Is it possible to make every putt?

While watching the Open Championship last week I enjoyed listening to Dr. Joe Parent author of Zen Golf and Zen Putting as a guest commentator.

He reminded me about one of his Zen Putting ideas that I really like.

There is a difference between making your putt and holing your putt.

If you hit your line, and you hit the putt with the speed that you had in mind, then you have made your putt.

Weather the ball goes in the hole or not after that is just not in your control. Perhaps your read was a little off, or the grain of the grass slowed the ball a little more than you thought it would, or a bumpy green moved the ball off line, or any of the other reasons why the ball might not go in the hole.

Understand that just because the ball doesn't go in the hole doesn't mean that you didn't hit a good putt. Learn to judge your putt by weather or not you made the stroke and the putt that you had planned and I bet that you will start to feel more confident about yoru abilities with the putter.

As we all know, putting is a mind game. Think about making your putts, not holing your putts and it should help put your mind at ease when you're on the greens.


Try it.

Have a great weekend!

good advice.. I'll remember that!

Read that book, very nice.

Great Tips

I think Punkrockpga deserves a section of his own. I am liking his articles. Good read and really enjoy it.

I am always very positive about the ability of my putting skill but sometime the end results will kill my confident and I will have doubts in my later putt.
Just like when I see you wrote "Weather", I am not confident does that mean "Whether"

jimmychoo wrote:

I am always very positive about the ability of my putting skill but sometime the end results will kill my confident and I will have doubts in my later putt.
Just like when I see you wrote "Weather", I am not confident does that mean "Whether"

JC,

I am not sure if this is what distinguishes some of us. Some are result-oriented, but some may be more process-oriented.

the book also talk abt the perfect swing... interesting idea

Hey Punkrockpga, welcome to GR..... I dont want to muscle in on ur post, but you bring up a good point..

1 thing I ask students is if you hit the best ever drive of your life and it goes 300 metres straight as an arrow, but hits a sprinkler head and flies OOB... are you happy or sad?

Sometimes we must pay more attention to the process not the result....

How true....

Well, if it is just bad luck, LL lor...

No lah, bad luck is bad luck. I mean, if you hit something on the ground from a few hundred meters away, what else can that be? Accept it lor.

But if I try to hit a ball through some trees and the ball hit a branch, that has nothing to do with luck. For me, that would be a stupid decision I just made and executed.

Batman wrote:

But sad to say, most of the times, its the end results that count...

I understand what you are saying, but if you realise the importance of "process v result" you may change your view..

I will start new thread, I dont want to poach on punkrock pga.....

Interesting that a small comment by Joseph can be picked up thousand of miles away. Just clarifications so that the community understands what the 2 Zens are about.

Dr Parent is a mental coach and he counts Vijay Singh, David Toms, Cristie Kerr, and Tim Petrovic as his students. He is the author of Zen Golf and he is based in Los Angeles, California.

Zen Oracle is a putter and golf innovation company and is owned by Nick Middleton who is based in Sheffield, UK. The first Zen putter was patented in 1993 and the first Zen Oracle was produced in 1997. In 2006, RDE (Reduce Dimple Error) patent and face was added to the Zen range of putters.

There is a lot of synergy between the 2 Zens. Dr Parent emphasize “release” in a lot of his articulation. Now he is using the Zen-I to help bring the point across and in his words, “It’s the perfect symphony of Mind and Motion”. In fact the other Zen Oracle Mallet has appeared in many of his videos.

Here’s a picture of Dr Joe Parent



here's Dr Parent using a ZOM with a Zen-i...



Here’s a picture of Dr Joe Parent with Nick Middleton



Finally here’s a picture of Dr Joe Parent with you-know-who.



DGman