Pick a spot for aim and distance: in line with the apex of the break and a couple feet past the hole.
You’re looking over a long, breaking putt, and in your mind you start drawing a picture of the ball snaking its way to the hole. What’s wrong with that image? Nothing, as long as you don’t forget about speed. Speed is the biggest factor in putting. Good speed with a bad line almost always puts you closer to the hole than bad speed with a good line. Think about that.
“IF YOU USE AN AIMING POINT, MAKE SURE IT’S BEYOND THE HOLE.”
What you need is a way of combining those two elements. You probably already pick an aiming spot on long putts. For a lot of golfers, that spot is the high point of the break, which might be halfway down your line. If that’s what you do, don’t be surprised if you’re leaving putts short—you’re aiming at something halfway to the hole!
Want more tips from top instructors and tour pros? Check out Golf Digest Schools.
For better speed control, try this method. First, estimate the high point of the break, then draw an imaginary line through that point to a spot even with the hole. Second—and this is the big one—move that spot a couple feet farther out on the same line (below). Why? Because you want the ball to have a little roll left when it approaches the hole. To quote Yogi Berra: “Ninety percent of putts that are short don’t go in.”
Here’s one more image to help you get putts to the hole: Picture one of those annoying speed bumps three or four inches before the cup. You want to hit the ball with enough pace to get over the bump. You can even practice this concept with an alignment stick on the green.
The best part about getting the speed right is, you become a better green-reader. You’ll have a mental database to access when you’re reading a putt. The more putts you’ve hit with proper speed, the more experiences you have to guide you. Putts hit with poor speed poison the database.
Michael Breed is Golf Digest’s Chief Digital Instructor.
Temporary golf course to open inside Busch Stadium next month
Busch Stadium has hosted baseball, soccer and football games, and it looks like golf is next.
ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – How would you like to play a round of golf inside Busch Stadium? Well, that will be possible next month.
Stadiumlinks is transforming baseball heaven into a 9-hole golf experience Nov. 1-3. You’ll take your shots from tee boxes placed all around the stadium concourse and aim for holes on the baseball field.
Each shot is somewhere between 60-150 yards and scoring is based on where your ball lands. You can play in groups of two, four, six, or eight and will need to book a tee time in advance. Make sure you join the waiting list, here, so you can set up a tee time.
Each player within your group will be provided with 18 complimentary golf balls to use on the Stadiumlinks course.
Here’s an example of what the course looked like in other stadiums, such as Citi Field in New York, Minute Maid Park in Houston and the LA Memorial Coliseum.
Let’s talk about hip turn. James Kinney, one of our Golf Digest Best Young Teachers and Director of Instruction at GolfTec Omaha, says that from the data GolfTec has collected, they’ve found lower handicap golfers have a more centered lower body at the top of the swing. Meaning, they don’t sway.
If you’re swaying off the ball, you’re moving yourself off of your starting position. The low point of your swing moves back when you sway back, so you’re going to have to shift forward to get your club to bottom out where the ball is. That takes a lot of timing, and is going to end up producing some ugly shots.
So, instead, Kinney says you should turn.
“When turning your hips, you are able to stay more centered over the golf ball in your backswing and the low point of your swing stays in the proper position, resulting in consistent contact.”
To practice turning, Kinney says to set up in a doorway. Have your back foot against the doorframe. When you make your lower body move back, your hip will hit the door fame if you’re swaying. If you’re turning, your hips are safe from hitting the frame.
Remember that feeling of turning when you’re on the course and your ball striking is going to get a whole lot more consistent.
Five things the best golf instructors see in your swing that you don’t
Walk the range at a tour event and you’ll see a squadron of instructors capturing video, with the teacher and player huddling to figure out which magic adjustment might make the difference between first place and 50th on a given week. It’s certainly interesting to eavesdrop on what they’re discussing—in fact, it’s why we’ve been showing swing sequences in Golf Digest since the 1950s. But hearing about Dustin Johnson’s key to hitting his 4-iron incrementally better is only going to help you so much.
What does a top teacher see when he or she looks at your swing? And what kind of things are you missing when you have your buddy shoot you from down the line during your next practice session? We asked three top teachers—Jason Guss, Jason Sedan and Tom Rezendes—for the fundamental things they look at in an initial swing lesson, and how changing your focus to those things instead of the “prettiness” of your move will make you get better way faster.
“Can we all be honest with each other and accept that virtually nobody has the genetic gifts to roll out of bed and swing like Adam Scott or Anne van Dam?” says Rezendes, who runs the NorCal Golf Academy in Walnut Creek, Calif. “The important part to remember is that you don’t HAVE to do that to play well. A trained set of eyes sees what adjustments you need to make for you to swing your best, not necessarily look like a swing model.”
