The Magic Move in Cam Smith's Putting Stoke | Film Study | Golf Digest

I've always thought that making a putt is a bit like a magic trick. It's surprising and something that sometimes feels impossible. Good putters now, those are the true wizards. They're the ones who have somehow mastered this strange form of magic. Cameron Smith is the ultimate magician on the greens. His putter is his magic wand and he conjures up incredible things with it. But like every good magic trick, if you look closely enough, you'll be able to spot the secret. A subtle mix of mental and technical movements which, when blended together, reveal the facts and the fiction about the fickle art of putting. The first and perhaps most important thing to know about Cam Smith's approach to putting is that he's not like other players who pour in hours stressing on the practice putting green. Smith works hard of course, but for him it's really more of a quality over quantity thing. What that means is that every single day Cam Smith uses a mirror to make sure he sets up to his putter exactly the same way every time. I definitely keep on top of it. I think for me, luckily, I think putting comes quite naturally. It's just about getting back to the same setup position basically. I practice with a mirror for probably 20 minutes a day and to be honest that's about it. I don't really hit a lot of long putts at home. I try and focus probably 10 to 15 foot and in and just seeing those putts drop. The whole practicing with a mirror thing may seem a little tedious, but for Cameron Smith it's really genuinely important. One of the reasons why is because Cameron Smith is left eye dominant, a bit like Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods and some other great putters throughout history. That's one of the reasons that makes the mirror so important for him. Golfers who are right eye dominant tend to aim their eyes and shoulders out to the right and push putts. Cameron Smith of course is the opposite. He's left eye dominant, which means his bad habit is aiming too far out to the left with his shoulders. That can cause him to miss putts left. But Smith's trusty mirror can help him counteract this. When Smith checks his setup using the mirror, he's looking to make sure his feet and shoulders are set up exactly square to his target line and crucially that his dominant left eye is directly over the golf ball. The margins are so thin in putting that it makes these small details really important. A tiny mistake or a tiny misalignment somewhere could mean a missed putt. For Cameron, it's these daily mirror checks that prevent those bad habits from baking in. In Cam Smith's stroke itself, you'll actually notice that his follow through is significantly shorter than his backstroke and there's an interesting reason for this. Lots of amateur golfers do the opposite. They try hard to accelerate the putt ahead aggressively through the ball so that their follow through is actually longer than their backstroke. But that's kind of a bad idea. It's all part of this irrational fear lots of golfers have of decelerating through the ball. World renowned putting coach Phil Kenyon calls this idea one of the biggest putting myths in golf and it can cause all kinds of problems with distance control. Why? Well because you're trying to apply a very specific but very small amount of force during your stroke. It doesn't take much to accidentally hit a putt too hard or too soft or in the worst case scenario it can create a really yippy stroke. So instead Cameron Smith and his putting coach Grant Field work on keeping the putt ahead moving at a constant speed. Back the same and through the same at the same pace and the same speed. The golf ball that simply gets in the way of the putting stroke. And just like Newton's cradle once the putter head collides into the golf ball the putter head slows down. It transfers its energy into the golf ball which then starts to speed up. There's lots of really good science which shows how and why this happens if you want to go deeper but anecdotally it's also something many of the greatest putters in golf's history figured out intuitively. Like the great Ben Crenshaw. Remember you want to use the same tempo every time. The only variable is the length of your backswing. Some pros advocate using a short backswing that makes you accelerate through the ball. I think this is bad advice. I don't believe in the jab stroke. I think you've got to be smooth. Finally and I think quite interestingly, Cameron Smith doesn't take practice strokes before he hits his putt. Instead he just takes one long deliberate look at the hole. It's something you can even spot him doing on his full swing too. I asked him about it once and he said it doesn't matter whether it's two feet or 100 feet. Taking that last look, seeing the ball roll over the front lip with the pace that you like, that's the important thing. What Cam's doing here is he's zoning into his target like a batter waiting for just the right pitch to come. Smith says it's something that I've always done and I think it's key. For Cameron Smith, it's a final moment of zen before he hits his putt. It allows him to feel the shot in his body and in his mind. For the rest of us in the audience though, it's him setting the stage. It's a brief moment for us to catch our breaths as we anticipate the magic soon to come.