PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)

Geoff Mangum of the PuttingZone has created a large assortment of helpful PDFs with detailed tips for improving and mastering your putting.



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The 4 Skills of Putting
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
Every golfer needs four skills every putt! This PDF features a fantastic and succinct overview of the 4 Skills of Putting.

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Reading Putts as Revealed by Going Behind the Hole
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
If a putt's break seems elusive, try going behind the hole for a read, but be careful that you visualize the ball's roll as coming towards you and as slowing to drop-speed in this final entry section of the putt.

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Bounce the Putter to Locate the Ground
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
To stabilize your stroke and make sure your putterhead returns to impact in a vertical orientation for a solid roll, set the length of your putting system from pivot to turf by tapping the putterhead lightly at address and keep the pivot stable in your stroke.

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The Core Putt
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
Here's a tip that helps you tune your touch in to the green speed. I call it the "core" putt because it comes from the center of your manner of relating to the world, and that's what you need to get in touch with to activate your touch on the green.

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Dead-Eye Putting
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
The purpose of a putting routine is to use effective physical behaviors for gaining putting perceptions that promote your best read and stroke and to use effective postures and movement dynamics to execute your best stroke, and an integrated routine has four keys to effective targeting for optimizing a shoulder stroke from a square setup: eye dominance, eye position, gaze control, and neck-head turn.

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The Mechanics of Instincts and the Four Elements of Putting (Plus 55 Drills for Putting Skills)
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
All putting practice ought to be geared to one or more of the four basic elements and fundamentals of putting. That is, you need to know why you are practicing in a certain way, and what you are supposed to be learning from that specific practice, so you can see improvement in one of these four areas when you play.

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What the Heck is a Forward Press Good For?
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
A forward press is a bad trade for a little rhythm in your stroke, and at a minimum requires careful attention to how it is performed to avoid creating problems.

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Gaze Dead Straight for Dead Aim
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
Setting the eyes "above" the ball is not enough for optimal targeting because a gaze direction angled down the face as if reading (with forehead higher than chin at address) makes the hole appear off to the inside, whereas a gaze straight out of the face requires setting the forehead and chin at the same height above the surface, and this gaze is the only one that allows you to scan along the putt path from ball to target on the real line with optimal sensing of spatial relations in the putt.

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Get Your Head on the Grass for Top Putting
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
To enhance your sense of the putt, simply looking for the line is not enough, and you have to actually pay attention to the grass blades themselves over key segments of the path in order to get a vivid sense of energy and direction for the roll.

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Get a Grip on Putting: Keep the Pressure Light and Constant
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
Keep your grip pressure light and constant throughout the stroke to avoid snatching or casting the putter, abrupt transitions in the stroke, or tempo fluctuations, as this promotes a smooth stroke, with good accuracy in the stroke path, and consistently solid contact.

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Hit the Groove through the Curve
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
To get a more definite sense of the right speed for taking a break without blowing through the break, visualize the final section of the putt curve as a race track banked so that anything faster than the proper speed jumps the track and then deliver the ball with enough speed to keep the ball on the track through the break.

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In Putting, the Knees Hold the Hips, the Hips Hold the Head!
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
Your visual attention to the putterhead-ball interaction at impact ought to keep your head still in putting by itself, but if you nonetheless have a problem, try "marrying" the sense of stillness in your hips to the pivot point in the center of the base of your neck ("hips and head hold still"), while the arms and shoulders turn back and through on this stable pivot.

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Roll the Hoop for True Putts
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
Visualize the ball as only a solid disk vertical on its edge in the plane of the putt, with only one dimple on the back equator, one dimple on the front equator, and a central dimple on the top, and roll this hoop or disk to the hole with your solid putting stroke.

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Indoor Putting Exercises
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
Indoor putting practice and drills need not always be about stroking a ball into a drinkglass, and your putting would be well served to add some exercises that sharpen relevant perceptual skills and specific stroke movements.

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Making Long Putts versus Avoiding Three-putts -- Don't Confuse Apples and Oranges
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
Substituting a big, fat target as a way to avoid three-jacking is not a good way to get better distance control, which is the real problem, but there is a way to avoid long comebacks while trying to sink monsters by keeping sharp targets for top distance control and supplementing this with some reasonable boundaries.

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The Long and Short of Putter Length and Lie
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
Don't let the putter wag the putee; figure out a setup that is best for a good stroke, and then fit the putter to your needs, or else you'll get stuck with "average golferitis."

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Light Up the Target with Your Putterface
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
Visualize the direction straight out of the putterface as a long straight rod whose tip sweeps side to side over the hole or aim spot as you get a fix on precise face orientation to the target.

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Nail Your Putts for Solid, On-Line Impact
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
Visualizing putterhead-ball impact as similar to hammering a nail into the ball is one of golf's oldest putting tips, and it helps tremendously with your management of the downstroke for solid, consistent rolls.

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Plumb Bobbing is Plumb Crazy ... Mostly
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
Plumb bobbing only "works" (in a fashion) if you aim the hanging puttershaft down your impression of the startline, so it only confirms what you already sense, and doesn't make you a better reader of the break or make your sensing of the startline any sharper.

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Point and Putt: A Fresh Way to Fill the Hole on Short Putts
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
For shortish putts, use one of the most fundamental techniques all humans use every day to help locate the target -- point at it!

