That six-footer for the bird never touched the hole. The broken shot slipped to the “amateur side” while your playing partner drained his. You’ve lost a little because you don’t trust rest and your shot knows it.
Missing on the low side is golf’s most expensive putting wrong. It costs you the missed shot and the lost confidence. Understand why it happens and you’ll start to see breaking shots fall instead of slide.
Why low loss is worse than high loss
Miss a shot on the high side and you’ve at least given it a chance. The ball traveled over the hole, hit the break and found out if it was enough. You have information.
Low lady and you learned nothing. Ball never challenged the cup. You’ve played so far below the actual line that you’ll never know if your reading was right. I just know you’ve lost and now you’re second-guessing everything.
Tournament players tend to miss more shots on the high side than on the low side. Amateurs do the opposite. This is not a coincidence.
The real reason you aim down the break
You don’t trust the slope.
You read the putt, see the break, and intellectually understand that the ball should start right of the hole (for a right-to-left putt). But standing on it, this line seems wrong. It looks like you intend to lose. Your brain screams that starting the ball three inches to the right will send it sailing past the cup.
So you compromise. You aim a little less straight than your reading suggested. You get a 10 or 20 percent break back. Conservative. Safe.
Wrong. You are only guaranteed a loss on the downside.
Pattern 1: Correct reading, wrong aim
You read it right. You can see the slope; you’ve walked around the hole, you know this putt breaks eight inches from left to right. Then you set and aim for four inches of rest.
Cause: Visual discomfort. The correct starting line appears too far from the hole. Your eyes see a straight line between the ball and the cup and everything else seems to aim for oblivion. This is exacerbated on heavy slopes where the true line may start a foot outside the hole.
Adjustment: Choose your peak point, not your starting line. Find the highest point where your ball should travel, the place where it stops climbing the slope and begins to drop toward the hole. Commit to rolling your ball over that spot. This shifts your focus from the dreaded starting line to a goal you can trust. During the warm-up, place a spike on your peak breaking shot and practice hitting it.
Pattern 2: Read and aim correctly, but pull the shot
You read it, you aimed it and you believed the line. Then your stroke pulls the ball back toward the hole during the putt. Unconsciously you have turned it down because you still don’t believe.
Cause: Your hands take over the impact. They manipulate the putter’s face to send the ball where you think it should go instead of where you intended. This happens when your conscious mind accepts the reading, but your subconscious rebels.
Adjustment: Take practice shots looking at your tip, not the ball. Get your body comfortable with the feel of the thruster swinging along your chosen line. Then, during your actual shot, focus on the shoulder roll, not the ball or the hole. Your shoulders should swing along the line you’ve set, with your hands just going forward for the ride. Trust the line, then get out of your way.
Model 3: Full slope underreading
You think it breaks two inches. She breaks six. You aimed exactly where you intended, hit it perfectly, but still missed low.
Cause: Poor green reading skills, usually from not counting the last three feet of the swing and from the fact that breaking shots turn more dramatically as they slow down. Many golfers read the putt from their ball to the hole, but forget that the ball will travel slower (and break harder) right before it lands.
Adjustment: Read every tee shot from the hole back to your ball. Start behind the cup and trace the line in reverse. This forces you to see the final critical break. Also, see the shots of your partners playing on similar lines. Every putt you observe is a free lesson in how she greens the slopes.
Engagement training
Find a six-foot putt with six inches of rest. Read it, choose your line and commit fully. Aim for about 30 percent more rest than you think you need. Hit 10 shots.
You will lose some highs, which is the point of this workout. It means you are finally giving yourself a chance.
Your goal is not to make every shot. It is to completely eliminate low side errors. Once you’re comfortable being aggressive with vacations, you can dial it back by five percent if needed. But most golfers should be adding 30 percent more break to their readings, not subtracting.
Stop negotiating the slope. Read it, believe it, and get the ball rolling on your tipping point. The hole is bigger than you think when you play enough rest.
Post Why you miss breaking shots on the low side appeared first on MyGolfSpy.
