If you do this, what happens is the ball rolls a certain distance, maybe 10 feet, maybe 8, maybe 12. The distance depends on your body type, putter, ball, and characteristic manner of relating to the world with your body at this time - and the playing characteristics of the green in terms of green speed. This core putt is always there.
Try a second ball and see if it doesn't go the same distance (it will). You can do this all day long, over and over. The distance of your core putt might change on another green or the same green on another day. But your core putt will always be the same distance on the same greens.
Use the Core Putt to Tune In Your Touch Timing
Now take a putt to a hole that is at a distance within the length of your core putt. If your core putts all go 11 feet, set up a level 10-foot putt.
A good way to do this is to drop a ball beside the hole and use the core putt to send it away; then go putt into the hole from where the ball stops or a bit closer. Don't worry much about sinking the putt - just aim decently and then concentrate on the smoothness of your easy core stroke. Watch how nice your distance control becomes. Then try to sink a few.
Next, change the distance and start over, again inside the core range. Then go outside the range. Finally, find an uphill putt at about the range and see what adjustments are really required. Repeat this effort from the opposite side, at the core range coming downhill.
What This Means
This means several very useful things. First, you carry around with you every day your own personal Stimpmeter. Wondering what the green speed is? Does it really matter what the Stimpmeter says? No, what matters is whether you control the speed with your innate sense of touch, regardless of how fast or slow the green might be in terms of some number. Use your own number and find it immediately with core putts.
Second, for any putt shorter than the length of your core putt, you should be absolutely convinced that you do not need any "hit" in your stroke whatsoever, since the very relaxed and easy core putt covers those distances easily. Therefore, for a core putt of 11 feet, a 10-foot level putt should be made without any sense of "hit" in your stroke. This relaxes you and gives you superior touch on all of the truly should-make putts.
Third, because you have this constant reference for power in your putting stroke, you have much better speed control for putts of any distance. A 15-foot putt is not much tougher than an 11-foot putt; it's a core putt plus a 4-foot putt. Now, when you focus on the target at address, your body "instinctively" knows how to generate the stroke power or weight that rolls the ball to the hole at a very good speed for sinking. In other words, you are tuned in to the green with your body's characteristic manner of relating to the world, and you have a great sense of touch.
Make the Core Putt Part of Your Game
To consolidate this, make the core putt the first thing you do when you step onto the practice putting clock. Get the timing of your own core mechanisms in sync with the green.
About Geoff Mangum
Geoff Mangum is a widely recognized expert on the science and art of putting. He has spent 12 years researching and teaching only putting. He was written 55 articles in the past two years alone for online and offline golf publications, and runs the Web's largest putting-only site, PuttingZone.com. Geoff's students have included 2003 PGA Champion Shaun Micheel; PGA Tour player Sean Murphy; Hooters Tour players Blake Adams, Jared Gusso, Korky Kemp, Jason Semelsberger; Tarheel Tour owner David Seigal; Carolinas PGA Teacher of the Year Robert Linville; Muirfield Village pro and McLean Master Instructor Jason Carbone; and Instructional Staff at David Leadbetter Junior Golf Academy in Bradenton, Fla. Visit Geoff's Web site for more tips and largest database of putting lore on the Web. Contact Geoff through his site or by email.