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Putting Practice Pointers
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
The difference between swatting balls across a practice green and sharpening your putting skills is mostly working on something specific in your putting, whether it be targeting, reading, setup, routine, stroke mechanics, or something purely psychological.

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Get a Grip on Putting: Keep the Pressure Light and Constant
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
Keep your grip pressure light and constant throughout the stroke to avoid snatching or casting the putter, abrupt transitions in the stroke, or tempo fluctuations, as this promotes a smooth stroke, with good accuracy in the stroke path, and consistently solid contact.

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The "Report Card" Game for Short Putting Skill
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
Try the Report Card Game to sharpen up short-putting skills under pressure with readily understandable feedback in a reasonably short, well-defined exercise.

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Setup to the Ball, Then the Putt
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
To make sure the setup never changes and therefore the stroke dynamics don't alter from putt to putt, set up to the ball itself first, and then to the putt, so that you don't pull the trigger unless the two setups coincide.

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Short Putts are Tough to Sink!
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
Short putts require extra care in targeting because the closeness of the hole makes it too large a target for good line control, too visible in the periphery so that you are tempted to move your head for a peek, and not far enough off to your side to generate a substantial angle in the neck-head turn as a cue to the location of the hole in relation to your setup positioning -- so be extra careful!

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The Shoulder Move Plus a Stockton Tip for Straight Strokes
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
Cut strokes, pulls and putterface twists come mostly from the use of hand and arm muscles to start the backstroke, as this casts the backstroke out beyond the line of the putt, and using a simple shoulder push to start the stroke keeps the hands dead while giving you a good start on the backstroke.

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A Slo-Mo Read for Seeing Enough Break
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
Speed determines break, and optimal speed at the hole determines optimal break; the optimal break is obviouly between the fastest speed that will drop and the slowest speed that will just get the ball to the hole, and is a lot closer to the slowest than the fastest to make more of the hole available for capturing the ball and avoiding long comebacks.

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Stone Cold Putting
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
Truly amazing distance control on a consistent basis for putts of any length is pretty easy if you understand that targeting and tempo establish the backstroke length automatically, and this is much better than "touch and feel," "muscle memory," or any sort of "trying" to get the "hit" or "pace" of the putt just so.

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The Shoulder Move Plus a Stockton Tip for Straight Strokes
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
Cut strokes, pulls and putterface twists come mostly from the use of hand and arm muscles to start the backstroke, as this casts the backstroke out beyond the line of the putt, and using a simple shoulder push to start the stroke keeps the hands dead while giving you a good start on the backstroke.

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One (Slow) Tempo Fits All Putts
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
For consistent and accurate distance and line control, start with a single slow tempo or timing from start to finish for all putts regardless of length of about two full seconds, a nice easy "one potato, two potato" stroke -- your brain relies upon it!

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Putting Green Tiers are Taller than You Think!
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
To get all the way up a putting green tier, visualize how far a ball perched on the top edge would roll on level green after it comes off the bottom of the tier, as this is the energy you'll have to add in the putt just to get over the hump itself, regardless of getting to the bottom of the tier or past the top of the tier.

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Reading Break: Zero in on the Zero Break Line
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
If the green surface for the putt is basically flat although tilted, you can find one aim spot for any putt of the same length by identifying the fallline through the hole (the "zero break line" or ZBL) where all putts up or down are perfectly straight, walk around the hole in a semicircle from your ball to a sideon putt to the hole of the same length that is perpendicular to the ZBL (and hence has no elevation change up or down from there to the hole), and visualize this putt at regul regular speed to imagine how far below the hole such a putt would roll low and cross the ZBL; the aim spot for all putts of the same length is that far above the hole along the ZBL.

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PuttingZone Drills
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
The PuttingZone is golf's most advanced and comprehensive putting instruction, and this gives detailed explanation of fantastic PuttingZone drills.

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PuttingZone Putting Manual
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
This Manual on putting is really a quick and practical overview of the most important points for putting at your best. I've included some drills in each section that you might want to try on the practice green or at home to get a deeper appreciation of the subtleties of this black art, golf's game within a game. And remember, "a golfer who can putt is a match for anyone." ~ Geoff Mangum

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The "Mechanics of Instinct" in Putting: The Neurophysiological Paradigm for Applied Research
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
The present study is an examination of the neurophysiology of putting as revealed in recent studies of putting. At this time in the history of putting science, a new paradigm is emerging that focuses upon the human actor in terms of the perceptual and movement processes of brain and body. Early research initiatives lack a thorough grounding in the rapidly advancing field of neuroscience, and such a sound theoretical foundation is essential to efficient and meaningful progress in this promising approach to putting science. The study examines in detail neurophysiologolcal investigations into putting visual processes and putting pressures. The study probes the theoretical limitations of these studies, and proposes future lines of research.

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Geoff Mangum's PuttingZone ZipTips
From: PuttingZone - Teaching Tips (PDFs)
3 Rules to Sink Breaking Putts -- An intuitive way to approach breaking putts -- so that the chances of sinking the putt are VERY HIGH and the chances of leaving no more than a tiny TAP-IN are virtually certain -- does not require a specific target on the ground. Instead, the golfer simply applies three rules to his breaking putt.

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