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Left hand low lag putting


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I have been putting left hand low for a couple of years now. My putting with conventional grip was poor, pulled short putts constantly from even as shot as 1 foot so had to make a change.

My putting was great for quite some time, but recently its been horrendously erratic. In the last 5 rounds ive had 29 putts, 39, 39, 36, 39 and then for the last 5 days i have practiced 3-8 feet putts on my matt in my kitchen for 45 mins every day. Yesterday i went out, shot 82 (im an 18 handicap) with 29 putts again. Sounds great right? The issue is that my lag putting is leaving me a lot of work to do. On holes 1 and 3 (both par 3s) i hit the green but 3 jacked them both for bogie. I can regularly leave a 15 foot, slightly up hill putt 5-6 feet short, then il have a 10 feet downhill putt and il smash it 6 feet past. I feel more confident in getting the ball into 1 putt range from a 30 foot chip, than a 20 foot putt.

The greens at my course are in great condition and are consistent, but i just cannot get the feel for lag putting. So my question is, does anyone have any good lag putting drills that have specifically helped left hand low putters to get this better long distance control?

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In the past ive struggled with a long back stroke and then decellerating into the ball, so ive been working on a shorter stroke and accellerating through the ball, altering the swing length for distance. 5 feet an in im loving life, but get out to those long putts and both length and line suffer.

 

Ive heard of people putting whilst looking at the hole on lag putts, so might give this a go on the practice green this coming week and see if that helps.

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I use ladder drills to work on distance control. Lay out six balls in a line at regular 2ft to 6ft intervals (pace off all distances). Hole the first ball then add to the second, first 2 to the third, etc. so I’m hitting al 6 balls at the furthest distance in each set; ie, 2ft x1, 4ft x2, 6 ft x3, 8ft x4, 10ft x5, 12ft x6. Repeat any misses 6ft and in before moving on. Any 3-putts and I repeat the entire set on a different line.

It’s not LHL specific, but hope this helps.

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I've recently tried the "100 foot drill" based on this Golf article and it's been really good for speed control: I'm addicted to this popular putting game that PGA Tour players use

I don't "scatter" the balls yet - I try to drop them in a relatively straight line so that all that's changing is the distance on each putt.

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Several good options on here already.

 

I've been Left hand low for about 20 years now. Was an easy switch that felt more natural. Never took any lessons regarding it though. A couple thoughts:

1) just read a tip from Jason Day that stated to focus on your speed more than your line. If you focus on speed as your top priority, the speed control will come along and then you can transition into focusing on the line.

2) I tend to compress my putts from outside 20' away. This means ball slightly back in my stance, hit more downward on it, slightly firmer hand grip (might choke up slightly as well). I prefer this because it doesn't force me to take the putter head back super far to get the ball to go a long ways. It does require practice getting used to but if you get used to it, it'll help.

3) I learned recently, a super soft putter with a super soft ball can make speed control difficult. Maybe try changing your ball or putter until it feels your preferred feel for putting.

 

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I try LHL a lot in practice but have never converted to it in actual play.
I absolutely love the end-over-end pure roll from it (most of the time). 2 reasons I haven't used it. It works for me a fair bit of the time and then, for no apparent reason I have 2 issues. Face control and distance.
FWIW, here is a thread I posted about my distance issues and how a buddy of mine gave me the "recipe". Sounds a little bit like how @jbrunk described it, just in a bit more detail. https://forums.golfwrx.com/discussion/comment/19544131#Comment_19544131

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Whilst playing yesterday, your post resonated in my head. With left hand low, when i started, i got a really pure roll as you say. But on the 4th green yesterday, as i hit my 3rd 3 putt bogey in 4 holes, i notice the ball was skidding the first foot or so of the lag putt. As i looked up, my buddy told me to look at the knuckles on my left hand.... they were white as i was gripping the club so tightly. No chance for the putter head to release.

I slackened my grip from then on. Where i had been coming up short constantly, i was now rolling 3 feet past for the next few holes and was making the return putts. Then i had a couple of 20 footers which i got within a foot. The change, expectedly, was dramatic and it really freed up my stroke.

I was gripping and trying to physically keep the face square by not allowing it to move. My buddy had taken a couple of videos (we often do this for each other without them knowing if a consistent problem appears), but dont share it unless the person whos problem it is, starts mentioning it, which really showed it.

Now that i know the big issue, i can start working on some of these drills with a proper stroke. But its nice to figure out why my putting went south so quickly.

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I'm glad some of it helped you. It's funny, but unless someone replies as you have, you never know if anything you suggest actually helps anyone. In this case it was simply "soft hands".

