Most golfers are willing to try just about anything to get more out of their games, and Alex Myers is no different. In Focus Group of One, he gives a wide-range of golf-related stuff a go, and offers his unscientific—and unpaid—take.
If hitting a golf ball squarely is considered one of the most difficult tasks in sports, it makes sense most golfers spend the bulk of their practice time on their full swings. It might also explain why my local muny’s range often has a wait while the practice green is usually empty. We’ve all been taught to work on our weaknesses, right? Only recently have I realized where this thinking falls short.
I have always considered putting to be a strength of my game, and my golf buddies would agree, so I’ve never spent much time on the practice green. But this past season, I started to sense I was wasting too many shots on the greens. My two most crushing golf moments of 2024 came on putts I thought I should make. Neither were gimmes, but still the kind of putts I used to knock in regularly. Instead, both missed left, ending my chances at winning my annual buddies trip and the Golf Digest Match Play Championship. Sigh.
On their own, neither would have caused me to do anything drastic, but they were part of a troubling trend: I felt like I was hitting the golf ball a lot better, but putting worse. After hearing about my situation in the office, my unofficial swing coach, Luke Kerr-Dineen, connected me with Bill Smittle for a putting lesson . After 30 years as the head golf pro at Scarsdale Golf Club, Smittle is now an independent putting coach who says most of his lessons are given to lower handicap players looking to hole a few putts per round. I was looking to be one of them, so we agreed to meet at Game On Golf Center in White Plains, N.Y., where his son, Will, is the Director of Golf. Although I did some brief putting work during a 12-week program two years ago at the Golf Performance Center in Ridgefield, Conn., this would be my first official standalone putting lesson.
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Before showing Bill what he’d be working with, I also told him the quirky thing I do when putting. I’m not sure why, but I’ve always bent my lead (left) elbow out toward the target on the setup and kept it in that position throughout the entire stroke. My old Golf Digest colleague Cliff Schrock used to call me Leo Diegel, because apparently he had putted like that while winning a pair of PGA Championships nearly a century before. The unorthodox move had served me fairly well in the past, but it still makes me cringe seeing it on video. Like this one that Bill took. Here’s a screengrab of the before:
See what I mean? Well, wouldn’t you know it, but a few minutes into my lesson, Bill said, “Let’s try getting rid of Leo. Are you game?” (Gulp) I was.
As Bill explained, the problem with my stroke is the putter face was too closed going back (and also a bit at setup), causing me to twist it open at impact in an effort to return it to square. I had done it for so long that I could make it work, but Bill believed that it wasn’t holding up as well under pressure, causing those left misses in particular. And that “Leo” part was complicating matters further because that arm was straightening and lengthening through impact. To help me get rid of Leo and that move, we used a couple of training aids that helped keep my forearms more neutral and connected throughout the stroke.
Bill’s fixes were extensive, and you can see my full notes below, but essentially I needed to make more of an arc in my stroke. To do this, I needed to turn my upper body more, both on the backswing and follow-through. It’s a more dynamic move that starts with a more athletic posture. And instead of restricting my stroke in an effort to keep the clubhead low to the ground, I needed to let it release more naturally to square it up at impact.
After about 90 minutes with Bill, I couldn’t argue with the results. The whole thing felt and looked very different, but from distances of 18 and 27 feet, I was rolling in more putts than I had in years. Was it a small sample size? Sure. But it gave me a sense of optimism on the greens I hadn’t felt in a while.
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Overall, Bill had me thinking of the putting stroke more like a golf swing. It was a lot to take in—and a lot to work on—but I was excited about it. And so was Luke:
After a crushing loss in the company match play, @AlexMyers3 went for his first putting lesson today and decided to overhaul his putting technique, including ditching the famed Myers pointy elbow.
Setup Before/After pic.twitter.com/AOjQrTYQod
— LKD (@LukeKerrDineen) October 3, 2024
However, any lesson—putting or otherwise—is going to be tailored to the individual. More relevant to you is whether there’s a part of your game you haven’t thought about tweaking because you think it’s good enough. I recommend taking a deeper look, even if it involves getting out of your comfort zone. Who knows? You might be able to turn a strength into a bigger strength. Even if I am a “good” putter already, I realize there’s still plenty of room to get better. I think most people would be amazed by how good a “bad” putter on the PGA Tour is.
My friends think I’m crazy for messing with my putting, but I feel as if I’ve just tapped into a new level. And I decided to debut my new stroke just a couple days later. Sort of:
Where better to practice your new putting stroke than at a mini-golf course? pic.twitter.com/SsMXUatE6w
— Alex Myers (@AlexMyers3) October 9, 2024
So far, so good. Maybe those crushing misses will help me in the long run. Fingers crossed, I’m really onto something here with this new move. And for the first time, I’m looking forward to really practicing my putting this fall and winter. I’ll be sure to let you know how this long overdue experiment goes. And, Bill, I’ll be sure to text you more putting videos later. OK, off to the practice green again.
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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
