HAVING spoken last week about the Dave Pelz 16-inch putting rule, top golf coach Peter Hudson now takes a look at straight line putting in his latest tip of our ten-week series.

7. Straight Line Putting

Straight line putting is a philosophy I thoroughly recommend to all golfers.

It's a simple idea that ends poor putting strokes due to worrying whether the putt will hold its line and then almost blocking and pulling putts attempting to keep on-line.

After assessing the borrow you pick a point 16 inches past the hole and just hit at that point.

To practice, place a tee peg where you think that spot is and just line up to that point and hit the putt.

When you have picked the correct point, it seems like magic how the ball turns into the hole.

What is interesting is that we can use the same strategy to work on our length putting. Most golfers realise they are more likely to three putt because they leave putts short or too long.

Most of these mistakes are due to trying to hit the ball softly or making sure the putt goes past in reaction to the last putt which you did the opposite.

If you hit a putt how you want to and it comes up short it means the greens are slower than you calculated.

I would guess, on the putt you had left short you had didn't notice that it was up hill, against wind, there was excessive due on the green, or it had not been cut or something along those lines. Now instead of hitting the next putt harder just move the point where you aim back the same amount you were short of 16 inches past the hole, if you remembered to look 16 inches past.

What is the difference you may ask, well when you first approached the putt you were feeling the distance you were going to hit the putt then when you decided to hit it harder you are no longer working with those feelings.

Also having the ability to make a practice putt that feels right then hitting the putt how you wanted to is a great skill you would like to keep, it just need to be adapted to the circumstances.

These ideas are a little difficult to convey in words they will become far easier to understand while putting so you can see how amazing the results are when you intact the two processes together, happy putting.