Golf is a personal opportunity that lets you throw a challenge at yourself as it empowers with its diversity. The game is filled with countless different rules, ways, equipment, unpredictability, and most of all, instincts.
When instincts are mentioned in golf, it immediately will remind oneself of putting. The fastest and easiest way to reduce your golf score is by improving your putting, to some, this has become a lost art.
Putting is a golf stroke. This is done by a special kind of golf club called the putter. Placing sticks are one such golf items that you can’t be without. Just as essential as your other things are, putting sticks makes no difference.
The putter is the flat stick one club that you are supposed to use twice on every hole. It might look similar to any other clubs, but it varies from those. The grip in putters is a lot different than the other clubs.
Putters were once carved out of a single piece of wood and called putting cleek. This was way back around 3000 years ago. It was only during the 1800s that a metalhead was attached to putting cleeks.
It is followed by a very twisted version of golf balls. Flash forward to 2019, we now have lots of different kinds of putters consisting of refined metals, space-age materials, etc.
What Matters in a Putter
To avoid lagging your putts you should consider strengthening your fundamentals. By focusing on the following options, you can improve your trajectory vastly.
Length of the putter to determine your posture
Length of the putter is very crucial. It helps to determine your posture. In fact, the length of each of the clubs is just as important as that of the putter itself. It helps you by allowing you to be at the proper stance to make consistent and accurate putts every time.
The trick is to level the position with your eyeball level after you duck your head down a bit. You can use a mirror or even ask your friend to guide you for the positioning to make it simpler. You’ve got to make sure that your eye is over the ball (relax, not literally) for you to determine the length.
Lie Angle to make constant contact
Lie angle is interlinked with the length of the putter. It is when your putter is level with the ground and is sitting horizontally. This helps you to make constant contact with the golf ball.
When you are looking over the ball, you get the precise lie angle. Lie angle can be said to be dependent on how you aim. If you’re pointing your shot down, it will go to the right or vice versa.
Loft to reach the target quicker
The loft is important. That is to get the ball up on top of the turf by rolling forward as much and as fast as you possibly can. This will ensure for you to reach the target quicker.
If you have a ten-foot putt, one foot of it is going to be the skid. The putter will maximize the ability to get it rolling faster.
You have to keep in mind that either you are pressing and flipping the club or you already got it straight as much loft to put on. Otherwise, you take off to make that accurate strike.
However, it is said that you must be carrreful about your greens. The faster or the more manicured your greens , probably the less loft you could use. Accordingly, when your greens are more edgy and fuzzy, you will need to put a little bit more loft on it. There’s no harm in doing so.
Grip for comfortable shot
Grips can be of tons of different styles. Go for the one that suits best for you. It’s always safer to go for what fits right in your hands and gives you enough confidence.
It can be the most popular one, the traditional one or even the soft one. As long as it is aligned properly, you should be good to go.
Aim to get proper line shots
The aim has to do with offsets. In other words, the offset is the plumber’s neck. This ‘neck’ of the plumber can vary. Some come in a straight line, some with a bend, etc.
Nevertheless, that’s not how the offsets are defined by. The offsets depend on the number of shafts. It could be a full shaft, half shaft or a quarter shaft offset.
Which Putter Should You Go For
It can be difficult to understand with so many different putters featuring numerous different alignments, aids, patterns, and markings on stores these days. While choosing your putter, you must find the putter that works best for your mechanics, your build and the way your putting stroke is shaped.
No matter the number of popular putters in stores, none can improve your putting as much as solid practice can. The only thing that will help you to improve putting is practice. For you to get better, make sure the practice is your key.
To get a better understanding of putters, here are three main kinds of putters to help you to have your pick.
SightLine Putters
Sightlines allow you to show how you can aim at the ball. Once you’re on top of it, you can finally see the nice and flat line. There are typically 1-4 lines on these types of putters.
Most people tend to confuse these lines and get distracted. In reality, if you have a solid alignment, you can step up your alignment game with these putters. Poor understanding of alignment lines can often lead to poor shots and inconsistency.
Nonetheless, with a strong knowledge of alignment, you’ll be able to let the sight lines guide you well enough. Additionally, these putters let you hit it in a perpendicular square fashion to roll the ball up onto the grass. They can be of both blades or mallets with horizontal or vertical lines both on the top or on the bottom.
Pros
- Accuracy in aim
- Horizontal and vertical lines provide precisions
- Helps build up alignment skills
- Lets you line up once you’re over the ball
- More lines will help you line up better
- Gives a crisp strike with a nice roll on the ball
Cons
- Can distract you to the point that you end up missing your putts
- Slightly problematic for people who have trouble seeing straight lines
- Extremely inconsistent as the deviation keeps altering
Sight Dot Putters
The sight dot putters are usually of blades and not mallets unlike the line putters. They can be of both blades and mallets. As the name suggests, these putters have a dot on the center of the top line for the golfer to aim and putt.
