Improve the Wright way

In this year’s spring golf special we have introduced a new feature to help improve your game. PGA Class AA Golf Professional Gregor Wright gives you the tips to improve all areas including your drives, irons and putting

Tommy Fleetwood is renowned for playing in the Ryder Cup team, holing key putts when it matters with his ‘claw’ grip and consistently sitting inside the top 40 on strokes gained. Your putting grip can be anything you want it to be, as long as you can keep the stroke fluid.

It then boils down to ensuring you have solid fundamentals in the three areas that matter – set-up, aim and alignment and never skipping an element as that could be costly.

Tommy marks his ball (even on the shortest of putts), lines up the sharpie line to his intended target line before stepping to the side and executing a few practice strokes.

Once he gathers his ‘feel’ for the pace, he moves into execution mode, takes one last look at the intended target and off the ball goes. Not all fundamentals need to match Tommy’s, but following a pre-shot routine like this will massively work towards helping you increase your putting stroke average.

DRIVE FOR SHOW, PUTT FOR DOUGH

We all want to hole more putts like Tommy Fleetwood… but how can we do it? We need to:

1 Aim the putter consistently.

2 Align the body correctly to the aim.

3 Control the pace.

IF YOU DON’T AIM CORRECTLY, YOU HAVE TO COMPENSATE WHICH WILL USUALLY RESULT IN MISSED PUTTS, COMING UP SHORT OR GOING LONG WHAT DO I NEED TO DO?

Use a ball with a visual alignment aid (all the tour pros do it now).

Build a consistent routine, which can include some practice strokes to get a feel for the ‘pace’ of the putt.

Aim the ball first and then the putter and then the body. One look at the target and execute. The less time spent over the putt, the better, as you just tense up and the stroke isn’t as fluid as it should be.

SIMPLY PUTT: Tommy Fleetwood’s pre-shot routine is effective.