Alright, so yesterday I was messing around trying to figure out why McIlroy missed that putt. Not like the putt, but you know, just generally why putts get missed. Figured I’d track what I actually did, might be useful to someone.
First things first, I grabbed my old putter and a bunch of golf balls. Headed out to the backyard. It’s not a putting green, more like…lumpy grass, but good enough for this.
I started by just trying to make a few short putts, like 3-4 feet. Just trying to get a feel for things. And man, I was missing a ton! Like, way more than I thought I would. That was the first surprise.
Then I thought, okay, gotta break this down. What’s going wrong? So, I decided to focus on a few things:
- Setup: Am I aligned properly? Is my weight balanced?
- Stroke: Is my stroke smooth? Am I decelerating?
- Face Angle: Is the putter face square at impact?
For the setup, I used an alignment stick. Put it down on the grass and tried to make sure my feet and shoulders were aligned with the target line. That helped a little bit. I also noticed I was leaning back a bit, so I tried to get my weight more over the balls of my feet.
Next up, the stroke. I felt like I was getting a little “handsy,” so I focused on using my shoulders to rock the putter back and through. Tried to keep my wrists quiet. This felt weird at first, but it seemed to help with consistency. I also concentrated on making sure I followed through completely. I had a tendency to quit on the putt, which definitely led to some misses.
Now, the face angle…this was the tough one. I didn’t have any fancy equipment to measure it precisely. So, I just tried to pay really close attention to where the ball was starting. If it was starting left, I knew the face was probably closed. If it was starting right, the face was open. I spent a good amount of time trying to get a feel for squaring the face at impact.
I noticed that my grip pressure was probably too tight, so i loosened up a bit, and that help to feel the head of the club better.
After about an hour of this, I was starting to hit some better putts. Still missed a bunch, but the misses were closer. I was seeing the ball start on my intended line more often, and my distance control was improving.
I even tried some longer putts, like 15-20 feet. Those were definitely harder, but the same principles applied. Setup, stroke, face angle…gotta focus on all of them.
At the end of the day, I don’t know if I figured out why McIlroy missed that putt, but I definitely learned a few things about my own putting stroke. I realized how important setup and alignment are, and how easy it is to get sloppy with your stroke. It’s amazing how small changes can make a big difference.
It was a fun little experiment. I’m gonna keep working on it. Maybe I’ll even make a few more putts next time I’m actually on a real green!
