As we have seen in the previous articles: August, 2006 to January 2007;
Matt (I) took a series of lessons from Tim McElhinny (golf pro and proprietor at Painted Hills Golf Course).
Tim McElhinny
So many things need to perfected to be a good putter. Tim's first concept was to try and get me to 'roll' the ball and not 'hit' the ball. When I putt I have
the look of 'hitting' the ball. My putter looks like it just 'strikes' the ball. There is no smooth stroke to the way my putter contacts the ball. After several trys
at rolling the ball it seemed as though I was starting to get it. The putter needs to contact the golf ball and then follow the ball toward the target without hesitation.
Before this lesson my putter would strike the golf ball and actually stop for a split second.
The best way to describe this motion is in the photo of the pendulum balls. When the first ball strikes the other balls it stops and the 'energy' is transfered to the
other balls. Much like the way I was putting, I would 'strike' the ball with my putter and transfer the energy by stoping my putter. Now I want to 'roll' the golf ball and
this can be accomplished by a smooth follow through with the putter along the path of the golf ball after the 'contact' point!
Putting is not a natural act; therefore to become good one must practice these newly learned concepts a lot! And to 'perfect' these lessons it is even harder. So Tim has given me a couple
of routines to do each time I come to the course. First of all Tim says; "great golfers spend more time on the practice green than the driving range", as a matter of fact Tim says; "that I need to spend 2:1 more
time". In other words if I hit 2 buckets of balls at the range (which takes 1 hour) then I need to spend 2 hours on the putting green. Wow, no wonder my putting is weak.
The first routine I call 'walk the line'; which consists of lining up balls approximately 3 feet apart and then putting each ball at the same hole. This routine develops ones 'feel' for distance control. Obviously
each putt will take a longer swing, but the key is how much, and then memorizing that swing! Tim feels very strongly about developing a 'system of mechanics' in golf in order to repeat each swing. If golfers rely on nothing but 'feel'
then it is practically impossible to be consistent from day to day. In other words we need to go back to the 'clock' concept we learned a couple of months ago in the 'chipping' lesson
(click here). Obivously, to become that good at anything takes lots of practice, but more than practice will be the focus on details, it is hard to specifically swing
from say 7:00 at a putt each time the same speed and then measure how far the ball will roll! Remember after learning this we need to figure out how to use this on actually golf course situations! Again - WOW!
Now, the second photo shows the 'circle of death' which hopefully you all know about from my Montedamasher golf tips (click here). I believe this is extremely important
to learn because it develops ones 'eye' to see the subtle breaks on short putts. And lots and lots of PGA Golfers can be seen using this same routine, like Phil Mickleson for instance.
