The Loop

Make more putts without changing your stroke

November 28, 2016
Olesen.putter.WorldCup.16.jpg

Getty Images

When a tour player's putter is working, the game can look pretty easy. Thorbjorn Olesen was playing with Legos on Sunday at the World Cup team event.

Olesen helped guarantee the title for Denmark by rolling in birdies on 13, 14, 15 and 18 on the way to a better ball 65 with partner Soren Kjeldsen. The putt on the last hole was a work of art--a 30-fooft fishhook with two feet of late break. Olesen's stroke looks great, but it was his skill at seeing the tricky breaks on Kingston Heath's greens that made the difference.

"Most players never really see where they're supposed to aim a putt," says short game guru and Golf Digest 50 Best Teacher Dave Stockton. "They look at it from one place--behind the ball--and never really see what's going on over by the hole, where the ball is going slower and will be more influenced by the break."

To get more accurate reads on your putts, start from behind the hole and pick the predominant break. Then walk to the halfway point of the putt on the low side of the break--opposite from the apex--and read it from there. "When you read it from the low side, you're going to get the best perspective, because you can see it the best," says Stockton. "Visualize the route the ball is going to take to the hole, then go into your routine and step to the ball quickly. The more you get things like practice strokes or swing thoughts in between the read and rolling the ball, the more you're interfering with your natural flow."