Why You Need This: How would you like to hit rock solid putts?

How do we stop from hitting off the toe or heel?

For those looking to find the center putt, this video on Hit Rock Solid Putts Like the Pros is for you.

Golf Pros Featured:

Instructors Featured: Clay Ballard    

Video Duration: 5:14

Video Transcription:

Hi guys, I’ve got an awesome drill for you today talking about how you can hit the sweet spot of the putter very, very consistently. Get a good roll on there just like the pros are doing, and make a lot more putts.

One thing we’re going to talk about is why the pros hit a little bit off the toe of the putter, and a little bit higher on the face. We’re going to get to that in a minute.

First let’s talk about the general idea of what we want to be doing, and what are better players doing that players that are struggling aren’t doing.

So I recently did a SAM putting certification, and SAM putt lab is an ultrasound machine, so it measures everything about your putter. They’ve taken it out on tour and they’ve collected data from 99 different players on the PGA Tour.

They took all this data, they put it together, and they found what are the consistencies, what are the best players doing in the world that players that aren’t as good at putting, what are they doing differently.

That’s exactly what we do with the Top Speed Golf System is we said OK, the best players in the world they’ve got the Power Turn, they’re getting lag, Straight-Line Release. Players that are struggling aren’t doing those moves.

So they’re taking the exact same philosophy we have, which I think is awesome. What they found is that PGA Tour players, number one, are very consistent with where they’re hitting the face.

Higher handicap players are hitting both the heel and the toe, so they’re kind of hitting a variety of places on the face.

I think the main reason for this is we just don’t have a feeling for where it is. We haven’t trained this, so we don’t even know when we’re hitting off the heel or the toe.

We’re getting a little bit of inconsistency from heel to toe, and then we’re also getting inconsistency from top to bottom.

What they found when they took all that data from tour players, is tour players are hitting the ball just a millimeter or two off the toe side.

The reason for this is, as you swing with your putter, your toe is moving a little bit faster. It’s turning over a little bit faster than the heel is.

So that momentum more toward the toe side is going to make it feel a little bit better on the toe of the putter. That’s at least the idea, what we’re speculating is happening, why the best players in the world are hitting slightly off the toe.

They’re also hitting it a little bit higher on the face, and that’s probably because we’re delofting the shaft just a very, very small amount. That could be it, or could be just because we’re setting up with the putter on the ground in the general way.

We don’t want to worry about that, but we just know, general idea is, we’re off the toe side and we’re a little bit higher on the putting face. That’s what the best players are doing.

Now we talked about players that are struggling may not be able to feel if they’re hitting it off the toe or the heel.

I’ve got an awesome drill that’s going to work with variability training, which we talk about in the Top Seed Golf System, can help you to improve 500 percent, even 1,000 percent faster based on some studies out there.

What we’re going to do is put a tee in the ground, and I’m going to set up two golf balls. The first golf ball I’m going to set up right on the sweet spot with the toe of my putter actually touching that tee.

What this is going to force me to do, is naturally I’m not going to want to smack into this tee, I’m going to miss the putt all together. That’s naturally going to get me to go away from that tee, and I’m going to hit slightly more on the toe with that tee on that side.

Now if I hit on the toe too much, what’s going to happen is this putt is going to go a little shorter, it’s going to lose some energy off the face, it’s not going to be as solid. So it’s going to go a little shorter and because the toe is going to be opening up if I hit it off the toe, it’s going to go a little to the right.

This is a bit exaggerated but you get the overall idea here.

If I hit it off the heel, it’s going to go a little shorter and to the left. But I’m specifically, purposefully going to be practicing hitting off the toe or the heel right now so I can just get a feel for what that is.

Here, I’m not even worried if I make these putts, I can even hit to open space, but I’m purposely trying to hit one off the toe and then see how that goes, see how that feels. Then I’m going to hit one off the heel so I could definitely feel that was a definite toe shot.

Then I’m going to hit one off the heel, see how that feels, and now I cn kind of build that into my muscle memory. I know what a toe shot feels like, I know what a heel shot feels like, and that’s probably a pretty new sensation for a lot of players out there. They may just have never thought about that before.

Once I’ve gone back and forth, alternating, 15 or 20 times. I get a good feel for what toe and heel is, now I’m going to fine-tune that, and I’m going to try to get them on the sweet spot. Now that I’ve gotten feedback, I can easily sense is that a little off the toe or the heel, and I’ll know right away.

So here, now I’m taking this putter setting it up in the sweet spot. I’m trying to hit it dead center solid and get it roll in the cup. Immediately I could feel OK, that was pretty much on the sweet spot and nice roll, made the putt.

If it’s more on the heel, I’m going to kind of tie back into that mental image I had of what feels like more on the toe, and I’m going to adjust until I get that ball feeling dead center solid.

Now another drill that you can do which is the same thing in a different, kind of a different way, is I can take this, I can put a tee on the heel and the toe and I can put my ball in the middle.

I’m going to have the ball in the center of the face, now I’m going to try to swing through this gate and get a nice center contact slightly off the toe. Missed both tees, and make my put.

All right guys, so try out those drills. You’re going to get a better awareness of where you’re hitting on the face. Hit a millimeter or two off the toe if you want to be just like the pros, get the best solid contact.

We’re going to learn what to feel, what a toe hit is, what a heel hit is, then we’re going to bring that in so they’re all solid.

Best of luck, I’ll see you guys soon.