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How to Putt to a Breaking Point – by Ernie Els

If you watched the U.S. Open Championship at The Country Club this past weekend, you saw some tough putting conditions, especially with the blustery weather on Saturday. There were some crazy breaks and many putts that looked like they were going in but didn’t. Trying to navigate a breaking putt can be difficult for all levels of golfers. Today, Ernie Els gives us a tip on how to putt to a breaking point.

“I see a lot of golfers get themselves in a real tangle on breaking putts, particularly those where there’s a lot of swing involved. First, they have an alignment problem at address and then they tend to want to guide the ball, which results in a crooked stroke. That’s the recipe for a lot of badly struck and badly missed putts.

There’s an easy and reliable solution to this, though, and it’s a system I have used myself. What it involves is putting to a ‘breaking point’. Assess the line of a putt and identify a spot where you feel the ball will start turning towards the hole – in a practice situation, you can use a tee-peg as I am demonstrating in the photo. Then treat that spot as an intermediate target – don’t forget about the hole, but for now just focus on that spot. 

Align yourself and the putter face accordingly and then go ahead and putt towards that spot. Obviously, you need to factor in the right speed, but other than that, it’s just a case of stroking the ball towards your breaking point and simply letting the natural contour of the green take care of the rest. Simple.”

Thank you Ernie!

Another simple solution to help with breaking putts is to use a putter that takes alignment out of the equation.

Research indicates that 94% of putts missed within 12 feet are due to bad aim. To cure this problem, you must aim at the target from the optimal aim position. When your body is positioned looking down the target line directly from behind the putter with your eyes parallel to the horizon, you are in the most accurate aim position.

The stand-up ability of a Bloodline putter enables you to aim from this position on every putt. By letting go of the putter and walking behind it you can see exactly where your putter is aimed. This routine allows you to check and correct your misaimed putts which reduces your margin of error and increases the probability of making more putts. Simple.

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