Top 100 Teacher: What I learned watching Fleetwood and Rose practice at the 2019 U.S. Open

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif.— I spent the day walking the Pebble Beach practice putting green on Tuesday, and its amazing how many different set ups, grips, practice techniques and strokes you see.

But if you observe the various different patters, you start noticing some things that change your game.

Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Rose were very similar in their routines, set up and aiming technique.

As you can see here, they both use the line on the ball to aim so they can perfect their aim every time. It’s a diligent part of their routine which they execute every time.

Justin Rose was taking it one step further and reading the green with Aimpoint and then he placed a small marker on the ground next to the hole to aim and then adjusting the line on the ball to point to this spot. But either way, once they found their aiming point, you can also see here that both Tommy and Justin then stood behind the ball, using the shaft of the putter, to double check that the line on the ball was aimed properly.

Once they completed their aiming routines, they both then walked around to the side of the ball, aiming their putter face relative to the line on the ball and then set their body into the perfectly aimed putter face.

I was impressed with the precision, care and time they each took with every putt. This takes a lot of commitment, patience and concentration, and it’s something amateur golfers rarely practice.

Every golfer should have their own routine. We all can learn from the quality of their practice time, whether we’re playing in the U.S. Open this week at Pebble Beach or not.