Putting can be one of the most frustrating areas of golf, which can make or break your score.
It all seems so easy on the surface, especially after you’ve wrestled with swing thoughts and different techniques with your driver and irons to get it on the green in the first place. Just roll the ball along the green and into the hole.
So why do we find putting so hard? Padraig Harrington thinks the only thing standing between amateurs and being really good putters is their mental approach.
The three-time major winner has holed some of the most clutch putts on the biggest stages in the sport and knows a thing or two about staying calm over the ball under pressure.
Harrington has given out plenty of putting advice, and he once gave amateurs a putting thought that he says will hole more pressure putts.
Padraig Harrington’s tip for getting over the putting yips
It’s an awful feeling when you stand over the ball with no confidence, a million thoughts circling your head and you just hope the ball somehow ends up in the hole.
But Harrington has some advice to re-center your mind when standing over an important putt. He said, “What happens when you get the yips? What happens when you are under pressure and things go wrong, well, certainly with the yips, what’s generally happening is people get over the ball, and they’ve got so much going on in their head.
“Nobody’s mind can handle that much going on. That’s why the pressure and the yips. You’ve got a lot of thoughts going through your head. If you want to be a good putter, you must narrow it down to one thought. It really doesn’t matter what that thought is.
“This is why over the years everybody will experience the day where they hole putts where they had a swing thought that worked. They believed in it and they stuck to it. Sticking to one thought brings incredible comfort to the end of your routine.
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“So the whole idea of a routine is it’s to go through a set of motions that get you to a place that your mind has one thing to do, whatever that is you choose. But the key here is you can’t choose it each day, and you can’t choose it on every putt. You’ve got to choose one thought forever.
“Literally forever, and you’ve got to do it when you’re putting badly, and you’ve got to do it when you’re putting well. You can’t change your mind because something’s different one day. You’ve got to use one thought and believe in it.
“I would recommend for most amateurs, and I have a few amateurs who have actually taken my advice, and it’s actually cleared up their putting from a state of yips to being good putters, real good putters.
“I’d recommend that you put your putter maybe a centimeter behind (the ball), and watch a blade of grass between the ball and the putter, and just stay watching it.
“That’s physically easy to do. I don’t think there’s anybody physically cannot watch a blade of grass while they hit the putt you can do that in every push. The more you do it, the more comfort you have doing it.”
How Padraig Harrington’s putting won him the PGA Championship
Harrington was a master of The Open Championship. He’s still the only player to retain the Claret Jug, after winning back-to-back at The Open in 2007 and 2008.
And in 2008, he proved that he wasn’t just among the best in the world on British soil. His putter caught fire at Oakland Hills, helping him win the PGA Championship.
Harrington made 12-foot, 8-foot, and 15-foot putts in the final three holes to win the Wanamaker Trophy.
Having already birdied three of four holes on the back nine to erase a three-stroke deficit, Harrington made 12-foot, 8-foot, and 15-foot putts in the final three holes to win the tournament.
He became the first European since 1930 to win the PGA Championship, and only the fourth golfer to win the Open Championship and PGA Championship in the same year.
Harrington holed those putts confidently under pressure, and you can lean on his advice to do the same.
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