The 3-Foot Putting System Every Golfer Needs to Know ft. Joe Hallett | Golf Tips | Titleist

Make every shot easier for you. Any player of any level can do. It's going to help you and you're going to love it. How did that not go in? All right, you're in that zone. You know the zone that I'm talking about. The zone of friendship. The zone of compliance. The three-foot zone. The zone when you hit your putt, you're hoping the guys in your group look at you and go, you can pick that up. That's good. Well, guess what? Sometimes you play in tournaments and sometimes someone gets the wise idea. You know what? We should putt them all out today. That person doesn't last with the group very long, by the way, but I want to show you something that is kind of made prevalent to me through Mark Sweeney and Aimpoint. Understanding how break works. Now we're going to talk about three-foot putts because this is an area that you want to make sure you have the best chance to make these. The first and foremost thing we're going to look at is what exactly is a three-foot putt. You think this would be obvious, but I promise to you, it's not. Okay. When I played golf in college, I would tell my coach, man, coach, I knocked it like three feet five times today and I've got a size 13 shoe. So if I start that there, that's one, that's two, that's three, that's four. Good Lord. It's almost five feet. So what I think is a three-foot putt is actually longer than a three-foot putt. If I had to guess this one here, I might put my heel right there. That's one, that's two. I'm still short. Think about it. Do you want a three-foot putt to get just to the edge of the cup or would you like it to get to the back of the cup so you know you have a chance to make it? This little short putt right here is one, it's two. And look at that. It's three right to the back of the cup. So a three-foot putt in reality is a lot shorter than you think it is. So number one, reframe yourself a little bit. Now let's understand the things that a golf ball can do in three feet. And I'm sure we've all hit enough three-foot putts that we've seen it do everything, but I want to talk to you very basic. The most the ball is going to break from three feet is somewhere in the 5.5, 5.6 inch break. Now this is 99% within the realm of reason. Why is that math important? And I'll keep the math to a minimum. The hole is four and a quarter and the ball is 1.6. If you add 4.2 and 1.6, you get 5.8. That ought to give you a clue as to what we're going to look at. Next time you have that three-foot putt, I would like you to just for a split second stand between the ball and the hole. And I guarantee you when you stand there, you're going to find that it feels different. And now I'm going to throw a little Tennessee on you. We don't have to worry about numbers. We're going to make this simple. You're going to feel something, nothing, or a lot. And that's the only way we're going to look at this. When I stand in between the hole and the ball on this one, I don't feel a lot on one side or the other. When I stand here, I feel something. And when I stand over here, I know I'm on a hill. And when I talk about hills, I'm talking about side hill. I'm not talking forward or backward. So nothing, something, or a lot. What does that mean? That means this. If you don't feel anything, you can go ahead and play that ball inside the cup. When you play it inside the cup, it's not going to move a whole bunch. It might move a couple of inches from three feet, but it's probably going to go in. When you feel something, you're going to look and play it towards the edge of the cup. And when you feel a lot, you're going to play the ball just outside the cup. Because the most the ball is probably going to break is about 5.6, maybe 5.7 inches. But we learned that the cup and the ball adds up to 5.8. Interesting. Now that you know the facts, here's the reality of it. What do people do on three-foot putts? I would love to tell you. I'm not sure, because I see professionals who grind over these. I see top college kids who grind over them. They don't have a system. This is a system for you to start with from three feet, so that if you don't feel much, you can play it in the center or inside the cup. If you feel something, you're going to play it on one of the edges, depending on which way you think it's breaking. And if you feel a lot, you're going to play it just outside the cup. How often does that rule stand up? It's going to stand up about 98 percent of the time. And I'm going to show you the question I asked Mark Sweeney one year. And I said, so you're telling me on my three-foot putt here, if there's a hill that's like this, and I play it right there on the outside, I'm going to make that putt. And the answer was, no, you're going to miss that putt. You're going to miss it by a lot. And I scratched my head and I thought, hmm, I'm not sure I buy into this. And then Mr. Sweeney explained to me, if a ball's on a hill like this, it'll never stay there. It will roll down until you are able to stand somewhere and you find out that it has nothing, something, or a lot. If it's nothing, you're going to play it essentially towards the center of the cup. The ball will go in. If you feel something, you're going to play it towards the edge. And the curve of the ball will allow it to turn into the cup. If you feel a lot, you're going to play it outside the cup. That is a three-foot secret that will help you tremendously, time and time again, so that you can walk into this putt knowing what the ball is going to do. And before I close this out, it seems like a good time to bring up something that a lot of players use. They use the line and the marking on the ball. Guess what? You have something to aim at now, especially from three feet. I can aim this line at the center. I can aim it at the edge. And I can aim it just a little bit outside. Those are very, very helpful when you are working on these putts. Now, I know some of us get a little bit, oh, let's just say we get a little wound up with this line. And then we're not sure if the line is lined exactly where we want it to go, or if it's too far to the left or too far to the right. I had an LPGA tour player a few years ago that really got so distraught that they couldn't determine whether they had lined the line properly. They said, you know what? I just gave up. I put it that way. Because they could look at it literally perpendicular and go, well, that's towards the hole. That's towards the building. That's towards the edge. And it gave them much more freedom over these putts. However you use the line is up to you. But if you're struggling with it, try flipping it about 90 degrees and watch how your heart rate goes down, your basal metabolism rate goes down, and your satisfaction rate goes up. Three feet and in, inside the cup, on the edge, or outside the hole. I'll bet you if you try that, you're going to enjoy the day that someone says, what do you say we putt them all out? And you are going to smile and say, welcome to a fun time.