Golf tips from the Pro: The long and the short of putting

Perhaps the most popular adage in golf is “Drive for show, putt for dough.”

In this segment of Golf Tips from the Pro, Heritage Plantation PGA teaching pro Jeff Marks looks at life on the green and discusses how to sink the money putts.

Short putts

You have to be able to putt. It doesn’t matter whether you’re Tiger Woods or an amateur playing for 50 cents in a little skins match.

There are a lot of philosophies on putting.

My feeling is any time you are within about seven or eight feet you want to take some of the break out of the putt. The biggest mistake people make is they either read too much break or not enough break, and they try to “die” their putts into the hole (just fall in).

When you are putting on ultra dwarf or any kind of Bermuda grass they tend to be grainy. What I find is that putts that die to the hole usually curl left or right or stay short.

What I like to do in reading my putts is, No. 1, I like to get behind the golf ball a good 10 or 15 feet because the more you move back (and kneel down) the more the ball comes up to eye-level. It’s very easy to read it (from further back). If I get close all I can see is the first foot before the hole.

It’s always a good idea too to read your putt from the side to see if it’s uphill or downhill.

On the short putts you want to be somewhat firm. Tom Watson’s philosophy was if you were going to die it into the cup, and it was it was going to break three inches, play half of that break, and hit it nice and firm. You are going to make your share of putts on Bermuda grass or ultra dwarf like we have here.

If you look at golf on TV you’ll notice the pros always hit the back of the cup. It rarely dies (going) in from 10 feet. Amateurs need to follow suit.

As far as my basics go, I want to play the ball forward in my stance — about an inch inside my left heel — where my driver would be. That will promote forward roll and get the ball to hold the line much better.

I like to get my eyes over my putt. It’s very important to use a pendulum motion where you don’t use your wrists very much. I find a lot of people put a lot of wrist action into the stroke, and that changes your putter face in the loft so anything can happen in direction and distance.

Again, nice and solid over the putt, ball off my left heel (right heel for left-handers), eyes over my putt, and then I want to hit it firm enough where if it doesn’t go in it goes about two feet past the hole.

I always like to take a couple of practice strokes just get feel and imagine what kind of distance I need to take the putter back and get it to go the distance I needed it to go.

Long putts

I heard an interesting stat that from 15 feet the average tour pro makes about 35 percent of his putts, so the average amateur might make five or 10 percent.

What I’m hoping for if I’m the average 20 handicapper is to get it within a foot or two of the hole so I can get my two-putt and move on.

One cardinal sin in putting is you do not want to three-putt, so outside of 10 feet you always want to get it close enough for the tap-in.

A rule of thumb in putting: If you picture a hula hoop around the cup, get it in the hula hoop. Don’t be a hero, don’t try to get in the cup from outside 10 feet. Just try to get it close enough.

If it happens to go in, it goes in.

Use the same criteria for reading the putt as you do with the shorter putts. Again, here we aren’t trying to make the putt, but just get it close.

You want to play plenty of break. I draw an imaginary line I think will be the path from the ball to the hole. Then I draw an imaginary hole that becomes my target.

Let’s say we have about a foot of break. I’m going to pick a spot on the apex of my curve and this becomes my new target. I want to hit it with enough speed to roll over my new target and just trickle down to the cup and get inside the hula-hoop.

If you have a question for Heritage Plantation PGA teaching pro Jeff Marks please e-mail it to News Bulletin Sports Editor Randy Dickson at randyd@crestviewbulletin.com, or mail it to Randy Dickson, 295 W. James Lee Blvd., Crestview 32536. Please slug e-mail “Golf question.” Watch video versions of these tips at crestviewbulletin.com. The complete archive of Jeff Marks’ golf tips also is available at crestviewbulletin.com. Type “Jeff Marks” in the search window.