1. What your face angle is during your backswing
Where the face is pointing during the whole swing might be most under-paid-attention-to fundamental in golf. “Almost every good player has either closed the face or is about to when they come out of the transition at the top,” says Jason Guss, who runs the Jason Guss Golf Academy at Hawk Hollow, in Bath, Mich. “Players who struggle don’t have it square ever, or they’re even opening it at the start of the downswing—which causes a whole other chain of events. If you’re looking at your own swing or any other, is that face angle looking down at the ground when the club is halfway down to the ground on the downswing? I like to help players get keyed in on the face instead of the wrist movements that produce it because those wrist movements are so small.
2. How your technique matches your intention
What you’re trying to can (and should!) have a huge impact on what your swing looks like. “Students send me video of swings all the time and my first question is always the same—what are you trying to do here?” says Jason Sedan, who runs Fore Door Golf at Lake Winnipesaukee Golf Club in New Hampshire. “Most amateurs record a swing on the range, and it’s just a random swing that came after a random practice swing. But every shot should have a goal, a shape and a speed at which you’re trying to swing, and rehearsals that are about that exact thing.
“The next part is that the speed you swing changes a lot of the relationships within the swing. A video of a player making a smooth swing with a pitching wedge can tell a way different story than one where he or she is smashing a driver. You want to look at the full context, not just for one move you want to tear down.”
3. The underlying cause of your main swing problem
Putting an ankle brace on for a broken finger isn’t going to be very effective. Which means you need to look for the main source of your issues. “The phrase ‘over the top’ is one a ton of amateur players read and hear about, and a lot of them accurately see it about their own swings,” says Sedan. “But the way they go about fixing it doesn’t address the fundamental reason it’s happening. You probably see it as a swing path issue, but the swing path issue is a symptom, not the problem.
“If an over-the-top swinger just tries to flatten the club in transition and swing more ‘from the inside,’ all you’re doing is creating a swing that produces weak blocks to the right. Does that ‘fix’ the over-the-top? I guess so, but it just moved the problem into a different box. If you don’t address the open clubface that produces most over-the-top moves, you’re not addressing the problem.”
4. The movement of your swing in 3D, not 2D
A golf swing moves in three dimensions, which is hard to see on video. “You’ve heard of ‘angle of attack,’ but what does it really mean? And it’s so hard to see without a TrackMan or a trained eye,” says Guss. “But angle of attack gives a lot of clues about your bad shots. A player could be hitting these low hooks with the driver because he or she isn’t getting the weight transferred to the lead side. Ball position and swing direction work together. If you want to hit a higher shot or tend toward a fade, you adjust that ball position forward, which moves the swing direction left and the angle of attack upward.”
5. How your body segments work together to produce speed
“Most players (and a lot of teachers, to be honest) are focused on the basics—grip, posture, alignment—because those are the easiest to see,” says Rezendes. “There’s a place for that stuff, of course, and a place for launch monitor data like clubhead speed and distance, but I’m watching for a swing’s kinetics—how you produce force. What is making you do what you’re doing in your swing, and how is it impacting your shots?
“For example, how centered your thorax is over your pelvis has huge ramifications for how much energy you can deliver into the ball. And if your hip joints are working correctly in conjunction with your pelvis, that’s a major differentiator between good players and players with less skill. Good players turn ‘into’ the trail hip joint instead of rotating the whole pelvis in the backswing. That might seem like a subtle difference, but it’s why Cameron Champ hits it the way he does instead of the way you do. He’s producing more energy, not finding a set of swing positions.”
Five things Brooks Koepka can realistically improve for 2020
How can Brooks Koepka improve? On the surface, this is a demanding, heedless ask. The man became the first player to be a repeat PGA Championship and the U.S. Open winner in a career, and became just the fourth player to finish top four or better at every major in a calendar year. It is like telling John Mulaney to be funnier or the Rock to hit the gym before beach season.
And yet, there is room for Koepka to grow. Heck, he didn’t even win Player of the Year honors. (Too soon? Too soon.) So we analyzed Koepka’s performance from last year, and the ones before it, to identify five things Koepka can refine for 2020.
To preface, there are trade-offs to consider. Someone who blasts the ball distances that give roll-back proponents nightmares is not likely to be accurate off the tee, and telling Koepka to hit more fairways will syphon the power that serves as such an advantage. These suggestions also have to be pragmatic; you can’t expect one who consistently ranks outside the top 100 in a certain area to suddenly become an elite performer in that skill. Besides, even at the height of their powers, Tiger, Nicklaus and Hogan all had flaws in their games. (Dodging lightning) OK, not flaws, but they weren’t the best at everything. That’s golf.
