Putting Lessons in Colorado

1 November, 2011 peter no responses

Putting Lessons in Colorado

How important is putting in becoming a top player? It is commonly described as the biggest decider in tournament victories on top tours. It is often the tour professionals that putt best who take home trophies, big paychecks, and move up in rankings. Conversely, putting dramatically hurts scoring when at a low level. Players will not get the most from their rounds. Players can’t take advantage of good ball striking and short games if they commonly miss putts. If you were to ask any top player how important putting is to scoring, you would be overwhelmed by the emphasis put on putting.

My teaching approach to putting came from numerous sources, and because of this, my putting knowledge is again the accumulation of knowledge gained from many. These sources include many professionals and teachers. Out of these individuals, a few had a tremendous impact on the way I teach putting. These individuals are Carl Welty, Mike Shannon, Dave Stockton, Marius Filmalter, Stan Utley, and Dave Pelz. These six individuals spend significant amounts of time working with players on putting. These teachers have different styles and approaches towards teaching putting, yet they all have valuable knowledge. To them, thank you.

Another source of knowledge is research. This research came from technology developed in the last decade and by studying techniques of top putters. Recent technological research has been eye opening for teachers and players. Recent technology can record accurate information about putting technique. It allows us to examine variables found in putting strokes of the world’s best putters.

The similarities and differences in great putters became my guide in determining the important elements of putting. This information took a great deal of time to acquire, mainly due to the difficulty of obtaining quality putting information. I had to interact with countless individuals in the golf industry while traveling throughout the country. There are essential qualities seen in all great putting strokes; there are also some differences seen in the putting strokes of top players.

In my putting instruction, I help players identify which movements are important for their stroke, and which idiosyncrasies can be left alone. I do like to use some tools in my putting instruction to help obtain information about students’ putting stroke. I commonly use a video camera and TOMI Putting System to help identify overall stroke consistency and variables occurring in the student’s putting stroke. These tools help me make a recommendation on the type of putter that best suits the player’s stroke tendencies. In my putting instruction, I also heavily analyze the student’s ability in the areas of green reading, distance control, putting routine, and practice habits. These areas have just as much importance as the putting stroke itself. Without strength in all of these areas, obtaining a high level of putting is very difficult. For these reasons, I commonly give putting lessons that take around 3 hours. In these 3 hours, the student will gain information about all areas of their putting and will leave with a game plan for putting improvement.