Wood's Putting System

[Note:  A absolute prerequisite for understanding the system below is to watch the Chapstick putting videos.  Check out the video page on this blog for links to them.]

Ok, here goes my putting process. Elevation is not as much the challenge as left/right, but they go hand in hand. I watched Chapstick's vid on putting and it would get me close but not perfect. My tweaks helped me, maybe they'll help you.

So I still count 123, 123. I had to work on the speed, but once you get the rhythm in your head, it becomes permanent. Count the dots moving between the lines in front of you. Pick the dot that is moving the fastest  Do not use the line right in front of you, next to left foot, if fastest slope is on thatline. You will probably play through this break for the most part. We will come back to this.

We are looking down the two lines running from you to the hole (behind heels to left of hole, and in front of toes to right of hole. (vertical lines). Find the fastest dot going left to right, or right to left and count 123, 123. Start when you see the dot appear, stop when it crosses the line. (imagine counting 1234 1234 but leave out the fours, Chapstick's vid helps here.)

Then, starting at the first horizontal line next to your left foot, count that number of lines from you towards the hole. Remember we are only dealing with the TWO vertical lines. Go up the line that is into the break, and find the intersection that corresponds to the number you counted. i.e. if you counted 123,123,12, and the dot goes left to right, go up the line behind your heels and count 8 horizontal lines starting at the line parallel to your left foot, aim for that intersection and putt away, just going a hair past the pin.  If elevation is 0, Putt should drop.

Now we factor in the elevation. On the power bar, there are 10 spaces, so it's divided into 10% increments. Now think of the individual putters like this. Use them ONLY for elevation purposes. We will call each 10% increment a notch, and use the putters for our specific needs. LONG PUTTER (LP)- 1 notch roughly equal to +/- 1.0 ft in elevation. SHORT PUTTER (SP)- 1 notch ~ +/- 0.1ft in elevation MEDIUM PUTTER (MP)- 1 notch ~ +/- 0.5 ft in elevation. I use MP most because Is seems more accurate. Aim the corresponding distance past/short of the hole, remembering to always be firm either way. (I try to go about .1 firm uphill, and .3 firm downhill. This is very similar to how you would putt in real life.

Now comes the last part. Use the elevation to tweak your left/right aim before you go. Think of the horizontal lines as corresponding to .5 in elevation, this is why I use MP so much, it translates easy. If you are putting uphill and the elevation is +0.5, aim 1 Line closer to the hole. If down 0.5, aim one line closer to you. If up 1.2, aim 2 2/5 line closer to the hole! Now, let 'er rip!

Remember, the stronger you go, the less break that will play into the ball's path So, if the putt breaks left to right, I counted 123,123,12, and the putt is downhill 0.7, I would aim about 6 2/5 horizontal lines up the left vertical line, and go one notch short of the pin on power bar. DONE!