Stewart Cink shows a drill that he uses on the practice putting green that involves simple items as a training aid: an alignment stick, tees and a $0.10 dime. He shows how to set up these items to help you make sure your aim is correct and that you start putts on the intended line every time. #golf #putting #stewartcink #golftips
So, what we want to do today is pick your brain on how you begin your putting practice. So, walk us through what you have here with an alignment stick, a coin, and a couple of T. So, it’s a cheap drill. Cost you 10 cents. Yeah. It’s not going to cost you a lot to do this drill, but it will get in your opponent’s pocket. Okay, good. You’re going to pay for this drill really fast. Kind of like the short game. Firm believer here in uh just making sure you got the basics down. Alignment is important. stability with your weight and where you’re starting the ball. Now, what what I’ve done here, I’ve got my stick laid out. I’ve got a little hole I made with a tee where I can put the ball back exactly the same place every time. Right there. And I’ve got a coin. I use a dime. 10 cents American money right there because it’s small. And all I’m trying to do is just start the ball over the dime with my weight nice and stable over I kind of like the weight say my forefoot, the uh front half of my toes and my feet. And I just want to make my stroke where I start the ball right over that dime like this right here. And you can see now I’ve already got the gate set up. But right, the idea is I’m practicing with the ball, the coin, and that station in the same place every time. I’m getting my alignment. The key is not perfection. The key is that I’m training my brain to see the line that I’m intending the ball to go down, knowing that this is a constant, that’s a constant, and that T right there, or that pencil is a constant. My brain is starting to learn what straight feels like. Understand what I mean? You practice this every day and you’re going to get better at your alignment. You’re going to learn what your tendencies are as far as starting the ball. If you started over the coin with reasonable speed, you go right through the gate every time. And it’s great for your confidence. Well, I think what’s interesting, Stuart, you know, for the amateurs at home, this drill here is more about starting line visualization and getting your brain in tune with where you want the ball to roll, not about the mechanics of the stroke, which is the goal. Exactly. And and there’s I’m not arguing against a time and place for mechanics practice and maybe a little bit more um you know, focused alignment, but this is similar to what you’re going to face on the golf course. You can always pick out a spot right here, an imperfection in the green, a spike mark, something and use that as your coin. And you can always pick out something out here to use as your intended start line every putt. I’ve never hit a putt where you can’t do that. So that’s the great thing about this drill is that you don’t have to spend a lot of time on it. Just 5 to 10 minutes just so you can get used to seeing the ball start online, go through the gate, and then move on to other drills or other links putt, whatever you would like to do. Exactly. And this drill is a lot more about doing it a little bit every day than for two hours once a week. Yeah. You know what I mean? Because you’re really trying to build that daily foundational belief in your mind that says I know that where I think I’m pointing this putter is where I’m pointing it. And where I’m really starting it, where I think I’m starting it is where I’m is actually starting there in reality. Well, you’ve played really well of late and I think a lot of it has to do with your putting. So, just talk a little bit about your setup now with your grip, how you’re holding the putter, with the claw grip. Yeah. Some of the thoughts that you think that that allows you to maybe stroke the ball better. The first time I ever switched to the claw, um I was just looking for something that kept my hands a little bit more stable. Yeah. And u the the seemed like to me that gripping the putter this way just kind of encouraged less rotation of the hand than gripping it this way. And so I tried it and I remember the first day I ever used it on the course, not in a round, but I was playing with one of my buddies here and I was a nervous wreck about going to uh use the claw grip in front of him. You’re embarrassed. I was embarrassed. Yeah. Well, I felt like it was a sign of weakness, but those days are so in the past. Well, look, the bottom line is it’s about making putts.
1 Comment
👌👍🙏