Danny Willett: Seeing is believing

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Your success with putting – and mine – is very much dependent on the messages your eyes send to your brain. Unfortunately your eyes can play tricks on you; a putter blade that looks perfectly square to you at address can in fact be degrees open or closed, creating compensation and inconsistency. I’ve recently spent some time with putting guru Paul Hurrion, working on this issue. Here is a simple drill that ensures reality and your perception are one and the same.

Use a gateway to check your aim
Find a straight 10ft putt. Form a gateway with two tees (slightly wider than the ball) three feet from the ball, on what your eyes tell you is the ball-hole line. Squat behind the ball to check how accurately you positioned your gateway. Ideally your ball-hole line will run straight through it; more likely you will be slightly off.

 

  

Now move the ball so the gateway is directly between it and the hole. Set up, making sure the putter is square to the gate. The gate may look a tad offline, but this is your eyes tricking you again; you know it’s correct, so start accepting this view.

 

  

Finally, work on sending putts through the gateway. As your success rate grows, you will be training a purer stroke that rolls the ball down the correct line without the need to manipulate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
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