February 9, 2018 9:13 am

By John Woodroffe, World of Golf London Master Professional

On a sloping green, you often see club golfers miss the hole on the low side. We call this the amateur side of the hole. This slightly derogatory term relates to the fact that missing on the low side of the hole, means the ball never had a chance of going in. It was not going to suddenly turn back up hill and go against earth’s gravitational pull. However, if you missed the hole on the high side, there was always the chance that, if the ball slowed down sufficiently, then it could have dropped in at the end. Of course, your preference would be not to miss the putt at all. So, here’s the big tip. Play one round where, whatever slope allowance you thought you had to make for a putt, add another 50%. It’s much better to miss on the professional side of the hole. Your putts will always have a chance of going in now and the law of averages says that some of them will.

In future, try to make it a policy of your putting, that you aim to miss on the high side of the hole.  My bet is that your sloping putt ‘sink rate’ will dramatically improve!

Categorised in: Golf lessons, Tip of the month