Putting on the carpet at home, besides helping to satisfy the golfing itch we all have at this stage of confinement, can help improve your mentality when putting.

You can't practice reading breaks or controlling your power, but what you can practice on your home carpet as if you were on your club's putting green is your attitude, mental toughness, and concentration when putting. Let's look at the mindset of good putters.

The three psychological principles of good kickers

1. Putting is a matter of probability: the better the putt, the more likely the ball is to go in, and conversely, the worse the putt, the less likely it is to go in. We can hit a good putt and the ball misses, and, interestingly, we can hit a bad putt and the ball ends up in the hole.

This principle makes good putters focus on making good putts with the intention of sinking them, to increase the probability of the ball going in.

They also accept and assume that hitting a great putt doesn't guarantee or mean that the ball will necessarily go in, so they also save themselves a lot of complaints and thoughts like "I hit it so well, how is it possible that it didn't go in, it's impossible to sink a putt, etc." which, even after hitting a good putt, only cause despair and loss of confidence, the exact opposite of what we need to face the next putt with confidence and peace of mind.

2. Any putt, no matter how short and easy, can be missed, and any putt, no matter how long and difficult, can be sunk. Based on this principle, for good putters, all putts are exactly the same, and they will think and act the same way on every putt, regardless of the distance or whether it's for birdie or par. They follow the same routine and the same mental process for every putt: focused on hitting a great putt with the intention of sinking it.

3.- All good kickers feel that they are good kickers, but this feeling or belief is not based exclusively on the result, on sinking many putts, but this feeling is based on their qualities as kickers.

They feel they can hit the ball where they're aiming, they feel they have great control of their power, they feel they know how to read the breaks well, and they know how to concentrate and stay calm, just visualizing the putt they want to make without worrying about whether the ball will go in or not, or the significance of the putt.

They understand that their results are a consequence of their abilities, and that it is thanks to these abilities that they feel and believe they are good putters. Results are just one more ingredient of their confidence, but not the only one. Therefore, after a mistake or a bad day putting, their confidence remains intact because they are aware that their abilities are still the same as before they missed the putt or before the round began.

Practice putting, starting on your carpet at home and soon on the course, following these three basic principles and you will see how your putting technique, confidence and consistency improve.

By Óscar del Río

RFEG Sports Psychologist

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