It's time for a new episode of faith and fairways with the founder Brad Thorberg, who after more than 16,000 lessons taught to over 2000 golfers, has discovered the most forgotten and overlooked parts of your golf game that is keeping you from playing your most consistent and confident golf ever. Now here's your host, Brad Thorberg.
00:25 What is up members of the birdie crew fellow golfers, Brad here, another episode of faith and fairways podcast. Today we're going to get into the simplest way where you just start making more putts, especially the PUD slip matter.
00:36 We've talked about that in the past. Today we're going to lay out the simplest way to help you start to make more. What can you be doing right now to help make more putts more consistently? And that's our goal today and we're going to dive into three of the key things that are going to help you do that. Three of which you can start working on right now today. The moment that you get off this podcast, or you can be listening to this and start doing it. As you're listening to this, you don't even have to wait until you're done. This can be done all winter long in the house, which is what I love. Cause I mean, you know, putting is such a huge, huge component of your score. You know, a quarter of your score, if not more, do we need to be practicing it and mean you become mentally strong with it.
01:23 So the very first key piece when it comes to putting is one of the biggest things I see a lot of my clients do is they're looking at their putter when they putt or they're staring at the ball, which creates this, this putting motion where they're kind of jabbing at the putt, kind of popping at it when punching at it or flicking at it, or they're watching their putter and they're moving it around, trying to make a perfectly straight back and straight through, which you know, shock or there's no such thing as straight back straight through putting stroke. Unless you're bent over at exactly 90 degrees, your shoulders can work pretty straight up and down. That's the closest you're going to get. I don't recommend that. No way on earth I can do that with my jacked up back. So the putter needs to move on an arc, but really it's all about getting the ball to start on your intended line with the right speed.
02:15 If you do that, you're going to make a lot more putts, assuming you can read greens properly. So well we want to do is shift your eyes away from looking at the ball, your eyes away from looking at your putter blade and started looking at a Oh God, two to four inches in front of your ball. And this is a big thing that I work with a lot of my clients. I, and I can't take credit for it, I stole it from Stockton putting, you're a great putter, but it really changes your mindset. Every putt from now on becomes a two to four inch pot. So when you read your line, you pick this spot out, two to four inches in front of your ball and you simply get aimed at that. You point that at your spot, you get up, you set, you aim your putter blood at that spy, you stare at that spot and you watch yourself at the ball over this spot.
03:04 And here's what it does is it changes your focus from the ball or your putter blade and it gets you focused on a target and intermediate target. But [inaudible] smooth out your putting stroke cause now you're putting through the ball to that spine. If you can get the ball to roll over that spot and the first two to four inches, you know you hit the putt on lines. And now if we have a, he's in fuel for speed and a correct read, we have a chance of hitting an edge of that cup. So we want to shift the focus. I mean think about it, when you throw a dart at a dartboard, you're now looking at the dart or watching your hand. What are you looking at? You're looking at the dartboard and what'd you really good dart players do? And I, and I've had a few competed at a, at a national level, try it out for, I didn't even know darks was an Olympic thing back in the day, but or maybe it was just like a us national team.
03:55 Maybe it wasn't the Olympics, but anyways, I had a client who actually threw darts like that and he talked about how he would literally look at a spot that a dart had already entered the dartboard. That's how focus there when they're thrown a dart and that's how focused we should be when hitting a PO. We should have a tiny spot picked out two to four inches in front and we're laser focused on getting this ball to roll right over that spot. That needs to be our RP. We can't look at our hand, which would be the equivalent of looking at the putter blade. We can't look at the ball, which would be the equivalent of looking at the dark. We need to look at where we want this thing to go. When you do that, you're, you're so much more freer with your putting motion.
04:38 You're smooth, your tempos better. You're hitting through an object to a target, so you're fluid in your accelerating. You're not jumpy and poppy. Plus it just eases the nerves. And when you go into every putt that matters from one foot to 10 foot and you're now thinking, all right, I got a feel for the speed. I just need to get this online. There's my spot. Now I just got to make this four inch putt. That's all you gotta do. Think of how much more confident you're going to be standing over that putt, which we already talked so much about confidence with this game and how important it is. This is one of those things that's going to help just make you lose confidence when you're walking onto the putting green because you now know all you have to do is make two and four inch pots.
05:22 How hard is that? That's not very hard. You got to practices. Well, the hardest things my clients find is literally finding a spot cause they haven't been looking with that kind of laser focus and ever do you have to start training your eye to find that tiny, tiny spot. If you struggle with that, use your golf ball and use a line on it to aim at that spa. Just to help give you that, that a reminder cause it's so easy that when you get set up over it that you lose sight of it, which we'll talk more about cause that's you're one of our other components here. Moving into part two is going to be about pre shot and how we can translate. Finding that spot [inaudible] and how that routine used to look and finding that spot getting set up and hitting this and you're one, you don't lose the spot.
