Article #1
Featured Teacher: Charlie Rucker
(to meet this week's teacher go to www.jitterbugbook.com/teachers_rucker.cfm)
This is gonna change the way you smile.
First, do me a favor: Go find your putter, two balls and an area of carpet to putt on. Then drop the balls on the carpet; say, maybe two feet apart.
Now, forget everything you know about how you're supposed to putt. Just stand over the balls like you're gonna putt one ball at the other.
WAIT! We ain't done.
Now, forget that these are golf balls. Instead, pretend that these are pool balls. The ball you're putting is the cue ball, and the ball you're putting the cue ball at is the 7-ball. Now, I want you to try to putt the cue ball at the 7-ball as if you are trying to cut it into the right corner pocket.
I'll wait a second while you do that…Hmmhmnhmnhmn…OK?
Next, putt it into the left corner pocket. Next, hit it dead-on so that the 7-ball gets bumped straight forward. Now, spread 'em out to about four feet and do the same kinda stuff, keepin' the image that these are just billiard balls in your head. Go ahead and try it left-hand low, or with your hands six inches apart, or with your spouse's putter, or left-handed, or with your weight on your right foot, or with your knees together or apart.
None of that matters, does it? Keep spreadin' the balls out a little, and keep doing the same thing. I bet you had no idea you was such a good putter!
Now, here's the deal…Everybody always wants to tell us how to putt. "Get your eyes over the line and your weight on your left foot. Make sure you take the putter straight back. Keep it low to the ground. Make sure you follow through, blah, la-la-la…"
Did you think of any of that when you was putting at those pool balls? NO!! And, nonetheless, your stroke was pure! Purely accurate, purely aggressive, purely flowing and purely confident! All this, despite the fact that you didn't remind yourself to be any of it.
Why do we putt better at other balls than we do the hole?
I'll tell you why. It's because when we are aiming at something above the surface of the ground, we putt at it, as if it is our target. When putting at a hole-something below the surface of the ground-we lose our sense of target. For some reason, trying to get a ball to fall makes people nervous, as evidenced by the "hit and pray" type of stroke most people use to putt, absent of all go-for-it tendencies.
Now, I'll be the first to admit that some people have an easier time enlisting powers of imagination than others. But, if you ask me, the mountain we all have to climb when it comes to putting is to find a way to make that hole seem more like a target, something we are trying to roll the ball at, not just into.
A giant pool ball? Maybe. A grapefruit? If that fits your eye. A softball? That's up to you.
One thing for sure, though: It's in you. Otherwise, how could you possibly be so good at putting at other balls, something less than half the diameter of the hole? You just gotta find a way to get ya mind right.
Like I say, it's in you. Your Main Man, Charlie