I used to think of myself as a good putter. I rarely missed from within six feet, and holed my fair share of long putts.
However, one day during a medal, I stood over a par putt of around ten feet. I was confident I could make it. The green was flat so there was little break in the ball and there were no imperfections on my putting line – no spike marks, no sand grains from the nearby bunker, no wind. I had been putting reasonably well, but uncharacteristically had missed a couple of relatively easy putts early on my round and they had affected my confidence somewhat.
However, I felt good about this one having sunk a putt of some thirty feet from the apron on the previous hole to gain some confidence back in my putting game. I stood over the putt, took a breath and started my backswing. Having reached the desired point from the ball to make the ball travel the distance, I started the downswing and follow through. I couldn’t believe it when I duffed the ball only a few feet.
Sighing, I approached the ball and went through my pre-putt routine again. Although I had missed my par, a bogey wasn’t too bad of a score, given the hole and the trouble I had found off the tee. It would drop me out of the top ten I thought, but I had a few holes to try and get it back so I was still confident of holing out. I raced it four feet past from a similar distance and off to the left. Thankfully I holed the double-bogey putt, and on the next hole – a par three – I three putted from inside sixteen feet.
My putting had gone to pieces and I didn’t know why. I wasn’t striking the putts as I normally did, and although I felt something was wrong, I couldn’t put my finger on the cause. I struggled through the remainder of the round, and headed straight for the practice green where I holed putt after putt with no problem. I was baffled… why could I putt well on the practice green but had fallen apart during the medal round?
The next day, I played a friendly 18 with work-colleagues for small stakes per hole. I had practiced for an hour beforehand on the practice green and felt good about my putting stroke again, and was sure the previous day was a blip. The round started off well, and I holed putts for birdie, par, par on the first three holes. Then it started again. I missed a five-footer on the next then a four-footer on the hole after. By the time I reached the turn I had three putted the last three holes and it was affecting the rest of my game; as I was struggling with my putter, I was putting additional strain on my game to get the ball closer to the hole, which unknown to me was exacerbating the problem, rather than helping. As the rain had started, we abandoned the round and headed back to the clubhouse and later I practiced some more, trying to fathom out the cause of my sudden attack of the ‘yips’.
I tried everything; a different putter; changing my putting stance; shifting my weight from foot to foot; moving the ball back and forward in my stance but nothing worked. I could putt well in practice, but once I got to the green proper, my confidence was shattered. I didn’t know what to do.
Then one day I was out with my wife and browsing some books in a charity shop when I came across a Bernhard Langer book on putting. Langer had won the US Masters a few years earlier and had had his own share of putting problems throughout his own career. I had never been one for golf instruction books but I was willing to try anything and bought the book for £2.
I tried the techniques illustrated by Langer in his book. When his putting problems had first surfaced, he had gone ‘cack-handed’ where his less-dominant hand took over the role of dominant hand. As I was right handed, this meant gripping the putter with my left hand below my right, rather than the conventional right-below-left as I had been doing. It felt weird at first; very weird in fact and I continued to duff the ball or push or pull it offline on a regular basis. However, as I got used to the feeling, I found my range was returning. I was able to roll the ball up to the hole easily enough but my direction was still off.
My local pro had seen me working hard on this new grip and tried to change me back to the way I held the putter before. Taking me onto the course, he noticed I wasn’t swinging cleanly through the ball; rather I was chopping the ball. But when I reverted back to putting in the ‘cack handed’ method, my stroke was a lot smoother, if a little offline. Rather than try to force the change back to the conventional grip, the pro instead made a small alteration to the position of my right hand in the ‘cack handed’ method at the top of the club to make both my thumbs point down the shaft and it was to prove the magic bullet to my putting woes. Before long, I was holing putts again.
I was ecstatic that I could putt again. But the pro told me I could always putt… I had just forgotten how to and between him and Bernhard Langer, they have given me my game back. I still read the book from time to time and even today, I still putt cack-handed… even on the mini-golf courses with my kids!
Thanks guys!
