Many of the golfers we see in The Villages putt with a troubling sense of wonder. As in, “I wonder if I’m lined up correctly.”

“I wonder if I’m reading this right”

“I wonder if this is the right putter for me.”

“I wonder if I should change my grip.”

“I wonder if my stroke is too long, or too short, or too quick or too slow.”

It’s a state of doubt and confusion that ruins confidence and causes a lot of missed putts.

Most of you experience short bursts of confidence with the putter. And it feels great. Unfortunately, it comes and goes depending on your recent results. Make a putt, and you get a bit of confidence. Miss an easy one, and you immediately start wondering, doubting, and dwelling on past mistakes.

So the question is, how can you eliminate some of that doubt, and replace the wondering with a calm sense of certainty?

First of all, stop being so hard on yourself. Everyone misses, and the more you worry about it, the worse it gets. As Dr. Gio Valiente says, “the game in your head rules the game in your hands.” So laugh it off. Have fun, and if you miss, say to yourself, “I’m due! I’ll make the next one.”

It’s easier to control your thoughts than it is to control the outcome of a putt.

Second, stop blaming your stroke for every miss. The putting motion is so simple, it’s seldom the root cause of your problems.

There are four fundamentals that affect your putting, besides the stroke. So start with these simple variables that you can easily control;

– Proper set-up.
– Accurate aim.
– Consistent routine.
– The right putter for you.

At GNL Golf, that’s what they do. They help you eliminate the nagging doubt that plagues your putting by addressing those critical fundamentals. Bring your putter to one of their hands-on putting workshops and you’ll see for yourself why those things are so important.

Over the last 17 years they have gathered data from 5100 Florida golfers. That’s a statisically significant sample, and believe it or not, well over 80 percent did not aim the putter at the hole on a straight, 5-foot putt. It’s the same thing, over and over again… They swear they’re aiming properly, but they’re not. The guys at GNL Golf have the technology, and the data, to prove it.

It could be your set-up. Could be your vision. Could be your putter. But if you’re not aiming properly, chances are, you’re making unnecessary compensations with your stroke. You’re unwittingly compromising your putting stroke to compensate for poor aim. And nothing good can come from that.

So it’s probably not your stroke. And it’s certainly not that you’re “just an idiot.” It’s just a matter of mastering the little things, and then letting go.

You can do that.