By utilizing the sight dot, you can make sure that you’re striking the putt properly. If your stroke is more consistent, you will be much more comfortable at address with the sight dot.
On breaking putts, sight dot putters keep the ball higher to the line. If you are a right-handed golfer, the center of the mass of your putter will always be in the middle whenever you are taking a right-to-left putt.
Similarly, if you want to change the direction and bring the center of mass to the inside, you will have to carefully align the toe dot exactly behind the ball. This makes the putt pulled to the left by making it a dozen times harder for you to aim your putting.
Hence, the dots on these blade headed putters help you to focus on your aim by keeping the ball higher to the line where you putt.
Some good quality sight dot putters include Nike method 001, Odyssey or Scottys. However, you can also get creative and make your dot on your putter. All you would need is a vinyl cutting machine with which you’d be able to make a precise, sticky dot and add it to your putter.
Pros
- Perfect training aids for beginners
- Huge level of consistency
- Dots let you play around on the putting green
- Arc is not forced but rather very smooth and natural
- Provides more eye line over the ball
- Gives you confidence over the ball and the lie angle
Cons
- Time-consuming
- Takes longer to get used to
- Doesn’t provide loads of protection on the putter head
Naked Putters
Don’t worry! I’m not going to ask you to go by the name for this one. Naked putters simply mean the putters which have neither of the two. Meaning, these putters neither have sight lines nor do they have sight dots on them.
I feel that these putters let you be freer as your mind does not get confined on specific sets of classifications because you are not forced to choose between lines or dots. Instead, you are given the freedom to just swing and enjoy the game it to the fullest.
Naked putters are just as easy to use as sightline putters or sight dot putters. Nevertheless, the only way to aim is to use the top line directly perpendicular to your aim. Many people tend to find it comforting for not having to follow a sight line or dot and claim to have a vast improvement on their putting.
If you want to allow your mind to be at ease or loosen up your putting motion, this can be a perfect fit for you. Similarly, it is suitable for you to use when you think you have been too stressed figuring out how lines or dots work.
The 2013 Black Mist Newport and ProV1 are some promising brands with delicate features that you could check out. Additionally, you can make your naked putters just like dot putters as well.
The trick is simple. You would need a tape to tape things up over your dot putters or whichever putter you have. There you have it! Your DIY naked putter.
Pros
- Provides complete focus on your target
- Allows your strokes to be free
- More consistent
- Tighter tolerance
- Improves putting gradually
Cons
- Takes longer to adjust for beginners
- Relying purely on instincts may result in frequent wrong shots
Some Tips
Although putting might as well be the simplest among all the tasks in golf, it can also be one of the most daunting and frustrating mental tasks in golf. There is no more natural way of putting.
Why many out there find it frustrating is because it involves several ways. You can’t merely think to putt by clinging on to one single idea.
As complex as it may be, there are some ways to make the intricacies slightly convenient to suit your style. For instance, if you hit your putt rather softly, it takes more break than a firmly hit putt.
The number of breaks your ball will take is ensured by the pace at which you putt your ball. Mostly it takes between the hole and the starting point of your putt.
The multiple variations on putter head shapes (center-shaft, flow neck, mallet, cavity, face milling, heel shaft, plumber’s neck, blade, etc.) can vary your putting stroke, which it does on most occasions.
Some of the different kinds of putting strokes include down-the-line, straight-back-straight-through, swinging gate so on and so forth.
Putting is often not understood right by many of us. It is entirely dealt with your state of mind where most of us often fail to disregard. You should not fidget and fret when it comes to choosing your putter. Personal preference is what it widely counts on.
However, many golfers claim that it is your posture that matters. Some people can do wonders when they are given a longer putter and a lightweight clubhead. This puts them in control to alter their swing weight according to their preferences. Once you get the control, you gain confidence.
Our Final Thoughts
It is essential to keep in mind that you can’t expect to improve your putting overnight, no matter how many expensive items you purchase. It is entirely personal. Therefore, you have to be consistent and calm with this.
Without enough practice, your putting will always be a dull one. This is hardly ever the case as most avid golf lovers are driven by it because of the room of improvement the game provides.
Undoubtedly, getting your hands on the right products might be a tricky one. Hence, it is advised to try out what suits you best. Likewise, while you’re at it, be it line, dot or naked, remember to putt all your stress away with your aim and your mind.
