Tag: Putting

Golf instruction: Level up the gate drill for putting

Many golfers have heard of the putting gate drill using golf tees, but there is a way to take it a step further.

Many golfers have heard of the putting gate drill using golf tees, but there is a way to take it a step further.

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This week, Golfweek’s fitness guru and long driver Averee Dovsek demonstrates how to use alignment sticks or golf clubs to work on the entirety of your putting stroke.

Keep this tip in mind the next time you are practicing around the green. This is a great drill to dial the backswing and follow through of your putting stroke.

If you’re interested in any of Averee’s fitness content, click here.

If you’re looking for more instruction, click here.

Golf instruction with Steve & Averee: Read putts both ways

When reading a putt, it’s common to miss the proper read when looking at it from only one direction.

When reading a putt, it’s common to miss the proper read when looking at it from only one direction. This is why you see most professional golfers look at their putts both ways and walk around to both sides of the hole.

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This week, Golfweek’s Steve Scott and Averee Dovsek explain why it is important to look at your putt from both the top of the hole and the bottom of the hole. Check out this week’s video to see this tip in action.

If you’re looking for more instruction, click here.

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Golf instruction with Steve & Averee: Rub of the green

Find this week’s tip here.

It’s common to hit a putt, miss and blame yourself for a bad stroke or bad read. What if we could prove that it’s not always your fault when missing a putt?

This week, Golfweek’s Steve Scott and Averee Dovsek explain how when you place a ball at the exact same spot on a meter and watch it roll out it rarely ends up in the same place every time.  Check out this week’s video to see this tool in action.

If you’re looking for more instruction, click here.

If you’re interested in any of Averee’s fitness content, click here.

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Golf instruction with Steve & Averee: Settle the debate between two reads on the putting green

Let’s make more putts.

We all know the feeling of being confident in reading a putt, but once you walk around to the opposite side of your initial read you get confused.

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You may even see two completely different reads and this is a common issue among golfers.

This week, Golfweek’s Steve Scott and Averee Dovsek explain how to read your putts like you would read a book when seeing the putt break two different ways. Check out this week’s video to see this tip in action.

If you’re looking for more instruction, click here.

If you’re interested in any of Averee’s fitness content, click here.

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Golf instruction: Where to position your ball when you putt

Here’s how to position your ball when you putt.

Many golfers struggle with putting, and often times this can be resolved with proper ball alignment in the setup. It’s common to think that the putting stroke is the root of the problem, but where you are striking the ball in the stance can really shake up your putting.

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This week, Golfweek‘s Averee Dovsek explains a simple tip to help position your golf ball properly in your stance. This will keep you from hitting behind it or chasing the ball and keeping your club face square.

If you’re interested in any of Averee’s fitness content, click here.

If you’re looking for more instruction, click here.

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A robot created in a German lab uses AI to make putts — at an incredible rate

Golfi does take up to five minutes decipher data before swinging the club, and no one likes slow play.

Scientists in Germany have built a robot that can putt.

Dubbed Golfi, it probably wouldn’t be much of a fourth in your group, as it does need to be plugged in to a power source. Golfi also takes up to five minutes deciphering data before swinging the club, and no one likes slow play.

But the small, four-wheeled contraption can roll its rock.

The process starts when Golfi takes a picture of the green with a 3D camera. Then its computer simulates attempting thousands putts while factoring in rolling resistance of the turf, the weight of the golf ball and starting velocity.

Then it lines itself up and makes a swing.

Researchers at Paderborn University in Germany report that Golfi makes 70 percent of its putts but didn’t specify how long the putts were. No word yet on Strokes Gained: Putting for Golfi.

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A year after runner-up finish, Scottie Scheffler returns to Houston Open in completely different career spot

“Maybe it was because of football season, who knows.”

HOUSTON – Scottie Scheffler acknowledged last season was the first time he had ever really played well in the fall. Even going back to his college days at Texas, he had never been able to find comfort when playing in the early part of the season.

“Maybe it was because of football season, who knows,” Scheffler said.

Nevertheless, that all changed for the second-ranked golfer in the world at the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba last year, when he placed fourth. The following week at the Houston Open, he tied for second, with the round of the week coming on Friday when he fired an 8-under 62.

He held the lead heading to Sunday, but Jason Kokrak shot 5 under in the final round to beat Scheffler by two. However, five starts later, Scheffler won for the first time in his career, and the rest is history.

Houston Open: Odds, picks | Watch PGA Tour Live on ESPN+ | Thursday tee times

He won the PGA Tour’s Jack Nicklaus Award as Player of the Year. He won four times, including the Masters, and finished runner-up at the 2022 Tour Championship to Rory McIlroy.

