The plus handicap
who couldn't putt

I'm a plus handicap golfer. Until a few months ago, I had no putting stroke I could trust.

I went looking for why. It wasn't my hands. It wasn't my stroke. It was my feet.

I was standing on my heels. Same fault that was holding my full swing back — I just hadn't found it in my putting yet.

I moved my weight forward, onto the balls of my feet. That's it. That was the whole fix.

The stroke came back on its own. No drill. No thought over the ball.

Saturday, first hole, eight feet, downhill, right to left. Picked my line from behind the ball. Stood over it and trusted it. In it went.

Played nine holes with a friend last week. Early thirties. Off 8. Good player, frustrated player. Wanted to strike his irons better.

I didn't touch his swing. I looked at where he was standing.

Weight in his heels. Shoulders working ahead of his hips before he'd even started. I asked him to stand tall, then bend from the hips. Nothing more.

Then I asked him one question: where do you want this ball to land?

He picked the spot. Set the club to it. Swung at it. Ten yards longer, dead straight, without trying to hit it harder.

He's thirty-four. Not one thing about him is declining. He just never had anyone ask him where he wanted the ball to land before he pulled the club back.

That's the whole method in one afternoon. Doesn't matter what age you are. Doesn't matter what's holding you back. Find it, fix it, individualise it.

Before you play this weekend — on the practice green, before you hit a shot.

Stand over a putt the way you normally do. Feel where your weight sits.

Move it forward, gently, onto the balls of your feet.

Take three strokes from there. Notice the difference.

Then go and pick your targets — every shot, every club, before you walk up to the ball. Land it, run it out, know where it's going before you swing.

Then don't think about any of it again. Just hit the shot.