Why You Need This: Today you'll discover how to "Line up Your Eyes to Make Putts"

I was wondering, do you ever have trouble with your putts being off your target line?

Everything seems right...

You're lined up correctly (as far as you can tell)...

Your stroke feels good...

But the ball just doesn't take off on the line that you were trying to hit.

Well, it's very possible that you don't have your eyes lined up correctly.

You see, since you're human, you're unique.

And that means that you have a unique optimal set up that may differ from mine?

So advice that may work for someone else, may not be what works best for you.

In today's video, you're going to learn a simple method (using a knitting needle) that will help you customize your perfect putting alignment.

Putting is tough enough when you're set up perfectly, but it's darn near impossible if you're not actually set up on the putting line that you think you are!

Be sure to check out this cool trick that will ensure you're addressing the ball properly.

 

Golf Pros Featured:

Instructors Featured: Clay Ballard    

Video Duration: 6:17

Video Transcription:

Now I have a great trick for you to get your eyes aligned correctly so you can actually see the correct putting line, and you’re going to make a lot more putts when you’re doing this.

You may be surprised, once I give you this little test here, you may find out that you’ve been setting up your entire life to where it’s very difficult to see the line just based on how you’ve been addressing he golf ball.

We’re going to have a foolproof way of testing that, and then a very simple drill that you can do any time you go to the course to make sure that you’re lined up perfectly.

So here’s what we’re going to do. When I set up to this golf ball, first what I would do is I’d find a perfectly straight putt. I’ll get to what these are here in a second, don’t worry.

But I’ll find a perfectly straight putt. If I’m rolling this golf ball and I roll it toward the cup and it breaks even a half-inch to the right, I’m going to move this way or this way until I find one that just rolls perfectly straight.

So just roll a few with your putter until you find a dead-straight putt to the hole. Then from there, what I’d like to have happen is I would like to set up over top of this golf ball.

If my eyes are aligned correctly, I would be looking down at this golf ball a point about a foot ahead and that hole, and they would all look like they’re lined up perfectly straight.

Now if my eyes are out of alignment, that can skew what that looks like to you. So here’s how I’d measure this.

I have a, I think these are like knitting needles, just a metal needle you can get at a craft store, and a rubber rope. I saw this drill years ago, and I absolutely loved it. I’ve used this one for a long time.

This rubber rope is I think what they use on bracelets, that go around the wrists, like kids make bracelets out of them, it’s kind of stretchy. That works really good, you can also use string, but it’s not stretchy, so I don’t like it as well.

But I’m going to put that knitting needle right behind that golf ball. I’m going to stretch this out and put this line directly over the dead-center of this cup.

So now I know that is a perfect line for my golf ball to the center of the up.

Then what I’m going to do is I’m going to take a second golf ball, I’m going to put it about a foot ahead of the golf ball that I’m going to be hitting. This is going to help me to test to see where my eyes are lined up here.

If I put it right there, that’s over the center of this line, and now if I’m lined up correctly, I should be able to set my club behind the ball. My eyes should be able to look down at my ball, look down at the ball in front, and look down at the cup and that should all look like that as perfectly in a straight line. Now what happens a lot of times, is if my eyes get too far over here, now I’m looking kind of at an angle back to this golf ball.

It looks to my eyes, if I look at this ball and that ball, and I look at where that’s pointing, that looks to me like it’s pointing over here somewhere.

That can really throw off your ability to get lined up correctly and make putts. If you’re lining up with your eyes too far this way or that way, and your eyes seeing correctly, then that can be throwing you off quite a bit.

Now the interesting thing about this, because I’ve done this with multiple players, it’s not universal. Everybody’s eyes see slightly different.

So some players when their eyes are directly over top of the golf ball, they see a perfectly straight line. Some players when they set up over top of the golf ball, it looks like off to one side or the other.

That’s why it’s so important to test yourself. You may be different than other people, you may like your eyes slightly outside, slightly inside, whatever that is, but a specific way to set up just for you, if you do this test.

So again, I put this string from my golf ball to the hole, perfectly lined up, and I put a point in front. So what I’ve done here, is I’ve actually put a little tee, I drove a tee down into the green there, and I pushed it down flush with the green so now I could actually putt over this and hit some puts.

So I’m going to remove this needle, but now I can get lined up here to where I see this golf ball, and there’s a little tee right here that may be tougher to see on camera.

I’m going to move around my eye alignment and how I set up this golf ball until it feels perfect to me. Now my tendency is to get a little too much like this.

My right arm gets on top, skews everything this way, and now it looks like I’m lining up left, to me. So if I get lined up better like this, now this feels really good to me, and I feel like that’s all in a straight line.

Cool thing is from here, I can hit this putt and now I know immediately if my eyes are lined up correctly and I’m seeing that straight line.

If I get it lined up correctly, you’ll find that it’s a lot easier to make putts, you find these straight putts, and then you can over and over again just roll these in and get your eyes lined up correctly.

You don’t have to do a ton of these, I don’ want you to sit here and hit a thousand putts from the same spot over and over again. That isn’t the best way to practice.

Get your eyes locked in, hit 10 or 15 putts, then you can move around to different places on the green once you get the feeling of how you should be addressing the golf ball that feels comfortable to you, then it’s much easier when you move to other putts.

Now another drill that’s really cool with this, a bonus drill here, I can raise these strings a little higher on this, and now I can even work on breaking putts, or I can use this line while I’m actually putting.

All I’m doing is just sliding this nylon rope a little higher up on these needles, and now I have room where I can actually putt underneath this rope and I can see if my eyes are over the ball, this way, or that way.

I can have another reference point there for how my eyes are lined up. I’ve got a feeling for me, again, I told you I get too much this way, and now I can see when I’m looking down at this golf ball.

My eyes are on the outside of this string, because that string is not cutting the ball in half.

So if I go ahead and line up like I was saying felt good, where I could see that line better, same thing here, now that line looks much better to me and it’s much easier to make those.

That’s another cool drill. So get your eyes lined up correctly, don’t go crazy with it, 10 or 15 putts, get the feeling of how it should be, and then you can go all over the green, you’ll be making putts from everywhere.

OK so it helps to be able to see the correct line, but what if I can’t hit the ball on the correct line. It’s not really going to do me any good if I’m pushing them and I’m pulling them, still not going to be able to make anything.

That’s where you want to groove your putting stroke. You want to be able to work through the Top Speed Golf Putting System.

As you work through those drills one by one, your stroke is going to get better, and better, and better. It’s going to become much more consistent. But it’s a process.

It’s fun while you’re doing it, because you see more puts go in. It’s fun to practice because now you have something to do while you go out there, it makes putting a lot more interesting and exciting, but you’ve got to work through that.

So go to the Top Speed Golf System, go to the Putting section, work through those drills, and your stroke is going to be super consistent. I can’t wait to see you there.