Now, Scheffler returns to Houston for the 2022 Cadence Bank Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course, where he tees off at 8:13 a.m. ET Thursday, with an entirely different perspective than from a year ago.

“Last year was really the first time where I did (play well), and it was nice going into the offseason feeling very comfortable where my game was at,” Scheffler said. “I was able to just fine-tune things instead of really feeling like I had to work on a ton of stuff. I just played really well.”

Scheffler comes into the 2022 Houston Open as the favorite, and for good reason. Although he has gone through struggles recently, especially with his putting, Scheffler fired a final-round 9-under 62 in Mayakoba last week to finish T-3. Those struggles, which included losing a lead in the final round of the Tour Championship and going 0-3-1 in the Presidents Cup, culminated in him tinkering with his equipment.

Before the CJ Cup in South Carolina, he switched putters. He finished at 1 under for the week in a tie for 45th, but he lost his top spot in the world rankings to McIlroy.

After the first two rounds last week in Mexico, Scheffler again decided to make a putting change back to his old flat stick.

“I’m always working and trying things,” Scheffler said. “I’ve always been a guy that makes little changes at a time. I switched putters at the CJ Cup. I was hitting a lot of good putts, the ball just wasn’t going in the hole, and it was more of the same at the beginning of the week last week. So after Friday’s round, I was like, ‘Well, let me see if it’s me or it’s the putter.’

“I went back to my old putter, something I’m comfortable with, and I putted pretty good over the weekend, so using it again this week. Seemed like the little bit of an experiment failed.”

Scheffler ranks second on Tour this season in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee but is 190th (of 206) in putting. If he indeed found his stroke last week in Mexico, the Houston Open could be a springboard to another great year.

It’s safe to say Scheffler likes playing in Texas. A Dallas native, he finished tied for second (Houston Open), first (WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play) and lost in a playoff (Charles Schwab Challenge) in three starts in the state last season.

There has been plenty of change in Scheffler’s life since this time last year, but he remains a golfer in pursuit of perfection.

“Last week was really solid golf, and it definitely gives me a good bit of confidence,” Scheffler said. “I’m working on a lot of the same stuff I was last year about this time, and so hopefully it will continue to pay off.”

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Scottie Scheffler’s putter switch leads to 62, highlights takeaways from the 2022 World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba

Scheffler shot a bogey-free 9-under 62 on Sunday, the lowest final-round score of his PGA Tour career.

After a dreadful putting round on Friday, Scottie Scheffler switched back to old faithful and switched back to making birdies Sunday.

The world No. 2 made seven birdies and a hole-out eagle to shoot a bogey-free 9-under 62 at El Camaleon Golf Course at the 2022 World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba. It’s the lowest final-round score of his PGA Tour career and lifted him to a five-way tie for third.

Without Shotlink data this week in Riviera Maya, Mexico, it’s hard to say definitively how poorly Scheffler putted on Friday, but it was poor enough for him to shelve the Scotty Cameron T-5.5 Proto mallet putter he used two weeks ago at the CJ Cup in South Carolina and return to the model that he used to win the Masters.

“It never goes too far away,” Scheffler said of his Scotty Cameron Newport 2. “I went back to my old putter for the round yesterday. I think when I see so many putts go up to the cup and not go in, it was like, well, maybe I’ll just make a change and see what happens. This is the time of year when I’ll usually experiment with stuff. It’s probably something I’ll continue to fiddle around with.”

Scheffler’s day got off to a promising start with a hole-out at the par-4 third hole from 108 yards.

“There was nobody at the green and I hit a good shot and it looked like it landed close, but we couldn’t really see, couldn’t really hear anything, nobody was clapping or nothing. So when I got up there, I was like, ‘Oh, man, it must have spun off the green. Then I checked the cup and it was in,” Scheffler said.

How much was Scheffler thinking about the fact he needed either a win or to finish solo second to overtake Rory McIlroy and reclaim world No. 1?

“I was just trying to show up and have a good round of golf,” he said. “Rankings are great, it was definitely fun being No. 1 in the world, it’s definitely something I hope to get back to, but it’s not something that’s going to occupy a lot of my thoughts.”

Scheffler is scheduled to play next week in the Cadence Houston Open, a tournament he nearly won last year. Confidence is high after shooting his sixth round of 62 or lower since the beginning of 2019, most of any player on Tour in that span.

“A few things go my way, a few more putts go in, I could have been right in the tournament,” Scheffler said.

Struggling Collin Morikawa hires his first-ever putting coach

After the first winless season of his career, Collin Morikawa has added a new member to his team.

After the first winless season of his career, Collin Morikawa has added a new member to his team for the first time ever: a putting coach. The two-time major champion began working with instructor Stephen Sweeney at this week’s World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba.

