Tip #1: Attack Every Putt

Amateur golfers should putt more boldly than the pros. In fact, I think you should never lag a putt - you should try to sink every putt you face.

"You should try to sink every putt you face."

There are several reasons for this. There are only four ways to miss a putt - long, short, left and right. If you always get the ball to the hole, you eliminate one way. Besides, research has proven that the putt that has the best chance of going in is the one that is struck with sufficient force to carry it 18 inches past the hole.

Along with this goes the psychological side. Think about the last time you missed several putts in a round by hitting them dead in the jaws of the hole but just short. Pretty frustrating, isn't it? Such chronic shortness can get to you, but hitting the ball consistently past the cup is rarely as unsettling.

And remember that if you hit the ball a bit too hard, you can watch the way it rolls as it passes the hole and get an immediate read on the return putt. If you leave it short, however, you deprive yourself of that information. On short putts a bold, firm stroke is best, as it tends to take the guesswork out of the break of the putt.

Furthermore, a bold stoke is a confident stroke, one with built-in acceleration through impact. That type of stroke works on any putting surface, fast or slow, bent or Bermuda. Aggressiveness on the green is also an asset in match play. On Tour, if we sink a long putt it means saving one stroke out of 72 holes. In your weekend nassau, however, a long putt will invariably win you one of those 18 holes, while having a jarring effect on your opponent.

Finally, and perhaps most important, amateur players can recover from a short drive with a good approach, or from a short approach with a good pitch. But there is no recovery on the putting green. A putt left short is a stroke lost. So don't cheat yourself in an area where you have every capability to be proficient and every reason to be aggressive. Putt boldly.

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