Putting Fundamentals: Alignment

After doing thousands of lessons over the years, I have concluded that the misunderstandings related to alignment are extremely common and lead to a false feedback loop for most beginning and advanced golfers.  The basic misunderstanding is this, “If I aim my body at the target, I am aimed at the target”.  Everything about this statement seems fundamentally sound at first glance.  However, the reality of it is that if we aim our body at the target, we will actually be aimed closed to the target.  This has everything to do with parallel lines and the concept of “squaring to the target”. 

Think of it as railroad tracks.  Our body is on the inner track and the ball is out on the outer track.  We want to get the outer track (ball line) aimed at the target and then we set our body (feet, hips and shoulders) square or parallel to this ball line.

This task is most simple in putting.  The reason it is most simple is that in putting our eyes are basically right over the top of the ball.  As my good friend Greg Horner will explain in another section of the book, we don’t have to deal with the visual distortion of parallax (the difference that we see when objects are viewed from different perspectives). 

Using the Alignment Aid of the Line on the Golf Ball

Because our main goal in lining up a putt is to get the ball on the correct line, many high level players use the line or arrow that appears on most golf balls these days to get their alignment square to the target line (the line you want to start the putt on).  We are able to do this because of the legality of the rules that allows us to mark, pick up, clean and place our golf ball on the putting surface. 

After reading the green and determining the starting line of the putt, we simply set that line directly on top of the ball pointed in the direction of that starting line.  With this line in place we are relatively assured that everything we do to line up from that point will be based on a fairly solid understanding of being square to the target.  Once we have committed to this line, we simply bring our body (feet, hips and shoulders) in square or parallel to that line.

Points of Caution

·         This process of using the line can become a very slow and time consuming process, especially if you are wavering on your decision or struggling to get the line on the ball truly lined up on the intended line.  At its most extreme case, using the line on the ball to square to the target can turn into a nightmare of tension and slow play.  I recommend that you rehearse this process on the practice putting green many times before you try to take it out on the golf course.  You want to be able to do this process described above in a few seconds as opposed to a few minutes. 

If you find that you are over the putt and the line you chose is not where you would actually like to start the putt, simply adjust your relation to the line initially chosen without adjusting the ball.  Either that or trust your initial instinct.  Many who have played golf for a long period of time know that the first thought is almost always the best thought.

·         Everything I teach about the game of golf is in relation to the swing being an arc (circle) and the challenge of overcoming the desire to push or go in a straight line.  When we put a straight line in our vision on putting, it can become even more tempting to produce this pushing motion in the putting stroke.  When we use the line on the ball to get square to the intended line, I suggest that it is vital that we let go of that linear thinking before making the putting stroke.  The swing itself should be a relaxed, rhythmic, rotational movement and will be compromised by any instinct to push straight toward the target.

The Primary Importance of Speed in Putting

With all this discussion of alignment in putting, I want to end with the reality that alignment is of secondary importance to speed control.  It is true that the pros make a lot of putts and have excellent alignment.  However, they are truly masters of speed control and rarely leave themselves a second putt that is outside of a distance of 3 feet.  Your focus before swinging the putter should lastly relate to finding the right “tick-tock” of the pendulum that produces the correct speed on the green.

For a more detailed discussion of the importance of speed in putting, please see the entry “The Importance of Speed in Putting at:

http://golfandlifelessons.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-importance-of-speed-in-putting.html