Morikawa’s agent, Andrew Kipper, and Sweeney both confirmed the move. Kipper also confirmed that the 25-year-old star has not previously worked with a putting teacher. Irish-born Sweeney is based in Jupiter, Florida. His roster of clients includes Shane Lowry, Aaron Wise, Sebastian Munoz, Joaquin Niemann, Carlos Ortiz and Mito Pereira.

Morikawa’s dissatisfaction with his putting has been evident this year as he changed putters multiple times, most recently at the Presidents Cup. His results have stalled since winning the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai last November. He lost a five-shot lead at the Hero World Challenge two weeks later and in 20 subsequent worldwide starts his best finish is a T-2 at the Genesis Invitational in February. He has recorded four top 10s since the Genesis, including at the Masters and U.S. Open, but no wins. He has fallen to No. 9 in the Official World Golf Ranking from a high of second in April.

Even while racking up PGA Tour and major wins, Morikawa’s putting statistics have remained unflattering. In three seasons since turning professional, he has ranked 128th, 178th and 131st in Strokes Gained: Putting. Through two events this season, he ranks 202nd, although the Zozo Championship did not collect detailed data. At last month’s CJ Cup, he finished the week ranked 77th in putting in a 78-man field.

While flying from the CJ Cup to a TaylorMade commercial shoot in Florida, Morikawa discussed his putting with Wise and texted Sweeney a few days later. The pair spoke at length last Sunday and met the next day.

“We talked Sunday to get a feel for direction then we worked into the darkness in Mayakoba on Monday,” Sweeney told Golfweek. “Tuesday we worked before and after his round and on Wednesday before his pro-am.” They worked mostly on speed control, which Morikawa feels has caused issues for him of late.

2022 World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba
Collin Morikawa at the 2022 World Wide Technology Championship at Club de Golf El Camaleon in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. (Photo: Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images)

In Thursday’s opening round, Morikawa shot an even-par 71 and followed with a bogey-free 63 on Friday. The putting statistics compiled at the World Wide Technologies Championship are more rudimentary than Strokes Gained data, but Morikawa averaged 1.75 putts per green in regulation in the first round and 1.563 on day two. At the CJ Cup, he averaged 1.825 putts per green in regulation over four rounds.

“We are not numbers-driven right now because we don’t have clear stats. I don’t know how close he’s hitting the ball to the hole,” Sweeney said. “But he’s excited about the direction it’s moving in.”

Because Morikawa has not before had a coach focused on his putting, Sweeney said he has never built up any practice techniques. “He had no real structure around his putting. He was very feel-oriented,” Sweeney said. “And the feel he used to win the PGA was very different than what he used to win the Open. He would get hot with his putting and wouldn’t know why, and then wouldn’t know why he got cold.”

Another Sweeney client saw that change up close. Pereira faced Morikawa in a Presidents Cup singles match and later told Sweeney he was awestruck at how well his American opponent putted. The two were paired again in the final round of the CJ Cup, when the opposite was true. “Same putter, same grip, same guy,” Sweeney said with a laugh. “No idea why he putted so differently one day to the other.”

Sweeney said the goal is to create a baseline for Morikawa to fall back on when things aren’t going so well. “That’s something he has in his full swing. When he misses a shot left or right, he knows why. He doesn’t have that baseline with his putting,” the coach explained. That structure, he hopes, will help bring out what he insists is a better putter than Morikawa is given credit for.

“He is a good putter because he’s putted well on every type of grass,” Sweeney said, pointing to his strong performances on Bermuda and bent greens at differing speeds. “He has that ability to putt well on every surface, which very few guys do.”

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Want to see the longest putt on the PGA Tour so far this season? It happened at the 2022 Shriners Children’s Open

Figures that a Vegas guy would be the one to have the flatstick working at the Shriners Children’s Open.

LAS VEGAS — It’s only the third tournament on the PGA Tour’s 2022-23 schedule, but we already have a leader in the clubhouse for longest made putt.

It came in the first round at the 2022 Shriners Children’s Open on the ninth hole, a 563-yard par-5 at TPC Summerlin.

And it came off the putter of a guy who lives in the area, Las Vegas native and resident Taylor Montgomery, who, by the way, is one of five Taylors in the field, along with Taylor Pendrith, Taylor Moore, Nick Taylor and Ben Taylor.

Back to the putt. Taylor reached the green in two but was on the far right edge of the green. Didn’t matter, as 69-feet, 5-inches later, the ball was in the cup.

It’s the longest putt made by any player on Tour this season. The eagle 3 came at a good time, as just three holes before, he carded a dreaded triple-bogey 7 on the sixth hole, part of a first-round 70.

Montgomery made birdie on the ninth, his last of the day, when he returned to the hole Friday, to post a 5-under 66. He walked off the course tied for 17th.

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