What do you do before hitting a putt?

Marcus has been talking about preparation before a putt.

I very simply think about this equation - read = line. If you pick the right read you won’t under or over pace it too badly. If you take a 20-foot left-to-right putt and you under-read it your subconscious knows where you’re aiming. So the only way it goes in is if you over-pace it or pull it or you do a bit of both and miss it on the high side and you are none the wiser.

There’s a good rule that by hitting a putt one foot past that makes the hole as big as possible, hit it too firm and the hole gets smaller and there is less chance of holing it or it lipping out. I use the AimPoint system which measures percentage, not degrees, of slope. If I have a 20-footer and I calculate what percentage of slope there is then I know how much break exactly there will be. I'll know the Stimp of the greens that I’m playing on so I can then make any adjustments.

Every day I work on my start line for 10 minutes every morning. The only two things you can control is where you start it and how hard you hit it, otherwise it’s just read. I’m right-eye dominant so I will close my left eye and line the putter shaft over the line of the ball and then line that up to the point where my start line is going to be.

Then it’s one practice stroke to try and make the technically most perfect stroke, that’s my internal process side of my brain. I’m a believer in having a right and left side brain balance then it’s over to the right side and reactive part of my brain. So then it’s one practice stroke looking at the hole and thinking how hard I need to hit it, then I’m done.

Face alignment is crucial, get this right on a six-footer and you’ll probably make it. So many amateurs are not lined up well and they try to manipulate it. One of the hardest putts is a straight putt of 10 foot as you have to start it online. I actually have four lines on the ball and I’m so precise in my aim, if my line is pointing to the left then you will stand a bit further away as our eyes want to see straight lines. Get this right then you just want to think to hit it out the middle, then it can’t go offline.

Marcus is a Bunker Mentality player. For more info bunker-mentality.com