Golf information from Putterfingers to help the keen Golfer improve thier game.

There are many ways to improve your putting and hundreds of products that you can buy in Pro shops and from the internet that claim to dramatically improve your performance on the greens.

I am not in any position to say which of these products or methodologies may or may not work, which ones are a sensible investment and which ones are a complete waste of money. What I can do is speak from my own experience!

If a golf course has a par of seventy two it is envisaged that fifty percent of those strokes will be performed on the putting green. The other fifty percent of the shots will be shared out amongst the other clubs in your bag. It makes sense, then, to spend a great deal of time practising and perfecting your putting to try and reduce your score.

There are a few easy tips that every golfer should take heed of when they come to trying to put the ball in the cup:

Relax

You are never going to succeed on the green if you are tense and frustrated. Remember, every hole is different, every green is different and every putt is different. Take each one as it comes. Golf should be fun!

Concentrate

There can be many distractions on a putting green. Some you can do something about and others you will just have to put up with. The more you can practise shutting out the world when you are addressing a putt the easier you will find it.

Be disciplined

Routine is always helpful when you are putting. Sit down at home and make a list of all the things you need to do before sending the ball on its way and then make sure you do everything on the list every time you putt. You might include things like: try and read the slopes and speed of the green; mark your ball, turn it so that the words on the ball are pointing towards where you want to hit the ball then replace it on the green; run through a couple of practice putts etc, etc.

Practice

No matter what anyone says, the old adage “practice makes perfect” is never more appropriate than when it comes to putting. As has already been said, you hit more shots with your putter during a round of golf than any other club in your bag.

When it comes to practice there are no end of things that you should consider. Some of these, but certainly not all of them, are: back swing, follow through, positioning of the ball in your stance, speed of swing, grip, head positioning, feet positioning etc.

If you watch professional golfers when they are putting you will see that there are many different styles of putting stroke and putter. You need to practise with a number of variables like these to find your perfect set up. Don’t get frustrated if, after six months continual play, your putting is not improving. You may need to tweak your set up to find ways to lower the number of putts you are taking.

Of course, having said that practice is vital to your putting it is not always easy to get to a practice green very often. Luckily, a lot of the things that have been mentioned above can be done in the comfort of your own home or, if you have one, your private office. Putterfingers.co.uk can supply you with your own indoor putting surface that you can set up and take down whenever you have the opportunity to practise with your putter. They can supply anything from a two meter to a ten meter long “green” so that you can vary your practice shots and become a better putter, a better golfer and hopefully, a happier golfer!

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It shouldn’t happen to a golfer

Over the year there have been many weird and wonderful things that have happened either on a golf course or to golfers in general. Some of these are fantastic, others tragic and some are just down right unbelievable...

For example, there are corroborated stories of one man hitting five – count them…five – holes in one in the space of seven days. There are no reports that he won the lottery that week but I bet he sat there with his ticket watching the numbers come out with more than a little hope in his heart!

In another example of the strange world of golf there was a report of a police chase that did not quite go the way of the boys in blue. The person they were chasing was only driving a golf buggy but little did the cops know that his cart had been ever so slightly modified with a huge engine capable of propelling the cart to speeds in excess of those achievable by the police car. I would have loved to have watched that one.

Golf carts can be dangerous things. I was once on a stag weekend at a golf course in Gloucestershire when a couple of the guys we were with managed to roll the cart down the hill. Admittedly they were trying to climb up a hole called Cardiac Hill with too many golf bags and at least one of our playing partners hanging on the back of the cart. I think we managed to get the buggy back without the course authorities noticing!

There is one hole that you definitely do not need a golf buggy for. In fact, a speed boat might be a better option! For a $1 million challenge the RCB built a full sized green on a barge and floated it out 165 yards into Toronto harbour. Players drove off from an artificial tee on the side of the harbour and tried to land their ball as close to the pin on the floating green!

At least that green survived. Reports of a green keeper's mistake came through when he used a mixture of chemicals on his greens to try and make them better. Unfortunately one of the chemicals was a herbicide and it killed all the grass. Mud golf anyone? Alternatively take up the growing sport of snow golf. Orange balls all round!

If you would rather stick with white golf balls you may want to locate cheap ones. If you do, check your dog! Reports of thirteen balls being removed from a dog's stomach abound. Others taken from a snake’s stomach raised a considerable amount of money when they were auctioned on EBay in Australia. The game of Golf Cross does not even use round balls. Check this out on-line and marvel at the things you can do with a strange shaped ball!

Finally, do away with clubs and balls completely and take up Frisbee golf!!!

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The Greatest Putts of all Time

There is no real way to qualify the greatest putt of all time. You could go for the longest putt ever noted or the one achieved under the most difficult circumstances.

The longest ever televised putt is generally credited to someone who is not even a golf professional! During a televised pro-am tournament in 1980, Terry Wogan (he of Children in Need fame), holed a putt at Gleneagles. If you want to see it for yourself, follow this link to the YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAWcjGsMXGQ

Other great putts can be those made when under the most pressure. Anyone trying to putt for a major title could comment on what this feels like. Tiger Woods has made many of these putts, so has Seve, Nick Faldo, Lee Trevino and so on.

I guess it depends on what your favourite Major is as to what you might think is the greatest putt ever. Who can forget Darren Clarke at the Ryder Cup or Nick Faldo at the US Masters, or Tiger Woods at the US Open:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx2BS1u4fiw

Other putts can be great because the golfer was fighting against the elements. You only have to watch the golf crazy film Caddyshack to see Bishop Pickering (Henry Wilcoxon) playing in atrocious weather but still managing to hole putts left, right and centre!

Some great putts are not really putts at all. Am I the only one who remembers an interview that Steve Rider did with the all time great Severiano Ballesteros? Steve Rider was talking about putting and Seve, on his home course, put his putter in front of the ball, raised the putter backwards, so lifting the ball on the back of it, raised it right round over his head before letting the ball go towards the hole - where it promptly fell in the cup!

If you are an “arm chair golfer” any of the above may rank in your list of the greatest putts ever. If, on the other hand, you are one of those brave souls that walk out on a golf course with any regularity then surely the greatest putt you have ever seen is one of your own! We all have fond memories of those putts we have made that we never thought possible. The ones that our playing partners reacted to with either incredulity, shock or slaps on our backs - a resounding “well done”.

The greatest putt ever…….awaits us on our next round of golf.

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These articles were written by staff at Connected Shopping Ltd, owner of Putterfingers.co.uk