Sid's Tips for Putting : The game within a game

"A good putter is a match for anyone, a bad putter is a match for no-one." I think that's one of the great Harvey Pennick's quotes (American swing king teacher who helped Tom Kite and Ben Crenshaw amongst others to achieve their full potential). It's true enough though, if you can't get the ball in the hole you're never going to score like you should no matter how pretty your swing is!

Here's a few ideas that are worth bearing mind - particularly if you're just beginning ...

• Don't move your head until you hear the ball drop - if your head moves, your body moves, your alignment moves.
• Mark it, line it up, sink it - if you mark your ball (only when it's on the green) you can then use the ball's logo as an alignment aid and point it along the line you're going to strike the ball on.
• Keep the putter head low as you take it back and lift it a little directly after impact - this will put a 'roll' on the ball that will help keep it tracking on line to the hole.
• Spend some time assessing the line, have a look from the hole back to the ball, have a look from both sides of the line to get an idea of what borrows are going to affect the putt.
• If you're more than fifteen feet away don't expect to hole it every time, you're looking to putt the ball into a circle the size of a dustbin lid leaving you with a tap-in length putt. You don't want to send the ball six feet past or leave it six feet short you want it close, no more than two feet away.