Nancy Quarcelino School of Golf - Blog

Here are some simple tips which may help you with your putting.
 
If you wear sun glasses when you play, the tint of the lens may affect how you read the green. The best tint to read the greens and see the slope is cinnamon, light brown, gold or orange.  Stay away from polarized lenses.

Calibrate the speed of the greens before you play by practicing 20’, 30’, and 40’ uphill and downhill putts. 

If the greens are faster than you are used to practice only the downhill putts.  If the greens are slower than you are used to practice only the uphill putts. 

If you tend to push your putts to the right, play your ball position up in your stance.
If you tend to pull your putts to the left, play your ball position back in your stance.

Practice putting for at least 15 minutes before play.  This is time well spent to get used to the speed of the greens.

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I watched intently the LPGA players as they were competing at the Solheim Cup.  Suzanne Petterson took more time than normal to set up and hit each shot.  She was painstakingly slow but then I watched her routine.  She put the club in her left hand and worked hard at making sure that grip was correct before she set up to the ball.

I know that I teach golfers every day who when I change their hand position, they don’t think twice about it.  They think they are making a grip change but when I see the ball flight I know it has snuck back into their original position.

But Suzanne was taking a lot of time to get the grip right.  When I heard the commentary about her that evening they mentioned she is fighting a hook and her instructor is having her put her left hand on the club in a weaker position. 

If we are seeing you slice or hook the ball, we are going to look first at your grip.  And if you watched Suzanne’s routine, you noticed she was gripping the club off to the left side of her body.  Now I am not Suzanne’s teacher, but if she needed to make a grip change that is a great place to start the grip change.  She gripped the club then looked down at the left hand to see if it was in proper position.

If you can properly grip the club before you hit, many of your swing problems would vanish.  So if your instructor is making a grip change with you, be sure you know what those changes are and what affect it will have on the ball flight.

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