PGA Tour pro Joe Highsmith revealed that he sometimes putts with his eyes closed — especially on the biggest putts 🧠⛳️
Sounds wild, but there’s a reason. It helps him calm his nerves, stay present, and trust his feel instead of overthinking.
Parents, this is such an important reminder: not every strategy needs to look conventional. What matters is that it works for your player 🎯
If your junior gets nervous under pressure (we all do), help them experiment. Find what slows things down, what builds trust, what helps them commit 💪
Whether it’s deep breaths, a reset routine, or yes — even closing their eyes — the goal is the same: stay calm, stay focused, and give it your best.
with my eyes closed. And yeah, I mean, I’ve done that for for quite a long time now. I don’t know exactly when it started, but my very first pro event was a PJ tour Canada event. I had like a 15-footer for Eagle on 18 to get into a playoff and eyes were definitely shut for that one. And um kind of looking back over my golf life, like any of the important putts that I’ve ever had, like eyes were always closed for sure. I think it’s maybe like a nerve coping mechanism in a way where just if I’m looking at the ball and I see the hole right there, I think it just makes it difficult when you have that whole visual aspect. And when I shut my eyes, then I can just kind of focus on making a stroke and, you know, take like kind of the results out of it and just try to hit put a good stroke on the ball and not have that visual interference.