06:07 And two, you don't distract yourself with things that don't matter. Right? So we got to start changing your eyeline focus to be to two to four inches in front of the ball. Find a spot that's on your line and every puff from now on is a two to four inch pot. It's simple, he's a cake, nothing to it. But now I need to know how can I transition this into my pre shower routine and start to create a pre-shot routine that's going to just help me walk to the putting green with swagger. Knowing I have an advantage over most of the people I'm playing against because they don't even have a pre shot budding routine. They're all over the place. There's no consistency behind it. And probably the number one thing I see most amateur golfers do is they spend entirely way too much time standing over there, putt.
06:55 I mean what on earth are you doing over that thing? First of all, it's the worst way to look. Add you're putting line cause you're looking at it through peripheral vision at an angle. That's a great way. I mean think about it, you'll find this like when you stand behind a pot and you see the line and you find your spot, what happens and why so many of my clients lose that spot. Two to four inches in front is cause when they stand on the side and you're looking through peripheral vision and we won't even get into the technicalities of left eye and right eye dominance, which no, it is a whole nother factor in itself. We're going to keep it simple here. When you start to look peripheral, when you get over that putt and your eyes, even if they're directly over that ball and you're looking down that lamb and you turn that, Hey, you're looking with peripheral vision, which skews the ability to look down a line.
07:43 It also affects depth perception. There's a reason you don't stand sideways when you throw a dart. I mean it's just, it's a very difficult thing to do. There's a reason a hook shot is so difficult and basketball because you're looking peripheral instead of with binocular vision. So we got to get you looking binocular vision, see your line and when we set up, we got to get aimed at that spot. What most amateurs do is they get aim, but then they sit there and they look back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, and they spend 10 15 seconds over the ball completely losing sight of their line and half the time they'll do Putin neon, they'll do their practice putting strokes and this'll be a lot of us. I mean I am guilty. I used to do this too, but you'll do your practice putting strokes beside the ball. Then you'll set up over so you look behind it 30 seconds ago. How on earth are you ever going to find a spot when you do your practice putting strokes? Plus you're doing your practice, putting strokes with peripheral vision, super difficult way to judge pace. No.
08:46 Even though Brad has cracked the code to consistently breaking 90 there are still three major mistakes he's found from working with over 2000 clients that will sabotage your round before you get to the first tee. Head to www.mygolfcode.com now to receive your free guide where he outlines all three polls and provides you with some easy action steps to start playing more consistent golf today.
09:09 I know you know the argument is, Oh I see the tour players doing it well, tour players, first of all, don't forget it's their job. Second of all, they're devoting seven days a week to golf, probably five to 15 hours a day depending on if they're in season. If it's a tournament week, if they're onsite, if it's off season and they're grinding out practice, but they're doing everything about their life for work is golf related and they are spending hours, hours on the putting green hours before they go and tee off day one of a tournament on Thursday before they tee off that first day day one. What happens is they've already spent at least, at least on the practice screen and on all the other greens where they already know the pin placements for all four days. By the way, for most of you, how do they make so many pods?
10:10 Cause they've been putting to those pin locations, all four of them and shipping to them for the previous two, three days of practice runs. So they've been putting on all those greens in their practice rounds rolling past all the pin locations. They usually in a practice round, we'll spend almost an extra five minutes or so for green rolling putts. And then on the putting green, they're spending hours getting a feel for pace. And that's just on a tournament week. So they're, they're spending on a tournament week, we'll just say roughly four to five hours putting on those greens before they even tee it off on Thursday. And that's in one week. During a tournament week, most of you haven't spent five hours practicing. You're putting in the last year on a putting green. So recant do what they do cause we don't live that lifestyle. We're not, you know, blessed with the ability to have endless hours of practice putting.
11:05 So what we want to do with our appreciate routine is we want to use binocular vision as much as possible. You want to stand directly behind the ball, getting a feel for pace, tracing your eyes from the ball to the cup and back feeling what that pace is. If we were going to push that ball down that line or hit that ball. I love the idea of push for most of my clients who's, it helps keep their hands steady. Do you want to think, push the ball down that line and use that binocular vision to your advantage cause most of your competitors aren't. They're standing on the side of it looking down like what a, that'd be like, that'd be like I was shot like 96% from the free throw line in my career playing basketball and I took a lot of pride in that.
11:48 I know I didn't look at the ground, I didn't stare at the ground when I didn't buy three dribbles. I was staring at the back rung of the rim that the net went into as aiming small. The Ms. Small, which is the equivalent of finding that little spot in front of your golf all in your putting. I was staring that thing down while I did my three dribbles, a little twirl in the right hand and I'd shoot it. My eyes never lost. Focus, depth, perception. Focus on a small target, so you need to stand behind the putt. You know, and we're assuming you've already read the green. Maybe you walk the putt down the low side and the high side. You stand behind it. The most important, if you don't know already, [inaudible] two to three feet before the cup, the two to three feet after the cut, that's where most of the break is going to happen because that's when it's losing the most speed and gravity takes over.
