Most professional golfers that I see on television have drawn a line on the ball which they use to align the ball on the green. The golf balls I use already have an arrow printed on it for this purpose. I haven’t checked, but I would suppose lots of other modern balls do, too.
The act of aligning the ball can be a problem, though. The usual procedure is to squat down, try to eye-ball the starting line of the putt, and align the mark on the ball to it.
I see everybody looking at something at or near the hole, which can be a long way off. That, to my mind, seriously calls into question the accuracy of the alignment.
There must be a better way.
It’s a problem and only I can fix it.
You might have heard of spot putting. You pick a spot a few inches in front of the ball on the starting line and roll your putt over that spot. The idea is if you make that three-inch putt, you’ll make the eight-foot putt.
So-o-o, why not take it easy for yourself and set your ball down so it points to that spot three inches in front of the ball instead of something any number of feet away? Three inches is close enough that you can get it exactly right.
(I Photoshopped the yellow dot to make the visual clearer.)
If you trust the spot you have found, you have to trust aligning your ball this way.
Not only do you get a better alignment, you can do this in a matter of seconds. People in your group won’t have to watch you go tweak…tweak…tweak…, for bleeding ever.
You’re welcome!
Here’s something else we can do to help us get the right line: We first (and quickly) get the “basic” path established by squatting down like the pros do — using our arrow, or line, or the name on the golf ball (whatever our preference is) for path alignment.
Assuming we can stand back up (smiley face), we can then (again, reasonably quickly) stand the putter behind the ball. This view gives us an arguably better view of the contour of the green, and “cements” the decision on the line we want to take.
It’s pretty easy to come “around” the putter without moving it. And it doesn’t matter if the revised alignment conflicts with the basic one. That is, we don’t have to squat back down and re-align the ball. We can, but we don’t have to.
What we’ll have, via the combination of both of these rather quickly done putter path alignment techniques is confidence that we’re got the right line/direction in mind. Then, the putt becomes simply a matter of speed.
This combination of techniques is most helpful on “long” putts, and helps actually speed up play in my opinion. I think it works well for shorter putts, too, but I still — primarily — squat down and try to make sure I’ve got the ball aligned “exactly.” Then, to stand behind it, aligning the putter along the intended line, isn’t as necessary as it may be in helping us with longer putts.
Fortunately, I’m still able to stand up after squatting down! But if someone struggles with squatting, the “put the putter head behind the ball” technique is really helpful. Or so it seems to me.