Golf Instruction

By Harold Swash

This article is extracted from a series of folding pocket lessons for leading international golf coaches called Pocketshots™. Visit www.dizzyheights.com for more details on the entire Pocketshot™ series.

Introduction

Harold Swash has more than 40 years of experience in the golf industry as a coach, golf club designer and inventor of putting training aids and the 'Yes C' groove putters. He is a leading authority on putting and instructor to many of the world's top professional and amateur golfers. He has coached 8 of the 12 players on the winning European Ryder Cup team, and we all know how good they are at holing putts.

Assessing Your Skills and Recording Your Stats

How good are the Tour Pros? Here are the putting stats for Tour players over the last three years.

	Average	Best Players
Putts/GIR	1.8	1.7
Putts/Round	29.7	28
GIR/Round	11.8	13.8

Self-assessment Grid

Copy this grid to help you record your putting statistics, or just annotate your standard scorecard. This can be downloaded from http://www.dizzyheights.com/.

• Enter the number of putts
• Whether you hit the Green In Regulation (GIR) or not (Y/N)
• The length of the putt: Long (L) >15 feet; Medium (M) 6 to 15 feet; Short (S) < 6 feet
• Whether you missed it left (L) or right (R)
• Whether you were short (S) or long (L)
• Total up the number of Putts per GIR and Putts per Round

Watch your Putts per Round tumble! Average your Putts per GIR over a number of rounds to give you a feel of how you compare to the Pros! Make your own notes on what you need to work on. Compare your scores with your friends and see who's the undisputed best putter!

Selecting your Putter

Most putters have between 2 and 4 degrees of loft (i.e. the angle of the putter blade to the ground). In my opinion, with the ideal hand position at address the ideal loft is 2.5 degrees.

Finally choose a putter to help you line up. Do you use the line on the putter head to line up or the putter face to square off to? Whichever putter you choose, you must feel comfortable with it.

Finding the Sweetspot

To find the sweetspot: Hold the putter with your weakest hand between thumb and forefinger at the point where your lowest hand normally holds the grip.

Take a tee peg between the thumb and forefinger of your strongest hand and tap along the face until the putter moves back and does not twist.

When you find the spot, mark it on the putter so you can see it at address. By combining the four fundamentals and striking from the sweetspot every time, I guarantee your putting will improve.

Summary

The blade of the putter needs to be square to the target at both the address and strike position. The blade of the putter needs to be square to the path through the hitting area. The putter blade needs to have a slight up stroke through the hitting area.

The putter blade needs to have a smooth acceleration through the hitting area.

Choose a putter that you feel comfortable with. Get the right grip and setup position and stick to it. Develop a pre-shot routine and stick to it when you practice and play. You should only have this pre-shot routine in mind when you approach your putt on the course.

For further information about golf instruction, training aids and the C groove putter visit www.haroldswashputting.com. For more informationabout C-grove putters visit www.yesgolf.com.

We recommend you use one of these great sites to keep track of your improvement: www.strokeaverage.com and www.golfscoretracker.co.uk.

Published by Dizzy Heights UK Limited.© Pocketshots™ and Dizzy Heights™ are trademarks of Dizzy Heights (UK) Limited all other trademarks are acknowledged. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part or in any form.