Keeping those parameters in mind, here is how Koepka’s trajectory can continue to rise next season.
Par 3s
Koepka’s par-3 performance cost him the green jacket. He was three over on Augusta National’s par 3s, seven shots worse than Tiger Woods on said holes. For those that spent April in a coma, Koepka finished the tournament one stroke back of Tiger.
The Masters wasn’t an aberration. Koepka lost the Honda Classic by one to Keith Mitchell. Koepka was four over on the par 3s to Mitchell’s four-under mark. Essentially, he was three to four swings away from a two-major, five-win campaign. For a guy who desperately seeks chips to place on those broad shoulders, this would be a start.
On the year, Koepka finished 52nd in par-3 scoring, and 44th the season prior. The disparity in his par-3 scoring against high finishes on par 4s (first in ’19, 15th in ’18) and par 5s (10th in ’19, third in ’18) can be correlated to his driving prowess. Where the equation becomes curious is against a smorgasbord of strong iron numbers: 11th in greens in regulation, fifth in fairway proximity, first in shots from 175-to-200 yards, 10th in approaches under 200 yards, and 11th in sg/approach.
Thing is, he racks up his share of red on par 3s, in the top 20 in this category heading into the final two weeks of the year and ultimately finishing 29th. But when he misses, he misses big. Continuing his momentum will be dependent on Koepka keeping the bogeys at bay on par 3s.
Andrew Redington
Long Range Putting
Koepka owned one of the better strokes on tour in his fledgling years, ranking in the top 20 in strokes gained/putting from 2015 to 2017 (with a career-best standing of fifth in 2017). But his figures with the flat stick have dropped over the past two seasons, coming in 48th last season and 69th in 2018.
There are two culprits for this plummet, the first output—or lack thereof—from deep. Koepka ranked 108th in conversion from 15 to 20 feet, 114th in 20 to 25 feet and 72nd in putts over 25 feet. When his putting was at its peak in 2017, Koepka ranked 33rd, fifth and first, respectively, from those distances. Bringing those ranks to the middle of pack would make Koepka more formidable around the hole.
Also helping …
Three-Putt Avoidance
Aside from 2017, this is an arena where Koepka has consistently struggled. His ranks since joining the tour in three-jacks:
Part of this can be explained by a high birdie-putt conversion rank (17th in 2019, 10th the season before), an aggressive mindset conferring longer-than-desired comebackers. Pulling the reins back on that opportunistic approach could lead to fewer bogeys … but also to fewer birds, so that blanket answer does not suffice. Most likely, to improve in this area, Koepka would need to shore up those areas where meat is left on the bone: three (95th), five (94th) and seven (116th) feet.
0 Yards and In
Stated above, it’s unfair, unrealistic to ask a player to be great in every category. What’s interesting is that Koepka has risen to such heights without a semblance of a short game.
He’s ranked 83rd or worse in every season but one on tour in sg/around-the-green, and has been particularly brutal inside 10 yards (98th in 2019, 97th in 2018, 132nd in 2017). Between this and the aforementioned putting troubles, it’s mind-boggling that Koepka ranked 11th in bogey avoidance.
However, it is not as if Koepka lacks touch. (Save for when his girlfriend comes in for a kiss.) He was 12th in scrambling in 2018 and ranked a serviceable 42nd last year (aided by a 58.43 sand save percentage, 22nd on tour). Additionally, some of these woes could be attributed to Koepka’s wrist injury and restricted practice schedule the past two years. Now given time and health, don’t be surprised if Koepka’s able to tighten these screws up.
Fan Engagement
Just kidding, wanted to make sure you are still paying attention.
Rough Work
Koepka is a machine with his irons from the fairways. In the rough, not so much. His production from last year:
Approaches from 125-150 yards: 139th
Approaches from 150-175 yards: 169th
Approaches from > 200 yards: 116th
Approaches from 200-225 yards: 153rd
He’s not a total disaster, ranking fifth in shots from 50 to 125 yards, but the disconnect from the short to thick stuff is clear.
Without making excuses for Koepka, this is another facet that likely parallels with his wrist ailment. Conversely, he ranked 102nd in driving accuracy. Though the strokes gained metrics have shown getting the ball closer to the hole is more paramount than keeping it straight, it does put the onus on getting it done with the second shot, fairway or rough be damned.
And should Koepka improve this skill set, or any mentioned above, well … that sound you just heard were the sighs from Koepka’s competition.
