Best Way to Aim a Putter Correctly

Many golfers find it difficult to aim a putter correctly. Even professionals have problems and constantly ask a caddie to check their address position before they play their putt.

Even with a 1 metre (3ft) putt many golfers find it difficult to aim straight. The more common error is to aim away to the right. If you miss short putts to the right check your aiming. Some professionals meticulously line up the writing on the ball to aim at the hole -but that can be time-consuming!

Try this exercise. On a carpet or flat green set up three points in a line. Look from behind your ball. Put a small coin 45cm ahead of it and a tee peg 1.83 metres (6ft) away to aim to. Address your ball. At address, if you aim correctly, the coin should appear on line to the tee peg. If the coin looks to be too far left, then your tendency is to aim away to the right – the more common error. If the coin appears to move to the right then your tendency is to aim to the left. Try adjusting your head position to see if all three line up.

If your tendency is to aim away to the right, don’t just line up over a spot in front of you. Try to choose a little spot fractionally right of the line of your putt and feel as though you line up to aim just left of it.

Your head position can be important for lining up. In theory, if your eyes are too far over the ball you are more likely to aim left.

If your eyes are inside the ball then you are more likely to aim off to the right. But experiment with your head position until you learn to see a straight line.

Check your aiming. Adopt your address position, let go with your right hand, keep hold of the club with your left hand and go round behind it to see if the putter is aiming straight. Some women professionals aim the putter from behind the ball in this way then walk round to take up their address position. But it you adopt this method, learn to do it quickly!

At address your head should be horizontal, not up, as in the long game. When you line up putts, your head should swivel to see the line rather than lifting and turning.

Our ability to aim can vary with lengths of putt. With a very short putt both eyes see the ball and hole. With a slightly longer putt your left eye sees the ball and the hole but the view from your right eye is hidden by your nose. With a longer putt still you can’t see the ball and hole at the same time. Check your aiming at each length.