Confidence in Perfect Putting

Perfect Putting Is Confidence at Its Best

A good putter has to be confident. A good putter has to feel that he or she is up to par. Yes, if you start telling yourself that you can't putt, you may indeed have a problem in getting your ball in the hole even from a distance of just two or three feet. 

Missing a short putt on the last hole may become an unforgettable mistake that you start dwelling on until it may haunt you for the rest of your life. People often say you learn from your mistakes. However, the inability to forget could be more devastating to golfing success than the inability to remember what to do. 

As a good putter, you must acquire the ability to consciously block from your mind all your missed putts. You must learn to focus on the present putt. Always think of yourself as a good, if not a great, putter. This is confidence at its best.

Of course, your inner self might tell you to get "real." However, you must also learn not to use "realism" as your excuse for your persistent negative attitude towards your own evaluation of your caliber as a putter.

Remember, Jack Nicklaus misses his putts too. But he chooses not to remember the putts he has missed; instead, he remembers the perfect putts he has made. And don't tell yourself that you are not Jack Nicklaus! 

Confidence is disciplining your mind to separate you from the rest of your competitors, just as Jack Nicklaus has separated himself from the rest of the professional golfers.

If you can change your thinking about remembering the putts you have missed, you are in fact changing your own self-perception about your caliber as a putter.

Remember, a great putter is not born, but is made -- made through conscious effort to improve not only the putting techniques but also the self-image. A positive self-perception immunizes you from doubts and fears about your putting techniques -- doubts and fears are stumbling blocks in golf success. 

Of course, changing the way you perceive yourself as a putter requires practice and perseverance. 

First, practice mental visualization of the good putts you have made. 

Garry Player once said: "On every putt, see the ball going into the hole with your mind's eye." 

Mental visualization is important to golfing success. In your mind's eye, you already see your success, and seeing is believing.

Tiger Woods' father was said to have trained his son while he was still a very young kid to roll a ball to a hole, and then roll it to the hole again with his eyes closed. That was how Tiger Woods received his training in developing his mental golf.

Practice to relive the perfect putts you have made. Visualize the puts in your next round of golf, and see them going in the hole.

Stop complaining in the way your converse about your own putting. Stop moaning about the mistakes you made. Complaining only reinforces the negative image, and may well become self-fulfilling prophecy. 

Confidence means the ability to control the mind by focusing on something small and simple.

In good putting, you clear all the clutters in your mind by narrowing your mental focus as much as possible. Learn to empty your mind of instructional thoughts from books, fellow golfers, or your coach. Just let your subconscious mind take over your strokes. It is like a runner on the track would let the subconscious mind take over the breathing to increase the oxygen intake; a runner does not have to consciously breathe harder in order to get more oxygen into the lungs to win the race.

So neither should you consciously focus on your strokes. Instead, just focus on the target. 

In your mind's eye, you should see only a mental picture of the hole or your target. A good putter not only focuses on the target, but also narrows down the target. Therefore, a good putter's target may not simply be the hole. Remember, the smaller the target is, the better control your brain and your body may have in getting the ball to the target of your choice. Learn to select a smaller target, such as a broken blade of grass, or a tiny edge of the hole. Your brain works better when the target is smaller, and your brain subconsciously has better control of your body's functions, especially your muscles and reflexes.

You may have one of the best strokes of your life when you see the target, and your mind simply reacts to it with little interference from your conscious thought.

Confidence means getting control of the present situation, and the past is insignificant and irrelevant. 

In any sport, gaining control of the present situation is important. Some people believe that you must try the hardest in order to control the present situation. However, in putting, trying your hardest may not be equivalent to doing your best.

Why is that so?

This is because putting requires spontaneity, and spontaneity is controlling the mind and hence the response, but without striving your hardest to control the resulting action. Essentially, spontaneity is focusing on the process, and never on the outcome. In this way, your efforts may become "natural" and "effortless." As a result, your strokes may become more confident, free from doubt or hesitation. 

Bobby Jones once said: "Putting -- a game within a game -- might just be said to be the most important part of golf." 

If putting is, indeed, an integral part of golf, make sure you excel in it, and make sure you are thinking like Jack Nicklaus. The mind is all that matters on the green. You become what you think you are, and your putts are affected by your mind, which is influenced by your confidence.

In perfect putting, confidence means overcoming any unconscious attempt using excessive muscular strength to steer the shot to the target in the swing. Confidence means using your conscious mind to remember only the good shots and discarding the bad ones. Confidence also means putting the outcome of a shot in perspective -- golf is only a game and whatever the outcome may be, it is not the end of the world. Finally, confidence means staying in the present moment. The past has nothing to do with the present, and only the present is real to you. Make the most of what you can do at the present moment, and the future is beyond your control. When you control your mind, you control your confidence, and hence you control the game. 

The Boomerang Golf Putting System

The Boomerang Golf Putting System not only is an addictive and challenging game, but also fine tunes your muscle memory. Once set, every putt becomes an identical challenge of perfect line and perfect pace. Learning how to hit a perfectly straight putt is golfing success. It is the perfect gift for any golfer. Play on your own or with friends and start grooving a professional putting stroke today -- it's great fun and you won’t be disappointed with the results.

Elite Sports Dead On Series II Putter

The putter is used on virtually every hole, unless someone chips in a shot. There is almost a direct correlation between a person’s handicap and the amount of putts made during a round. This premier club aims at lowering your scores.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau