I became a Jerry Walters follower when I attended one of his ExperienceGolf putting clinics last summer at CommonGround and I realized I wasn’t able to do some of the things he coached us to do because my putter was too long. Afterward, he sent me straight to the club repair shop to get three whole inches cut off my shaft! Miracle of miracles, my three-putts turned into two-putts and sometimes even bull’s-eyes.
But even though physically I can never be a long hitter, I can putt better. So as we Colorado golfers enter the season of cold, snowy and sometimes no golf, I checked in with Jerry for some thoughts on winter putting practice.
“Well, it's easier to practice putting than it is full swing during the winter indoors,” he observed. “But it comes down to, what are you practicing? And how can you get better? Because if you're just trying to put a ball in a cup, you're not getting a lot of value out of that.
“I have this saying, ‘Everybody wants to get better, nobody wants to practice.’ ”
Ouch, doesn’t that sound familiar?
Jerry’s first-step fix for all of us would-be putting masters is to purchase one of the putting mirrors on the market. He recommends the Eyeline putting mirror, which he helped develop to work well indoors or outdoors, at only about $40 for the small version. Of course, he notes, “It’s like joining a health club. If you don’t use it, it really doesn’t work. So many people that come to me say they have a mirror. I say, well, do you know where it is?”
Once you dig up or purchase your putting mirror, you can find videos online with demonstrations, tips and drills.
Next, figure out what your problem is. Then, says Jerry, “Knowing the problem is good, but having a solution makes it even better.”
Here are five common putting profiles and Jerry’s suggestions on how to fix them. (Note: Descriptions are for right-handers. Lefties, just reverse the instructions.)
“If you are one that decelerates through your putting stroke, well that's not that good. In a pendulum, where's the maximum transfer of energy? Well, it's at the apex, right at the bottom. So you want to try to give the ball as much energy as you can through the putting stroke. Consequently, you would want more or less the same amount back and through, so that you are catching the ball at the apex of your swing.
“When a lot of people decelerate, they're stopping the swing early. And what happens there? You lose energy. But the other thing is you tend to come up out of it early and you push putts to the right.
“You can fix that without even buying a training aid. When you step up to putt, let's assume that the face of the putter is in the center of your stance and the ball is just left of the putter face. You can use your feet as a guideline and go from your right toe to your left toe. That way you're starting to see what a 50-50 stroke looks like: same amount back, same amount through. If you work on that part alone, that would help to eliminate the deceleration.”
“I see some people who have no concept as to distance control. It's the No. 1 reason for three-putting and, I hate to say it, but also four-putting. It doesn't do you any good to be on line if you’re six feet short of your target or eight feet past your target. You can misread your line, but if your distance is good, it gives you a less challenging putt.“I have a key phrase that I use with my students when we're working on distance control and it's ‘reasonable line, good speed.’ How do you get that? You have to be on a putting green for this one. I put down targets at 15, 30, 45 and 60 feet. You can put tees in the ground. I use these little discs that look like a cup. I use three balls to the first one, three balls to the second one, and so forth. Back and forth, back and forth, and kind of keep score for yourself and tell yourself how many are in a makeable range. The first target at 15 feet should be no problem. It gets a little more difficult as we get a little farther away from our target.
“Do it two or three times and give yourself a feel for the green speed. Inaccurate speed accounts for more three-putts than inaccurate line, and green speed changes golf course to golf course, and it can change with the same golf course day to day, whether they watered or top dressed or plugged or mowed or whatever. And it can change sometimes during the course of the day. And people will tell you that the speed on the practice green is not the same speed as the holes on the golf course. So I have no magic formula for you on that one. You just have to go out and work at it yourself.”
“A lot of people push putts to the right or tell me that they miss more putts to the right than they do to the left. Deceleration might be one cause. Another one would be rotating backwards -- right-handed golfers who rotate to the right as they putt. But the most common one that I see is people who pull the putter back to the inside fast and too severely. That becomes a matter of timing. And it's very difficult to try to get the putter back to square at impact.
“How do you go about curing something like that? Well, it's pretty easy. You can get on your carpet and your carpet probably has some lines in there somewhere. If you set up so that you're putting parallel to the lines, you can watch and see if you're pulling the putter back to the inside too fast or too severely. Try to stay parallel to that line as long as you can through the putt. That way you stay on plane longer and better, which will help you reduce the amount of putts that you push to the right.”
“A lot of people set up out of position. If their eyes are too severely back inside, to the point where the toe of the putter sticks up in the air, well, you've created more of an arc in your stroke rather than staying on plane more back and through and staying square to your target line. It really creates a lot of problems because the more your stroke arcs, the less time you're square to your target. And if you by chance have the ball a little bit too far forward and you're arcing a lot, then you're gonna pull the ball to the left.
“The other thing that I look for when we're talking about setup and mechanics is, are your shoulders parallel to your target line? A lot of right-handed golfers will set up open, with left shoulder back, right shoulder forward. Well, arms follow shoulders, and consequently you're gonna pull putts to the left. So if you have one of those mirrors that we talked about, you should be able to see your shoulders in the bottom of that mirror. They don't necessarily have to touch a line on that mirror, they just need to be squared up.”
“If you tend to pop putts up in the air, that means there is no resistance. You're not touching anything. So however you send that ball, it can rotate, come backwards. It can move sideways because there's no resistance. And the problem there is you have the ball too far forward in your stance and it creates an angle with your putter that comes from the ball back to the right and you've added loft to your putter that gets the ball up in the air.
“Your position needs to be: ball just left of the putter, putter in the center of your stance. And you'll see how you get a much better roll out of it and the ball will stay on the ground if you do something like that.
“A standard loft on most putters is about three degrees. I personally prefer to have a little bit of a forward press just to kind of deloft the putter and get it on the ground and rolling a little bit sooner. I tend to adjust my putters down to two or one and a half degrees, just because I want it on the ground.”
If you’re convinced your problem is your putter and not the operator, the latest trend in putters is the “anti-torque” technology pioneered by L.A.B. and now being developed by companies including Odyssey, with its Square 2 Square model.
But even with those, as with the putting mirror and the gym, there’s the undeniable secret to success: “You’ve got to practice,” says Jerry Walters. “You don’t just walk out on the golf course and here we go.”
And watch for Jerry’s 2026 lesson and putting schedule at ExperienceGolf.
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