If there is one thing I wish I had known earlier about putting, it’s that the angle of the club face (where the face of the putter is pointing at impact) when you strike the putt is far and the most important indicator of being a good putter.
Even if your path is not perfect, you can still make a fair number of putts, provided your putter face is perfectly aligned with the proper path of the putt.
In fact, according to the makers of the SAM PuttLab, approximately 83% of the direction a ball takes after being hit with a putter is determined by the angle of the putter’s face at the point of impact.
In other words, the ball tends to go in the direction where the putter is pointing. This may seem like a simple concept, but it is often overlooked.
Pros are truly impressive to watch as they make 59/60 putts from inside 5 feet. They have honed their strokes to ensure the proper face angle and path are aligned with the tiniest of variances (accounting for the remaining 17% of putt direction).
According to Ralph Maltby, a renowned golf teacher, tour pros are capable of aligning the putter face angle to the intended line by less than half a degree. This highlights the importance of precisely aligning the putter face at impact to become a great putter.
A minor 2-degree open face at impact can cause a missed putt even from a distance as short as 5 feet. It’s crazy how such a small degree of change can make a huge difference in the outcome of a putt.
But will the Eyeline Golf Putting Alignment Mirror help your everyday amateur golfers? Find out from this video review below.
What I Learned With the Eyeline Putting Mirror
So I generally used to miss putts to the right. I would like to guess that 90% of my misses were with the right side of the hole. Trust me, it was frustrating.
I’ve gone entire rounds missing every putt right and it was driving me to the brink. At times, I used to feel as if I had a good stroke and would get streaky, and make a lot of putts, but then the misses to the right would follow me through and through.
I’m a practitioner, so I worked every drill imaginable in an attempt to stop missing putts right. But they would still show up and usually at the worst times!
Then I came across an article on being right-handed but left-eye dominant, which was exactly my case. The article explained how this could impact how I see the line of the putt, meaning, I might see the line right or left of where it actually is (so relatable).
So at that point, I thought maybe I had an alignment issue. I had heard and read about the Putting Mirror from Eyeline Golf and had even seen some pros use it in their pre-round warm-ups.
In 2019, I ordered one and went out to my course’s practice green and started using it right away and all I can say is WOW!, what an eye-opener (pun intended).
Here’s What I Did for My First Session With the Mirror
- I chose a right-to-left breaking putt of about 8 feet and lined up as I normally would without the mirror.
- Then, I moved the ball, put the mirror down on the same line my ball had been on, and stepped back.
The Putting Mirror was lined up about 8 inches right of where I thought. I was aimed so far right that I had to pull the ball on-line to make the putt.
- Then I went on to line the mirror up perfectly and address the putt.
- Working from behind, looking down the mirror towards the hole, I rolled several balls by hand and tweaked the mirror alignment.
Once I could roll the balls on the proper line quite easily, I had the mirror lined up for the putt I was practicing perfectly.
- Then I put a ball in the putting channel of the mirror and addressed it as it was properly aligned. (At this moment, I was lined up 3 feet left of the hole).
That’s when I completely understood how I was too right-aligned. There were no questions about it.
Going back to our formula, if I was aligned too far right, I would have to somehow close the face at impact to try and get the putter pointed at the hole. This made me curious how I was making any putts at all. So, I set up an appointment at a local shop for a putter fitting which included a SAM PuttLab analysis.
And sure enough, the evidence was clear. My approach to putting was aiming right, cutting across the ball at impact (this was a subconscious effort to make up for the rightward aim), and trying to close the face the perfect amount to point at the target.
The vast majority of the time, my face was right off the target at impact. And that’s exactly why I missed putts, it couldn’t get any clearer.
So what have I done to change my putting? Well, it’s a work in process (believe me) and I’ll update you as the season continues.
I’ve been working on taking all these variables out of my stroke. I’m also trying to find the best way to get properly aligned (the line on the ball is hard for me), and get my path and face more square throughout the course. So, no more cutting across and holding the face open (for now at least). We shall see!
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