Golf Putting Tip 2

Being able to make four-foot putts consistently provides a tremendous advantage. This will take pressure off your short game and your long game.

Putting Tip 2. Being able to make four-foot putts consistently provides a tremendous advantage. Not only will fewer three putt greens occur, but confidence about getting the ball in the hole in two shots from off the green will also be enhanced. This will take pressure off your short game, which should then take pressure off your long game and allow you to reach more greens in regulation, one shot for par three, tow shots for a par four, and three shots for a par five. So the whole game improves merely from learning how to make four footers!

The psychological challenge is to reduce the pressure and anxiety elicited by short putts, and this requires a little psychological trickery. That is, while the objective is to make every putt, if you keep saying, "I gotta make it, I gotta make it," so much pressure and anxiety can build that missing the putt becomes almost inevitable. Ironically, in order to make the putt, it is necessary to convince yourself that making it isi actually secondary importance. What becomes primary in importance is the action taken at the point of contract with the ball. In effect, you say to yourself: "if I can keep my head still and hit the ball firmly and squarely for the first six inches, then I have done my job. The remaining three and a half feet will take care of themselves.

In other words, don't take responsibility for getting the ball in the hole. Only take responsibility for the first six inches, leaving the rest of the putt to forces beyond your control. Do your job at the point of contact, recognize the limits of your control beyond that  point, and the pressure and anxiety will be relieved.