Sure, when you are playing golf by yourself, it’s easy to scoop up that short putt. But when you are playing in a match or actual tournament, those are the ones that are crucial to your score.
Throw in the fact that many of these putts come in pressure-packed situations, and then they become even more nerve-racking shorties.
But GOLF Top 100 Teacher Jeff Warne has a solution. Warne, the director of golf at The Bridge in Bridgehampton, N.Y., says he sees these stressful putts terrorize players all the time. It happens with pros trying to convert a testy four-footer to make a cut, or even in pro-ams with a mid or high-handicapper trying to knock in a key putt for their team.
“Ten times out of 10, if it’s an important putt or he’s feeling the pressure or the stress maybe to make a cut, you’ll see the player is so worried about the outcome that they’ll come out of the shot so quickly that have no finish,” he said. “Therefore it impacts the actual stroke and they perform poorly.”
The solution? Warne says it’s simply to “distract them into making a good stroke.”
I tell them: “Hold their finish. Because if hold your finish, it’s very likely that you had a finish. And therefore you’ll make more putts.”
You can watch the entire video at the top of this page to see how Warne properly holds the finish, and for more putting tips, click here.
