Yes most greens have changes in elevation and require players to aim away from the cup, but there is a common mistake done by most amateur players that causes putts to finish off line. To be a successful putter, players have to correctly read the break in the greens, correctly judge the speed, as well as execute the proper strike producing a true roll. Most amateurs see way too much break or even see putts going in the wrong direction. This is not always because of a wrong read of the read but rather the curvature added to putts caused by off center hits.
For most players this curvature is forced in a “hook” fashion or as a right hander, a putt curving right to left. This is a result from players having too much focus on the hole because of little to no focus on their finish. This may be because it is much easier to see curvature off of the driver while missing into the other fairway, but the same thing is occurring on the putting green on a smaller scale. A common phrase in putting is missing on the “low side”. No matter the handedness of the player, these putts finish their roll on the bottom side of the cup.
This unreliable movement can be eliminated by focusing on the players finish position. When on the practice putting green there also needs to be an added habit of practicing from a longer distance. This practice habit helps to see when curvature is being minimized. True rolls can not be seen when the ball ball is only rolling for inside of six feet. When observing our finish we want the middle strike line on our putters to finish at our aim point NOT the hole.
While having the clubface just hoovering around our feet in putting, we want to maximize the time that clubface staying square. To help maintain our putter clubface staying square as long as possible, with my players we visualize a clock face. On the takeaway we turn our body back to six o’clock, once achieved, we return our body and clubface to twelve noon. Curvature is added to the left when the toe of the putter is pointed left or NOT forward. Curvature is added to the right due to the finish of the club's toe being “open” or to the right of noon. This improvement of a putting stroke from six o'clock to noon will result in more true rolls as well as give your golf ball a greater chance of staying on line to end up at the bottom of the cup!
