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.