic, but a rule of the highest importance.  The reason it is so crucial and fundamenatlly important to putting is that it is the lynchpin of BOTH (1) reading the putt before executing the putt AND (2) lining up the putt accurately.  The secret is that when address the putt, you as the player MUST HAVE AND ALIGN YOUR EYES DIRECTLY ON TOP OF AND OVER THE BALL ROLL LINE.  TIGER WOODS CALL S IT THE MOST CRUCIAL ELEMENT OF GOOD PUTTING.

3.  WHY SO CRUCIAL ON EYES OVER THE BALL LINE AT ADDRESS?  The answer is that what you see in break lining up a putt cannot be translated to correct alignment unless the eyes are  over the ball.  And, the other answer is that unless you putt like that, you cannot achive "minds eye" sensitivity to lining up putts IN THE FIRST PLACE!  LINING UP PUTTS WITH YOUR EYES OVER THE BALL IS A FORM OF PRACTICE IN BUILDING CUMULATIVE SKIILL IN READING THE BREAK LINE BEFOREHAND, AND BEFORE THE PUTT EVER OCCURS!  Eyes over the ball line and practicing reading break lines go hand in hand, as a matter of both exectuion and putting practice.  That is what 99% of golfers, pros and amateurs, do not grasp.

In my next part, Part 4:   The real secret to great putting practice.