Today, let’s focus on obtaining a reliable putting stroke—one that sends off the ball along your selected starting line, not to the right or left of it.

Over the years, there have been some pros who just had putting figured out. Ben Crenshaw. Brad Faxon. Loren Roberts. Tiger Woods.

But there is one guy whose shot-making was so brilliant that he never got credit for how good he was on the green—Jack Nicklaus. He had a piston-like stroke that put ball after ball into the hole and yet no one ever copied it.

His swing was highly influential, but his putting? It just got lost. We should get back to it.

The most important part of a putting stroke, in my opinion, is bringing the putter into the ball with a perfectly square clubface. This is what a piston stroke, which Nicklaus had, excels at. It’s all done with your right forearm (left forearm for lefties).

To find out what this stroke feels like, set up as usual and put the putter down behind the ball. Instead of swinging the putter back and forth, push the ball with the putter toward a target, following through maybe by eighteen inches or so, directly toward the target..

Next, put a ball down in front of you and actually swing the putter back and then through the ball, feeling like after the ball has been struck you are pushing the ball toward the target, even though the putter and ball are no longer in contact. That’s the feeling we’re looking for.

Set up with your upper arms gently resting against your torso. They will stay in contact throughout the stroke. This keeps them from wandering off in the wrong direction. I find that a slightly open stance, like Nicklaus used, helps a lot.

Swing the club back by pushing it with your left hand. Then the right forearm takes over, and just like a piston, “pushes” the putter toward the hole along the starting line, and keeps moving the putter along that line after the ball has been struck.

That last bit is important. What you want to do after influences what you do before. When the putter moves forward, feel like you are actively pushing the ball straight into the hole.

If you want to try this, it will take a bit of practice for you learn how to express this concept in your putting. Once you get it, I think you’ll like the results.

1. Practice two-foot putts. Practice hitting two-foot putts so they roll into the hole dead center. Yes, you’ll get good at two-foot putts, but you’ll get good at six-foot putts and eight-foot putts, too.

A short putt that tumbles in from the side will miss from a longer distance, but a stroke that sends short ones in dead center will send the ball in from longer distances as well. That’s the point of this kind of practice.

I suggest two feet because that is a distance you should be successful at EVERY TIME. If it isn’t, move closer until you get it right every time, and then you can move back just a bit.

2. You’ve heard that it is a good idea to find a spot on the green on the starting line a few inches in front of your ball, and to roll the ball over that spot.

But the putter, which creates the rolling, needs to be travelling along this line, too. That means the imaginary line you visualize in front of the ball needs extend behind the ball, as well.

I think you can apply this tip to every shot you hit, too.

Everybody knows that the major influence in hitting a putt along a selected line is the orientation of the clubface. The clubface is square the starting line at address (if you are aimed correctly), and we want to get it back to square when the putter meets the ball during the stroke.

It would also be nice if the putter was travelling along the starting line at contact, and not to the right or left of it.

An easy way to solve both problems is to rest your upper arms lightly against your torso. When you swing the putter, in either direction, let your arms stay in contact, sliding back and forth on your torso.

If your hands do nothing but hold the putter, that is, add nothing of their own to the stroke, the putter has to perform as desired.

Don’t worry, the Rules of Golf allow this. It is your forearms that may not be anchored.

The less time you take with a putt, the more likely you are to hit a good one. Try it this way.

Stand behind the ball and read the putt quickly (how to do that is another post). Stop when you see the line. Don’t worry about speed. That is subconsciously built into finding the line.

Now find a spot on the starting line about three inches or less in front of the ball.

Step up to the ball and square up your putter to that line.

Get in your stance.

Take one more look at the hole, then back at the ball, and go–no waiting for the Muse to strike. Hit the ball right over your spot.

All this should take less than fifteen seconds.

Take the “hit” out of your stroke by imagining the ball is transparent to the putter such that it will go right through the ball to strike it first on the side closest to the hole (yellow dot).

Taking out the hit smooths out your stroke, making it more reliable.

At the time you would brace for that little hit, it has already occurred. (And if you think you don’t brace for the hit, think again. You do.)

When you hit an approach putt, you create a sort of stretched feeling on your lower back, because you are swinging your arms, but not turning your torso.

There are two things to notice about this stretched feeling. For any given length of approach putt, the stretched feeling will always be felt at the same place on your lower back.

Also, the stretched feeling for shorter approach putts gets felt on the right side of your lower back, and as the length of putt, and hence length of the putting stroke, increases, the stretched feeling migrates leftward across your lower back.

Please note that this is true only if the sole distance generator for an approach putt is the length of the putting stroke. That is, you do not add on any “hit” with your hands.

Consistently hitting putts on the same place on the putter’s face and using the same tempo in your stroke are important, too.

Spend some time on the practice green putting the ball with the stretched feeling in different places to see how far it goes each different time, and remember those location-distance relationships.

They allow you to relate the length of an approach putt to a known physical feeling instead of entrusting distance control to something vague called “feel.”

In a short time, you should start leaving approach putts close to the hole, and wave goodbye to three-putt greens.

See also: Leave Approach Putts Next to the Hole

Resting the putter on the ground at address means you have to lift it slightly when you make your stroke. That can cause a disturubance that throws off your stroke by enough for you to miss the putt.

Instead, address the ball so the sole barely grazes the grass and the weight of the club is already in your hands. This makes it easy to start the club back smoothly and calmly.

There are two ways to putt.

1. Read the green to get the line and the distance, step into a stance you have practiced, and hit the ball with a stroke you have practiced.

2. Get up to the ball and think to yourself, “Hit the ball into the hole.” Then do it.

One or the other.

There’s a common reason why you miss short putts. I mean putts of four feet or less. The reason is that you don’t read them correctly and a putt that should have gone straight in slithers off to the left.

How did that happen?

I think you know that when you read a 20-foot putt you pay attention to what is happening in the last few feet around the hole. That, and you’re reading the putt from about 25 feet away from the hole, make local slope, and the overall tilt of the green, clearly visible.

But with a four-foot putt, you might glance at it from seven or eight feet away, and that’s too close to detect what you can see from far away.

The answer is to back up and read those shorties from at least 15 feet away. Farther back would be even better. From there, you can see where the ball will roll to.

I have taken a devil-may-care attitude toward my golf game lately. In other words, I don’t play “smart” golf anymore. I attack.

You don’t make birdies if you don’t shoot at pins. You don’t lay up to “your distance.” Closer is always better.

And then there’s putting. Putting is about hitting the ball into the hole. That should be obvious, but it’s not.

What are we taught to do when we putt? Read the greeen. Get the line matched up with the speed. Set up to your starting line. Square up the putterface. Smooth stroke.

Where’s the hole in all that??!!

Instead, stand behind the ball and look at the hole. Fill your head with the thought of hitting the ball into it.

Then step up to the ball thinking the same thought and hit it in.

That simple.

When you’re awake, your conscious mind is always thinking about something. Choose the right thing for it to think about.

When you putt, do you get points for the quality of your mechanics? How well you read greens?

Of course not! You get points for hitting the ball in the hole. So think that, because that’s what you want to do!

I promise you if you try this you won’t putt any worse than you do right now. And you will probably putt better.