By Cameron Strachan, somewhere west of Brisbane, Australia, March, 2020
Here’s the abbreviated version if you’re short on time:
You have more than enough talent to putt your best! And you can do this without taking on complicated theory or changing your putting stroke. And, it doesn’t require you to spend big $$$ on new putters or silly training aides.
If you’re continually frustrated by poor putting and feeling embarrassed by lots of missed putts… and you don’t mind some straight talk, then please keep reading. What I have next might just change your thoughts on the putting game and help you putt your best!
The putt couldn’t have been any easier. It was dead straight, a little uphill and around 3 feet.
But something didn’t feel right. My body felt like it belonged to someone else, my mind was racing and I actually felt ill.
I couldn’t take the putter away from the ball. I was hot and bothered and just wanted to be somewhere else.
This had never happened to me before. I’d always gotten nervous on some short putts but this was something out of the box.
I was in the midst of a mild panic attack and I didn’t know what to do about it.
My attempt was horrendous. I flinched at the putt and the ball didn’t even hit the hole. My opponent, by this time sensing I was in trouble, didn’t concede the next putt. And I missed that too.
I went from winning the hole to losing it. All in a matter of seconds.
I was despondent.
I wanted to vomit.
I wanted to hide.
I didn’t know what to do.
The last holes of that match were terrible. I went from having two-putts and winning my match to losing the un-losable. I let myself down and my team.
Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Welcome to the horrible world of the putting yips.
The next few years were a golfing NIGHTMARE! My poor putting was a constant source of embarrassment (and discussion among my playing group) . I didn’t like playing that much. I thought about quitting and I never putted that well. NEVER!
And it wasn’t from lack of trying. I worked at my putting game and did everything I could to get better.
But nothing I tried seemed to work. It was one step forwards and then two back.
What makes this story more remarkable is I’m the guy who a few years earlier had been credited with showing Aaron Baddeley his “famous” putting routine.
Aaron, at multiple times during his career has been on top of the putting stats on the PGA Tour.
His process has been described as Look and Shoot and it’s where the golfer walks into the putt, gets set, takes a quick peek at the hole and then powers the ball home.
From the outside it looks like the golfer is playing really quickly, and he sort of is, but there’s a fair bit of nuance at play too (and many are misguided why this works so well. If you simply try and putt more quickly, which many golfers do, it can cause your system to completely shut down and you’ll putt worse, not better).
Aaron used this process to become the best putter in the world. He topped the USGA putting stats in 2004 and 2006 and was renowned the world over for his amazing putting ability.
Note: When he won the Australian Open as an 18 year old amateur in 1999 he beat Greg Norman and Colin Montgomery down the stretch. That week he had something like 95 putts. Truly remarkable.
But this isn’t about Aaron Baddeley per se and you don’t need to be a budding superstar to have it work for you.
This is about the golf learning methodology that has come from that original coaching session with Badds and how it is now helping golfers all over the world.
And it’s also about my greatest regret. Something so powerful and profound but hardly ever spoken about in golf coaching circles.
On the following pages I’m going to go deeper into what I coached Aaron and also HOW I was able to become a way better golfer (by following my own advice) and how this new approach to golf training is helping golfers find their true putting game.
As a quick heads up, what I’m about to share with you is based on learning science and NOT typical putting instruction principles.
If you’re the kind of golfer who is looking for,
Then this is definitely not for you.
But, if you’ve ever questioned traditional teaching ideas and wondered why you find putting so hard, then what I have here has your name on it.
If you’re confused why you’re able to putt half decently one day, but so badly the next time out, then this manifesto is definitely for you. I’m going to share with you a profoundly simple way you can putt that does away with the typical rubbish.
And if you have an open mind because you’ve tried things like, rock your shoulders, keep your wrists firm and have your eyes over the ball but have failed miserably, the next few pages could be a game-changer.
Let’s get stuck into it… (click the “next” button to keep reading)