12:36 She want to read that. If anything is, yeah, the six feet there before and after the cup. We're talking, it's go time. Well, you're going to do is you're going to look with binocular vision. You're going to feel the pace. You're going to pick your tiny spot on the first two to four inches and then it's go. Then we're getting in the batter's box and we can't be thinking. You walk up there and it should take. What I tell my clients is I want less than than seven seconds to walk up. Set the putter name and at your spot. Set your feet. Take one Lisel last look at the cup or the spot on the outside or wherever your your dye point is. Trace your eyes back to your spot. Hit the putt. It should take very little time. I tried to do it in five seconds and I'm not saying I tried to do it like I'm rushing through.
13:21 I tried to spend only five seconds from the moment I say, all right, that's the perfect pace. I felt it. There's my spot. Boom, five seconds, I'm pulling the trigger. I'm walking up aiming a putter, setting my feet. One last look and my dye point and trace Mies back to my two to four inch spot. Hit the putt. Standing on the side. Looking back and forth is doing nothing but giving you indecision. I mean, think about how many times in your life your instinct was correct, but you sat there a second guessed yourself. That's all you're doing when you're looking back and forth or you're looking down doing practice strokes, which makes no sense cause I don't even know what you're feeling cause you're looking at your putter head. You're not even looking at this, didn't you're trying to hit it. All you're doing is creating indecision second guessing yourself and self doubt.
14:09 And the enemy's starts to plant seeds of yeah you can't make this, you're going to miss it. Don't push this. Only have a short like you did the previous hole. Sorry. It's to plant those seeds in your brain and you're done. And that's what all your, your buddies are doing. So what you need to do to have the advantage is shift. You're pretty shy, routine. Read your green, pick your dive point, stand behind with binocular vision until you feel the perfect [inaudible] pace. You know, they always ask Jack in one of his interviews, Jack Nicholas and they said, you know, sometimes you stand behind your putts, you know for a long time and sometimes you don't even hardly stand behind him. And Jack goes, I stand behind my Patel, I'm 100% sure I'm going to make it. I want you to stand behind the PO's binocular vision until you're 100% sure you felt the perfect speed and you need to tell yourself that.
14:57 So your mind is saying, Hey that's perfect because now you're speaking words of confidence. It's going to help you relax. And then you find your spot in the first two to four inches and now you have five to seven seconds to walk up there, aim the putter, set the feet, look at your diet point, come back to your two to four inch spot, hit the putt. Well you got to practice this cause it's not going to hold up under pressure. So you need to be practicing this this winter. Yeah, I'm fine. Lee leads us right into number three. And I have and I have, you know, dwelled on this so much and yeah, I think this is episode 19 so yeah, next week will be episode 20 hard to believe. And then I think there'll be taken a little break as I recoup, cause I don't think I should record podcasts when I'm on narcotics for a week or two.
15:41 So there'll be a pause in my podcast for about probably two weeks to a month just depending on how my spinal fusion goes because it has to be some interesting podcast if I'm on pain meds. But practice, the last piece is you need to practice this. If you want to become a better putter. And the simplest way to do that is to change your focus two to four inches, switch up your routine. But now you got to go practice it. Now you got to go grind it. Now you've got gotta put in the reps and the effort and we're talking, you know, 20 to 50 putts a day, three to five days a week in the living room down the yardstick. We're going through that routine but not clear vision. Stand behind it. Feel the perfect pace where it just barely dies into whatever the target is you set out in front off the yard sticker on the carpet, and then as go time, aim the putter.
16:32 Aim the feet, look Tracy, eyes back to your spa, hit the putt. You got to get into that routine so it holds up under pressure and getting hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of reps and it'll translate this spring on the golf course. Or if you're lucky to live down South, you'll start to notice it right away. You'll start making more putts. You don't need to watch it go in. You don't need to watch your putter. You don't need to watch yourself hit the ball. You need to be focused on a target walking up there with confidence and hitting it in five to seven seconds so you don't start psyching yourself out. So that is the simplest way I started making more pots. I hope that gives you a whole lot of help. Tune in next week, episode 20 will be my last one before my spinal fusion. There'll be be off for a little bit over the holidays and while I recoup and hopefully give back to the journey of playing some PainFREE golf for the first time in a decade. Next week we'll be all about the three things you're avoiding right now that you know about, but you're avoiding them and it's holding you back from playing your best golf. We're going to dive into those three big things that you're avoiding.
17:37 They're going to tie right into the new year and help you play your best golf coming into 2020 so that is it. That's a wrap. It would be you guys all have a wonderful day. We'll talk to you all soon.
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