A dose of confidence can be the cure
So much of golf and golf instruction is mechanical, and justly so. Technique is very important in a complex action such as the full swing, and improper form can lead to both bad shots and injury.
In contrast, we have putting. The action on the ball is so slight and simple, mechanics themselves are important only at a very rudimentary level. Technique has more to do with guaging individual variances for a particular situation than it does moving from positions A to B to C.
This is why putting is called the "game within a game". It resembles so little of the rest of golf. It also makes it one of the most difficult for the mechanics oriented golfer to master.
What Rotella has done here is to lay out his observations of what the best putters in the game think and do, not with their stroke, but with their minds. Using examples of unusual putters like Locke, he points out that it is not the stroke itself that counts, but your confidence in it. Locke believed he was hooking the ball into the hole, when this was likely not the case. Still, his stroke, which cut across the ball, made him one of the best putters ever because he believed in it.
Rotella goes further, discussing people with more "technically sound" strokes, such as Faxon and Crenshaw. Crenshaw, in particular, is an interesting case. Rotella introduces a story in which Crenshaw, in one sentence, completely turns putting instruction on its head, much to the horror of a professional golf instructor. Again, what is important is what was in his mind, not what a slow-motion camera might reveal.
People frustrated with their putting may find good, solid information here on how to improve. The biggest test will be trying to apply it, which may be harder than any swing change you could imagine.
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