I've (obviously, as many others) though a lot about all things golf. Extremism, in almost all facets of life, is bad - except maybe for playing golf every waking moment. LMAO

We've all been told at one time or another not the "choke" the club. This goes for a driver as well as a putter. You can't totally control anything, At times you simply have to "let go".

I liken this to a heavy gate. Think of a tall wooden fence, say 10 feet tall, with a wide swinging gate. That gate is pretty heavy for someone to swing open and closed unless it swings fairly easily. If the fastenings aren't screwed in tightly enough the gate wiggles and wobbles and becomes hard to handle. OTOH if the fastenings are screwed in as tightly as possibly the gate won't swing freely and again, will be very tough to handle.

Our grip on the club is similar. Firm enough to maintain control but light enough to allow the club to swing freely.

Glad to help out. Good on ya mate !!! (<--- or is that "Aussie" ? LOL

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Yea, i often read a number of threads where someone poses a question, or an issue, that the guys here are happy to offer advice on, but a week or so later there has been no update. Always leaves me curious as to what may have worked.

The most annoying thing is that on the practice green before teeing off, under no pressure, or when doing some of the above drills, id have no problems and was actually able to do some of them really well. As soon as i get on a real green and the issues appeared. On course anxiety has crept into different areas of my game recently, seems i kick it out of one area and it finds another place to trip me up.

I hit 10 greens in reg earlier in the week.... shot 90. horrendous putting really inflated the score, so hopeully il be in the low 80s/upper 70s in no time.

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I can't think of a reason in the world that ANY putting grip should determine whether or not you can get green speeds right and lag putt well. It's possible that by thinking about problems of pace in terms of the grip you are using, you are missing what is most likely to cause a three putt, which poor focus in your preshot routine.

Consider the possibility that you have fallen into the single greatest trap of putting with any stance or grip, which is overfocusing on the line at the expense of pace, and/or that you are using a "pop" stroke instead of releasing the putter head down the line; these often go together because focusing on the line leads to a too-long backstroke and a decel forward stroke. A decel stroke causes you to not only get the speed all wrong, but also to miss your intended line; it's the single greatest cause of three putts among people that have played the game long enough to be decent putters.

Practice with a focus on not letting the putter head come back any farther than your back foot, regardless of the length of the putt, and then taking the putter head right down the line; this will lead you to accelerate thru the ball automatically on long putts. When you play, pick a line and a point a few inches in front of the ball to use to set up, and then forget about line and focus ONLY on perfect pace. The stats tell us pretty clearly that you aren't at all likely to make many putts outside 10' anyway, and that good putting is really three putt avoidance from 20' and out.

 

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"I can't think of a reason in the world that ANY putting grip should determine whether or not you can get green speeds right and lag putt well"

I have a theory. I have a fair bit more of a speed issue lagging with LHL.

I'll start by saying in all putting methods I've tried I try to rock the shoulders.

In LHL I feel like the entire effort is pulling with the left hand/arm and the right arm is just going along for the ride. And let's face it, for most right handed golfers the right hand is far stronger and more stable, than the left. 

However, in a normal grip, LHH, the effort is fairly evenly divided between the left and right hand/arm. So with LHL you have the weaker hand/arm combo controlling almost the entire effort of the stroke. At least with LHH the right hand/arm contributes its fair share.

Anyhow, as I said, just a theory. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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There's a drill that I use to help with this. The problem is speed first of all. The drill is called 15-51 (I think? 51-15? Not really sure.) It's a Cameron McCormick drill. You lay an alignment stick down 3 ft behind the hole. You place tees in the ground every 3 feet from the hole. I usually do 15 tees - so 3 ft, 6 ft, 9 ft, out to 45 feet. I think McCormick starts at 9 ft so that's how he gets 15 tees for 51 feet. The goal is to hit all of your putts past the hole but to have them stop before the alignment stick. Get as many of them in that window as possible and keep track. Putt does not count if it ends up short of the hole or touches the alignment stick. Rinse and repeat for flat putts, up and downhill. In my head, bad is less than 12, 12 is okay, 13-15 pretty happy with that.

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I do left hand low and exclusively practice from 3 feet and 6 feet especially on the putting green before a round. I also throw in a few 25 footers to get the speed and don't worry about the line. So anything more than 25 feet I quit worrying about 3 putts and really just concentrate on speed knowing in the back of my head that its the 3-6 footer (hopefully 3 or less) I need to make. If a 3 putt happens I blame it on my leave and not on my putting because I never should have put myself so far from the hole. Now if you are 3 putting from 15-25 feet that's a problem and you need to really do some speed drills like the alignment stick just past the hole or a 3 foot circle image.

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