February, 2009 Archive

WGC Match Play – who’s a Banana Putter?

by Paul Hobart

Had a chance to watch some of the WGC Match play while my daughter was napping. Great to see Tiger back in the mix. I suppose he is an effective stimulus for the PGA Tour based on all the coverage!

One of the guys that’s headed home early is the reigning Master’s champion Trevor Immelman. Trevor had a chance to get his match down to a 1 hole deficit with 1 hole to play. All he needed to do was coax a 4 foot putt into the hole on #17. Sounds pretty simple for a major winner doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, Trevor struck his left to right putt, and as soon as he hit the ball, walked after the putt as it missed the cup on the low side. It seemed that he knew immediately that the putt was missed. I propose that he knew even before he hit it that something was wrong.

Any time I see a player hit a putt, and start walking, I know that the putt confirmed a thought they had in their head BEFORE the putter swung back. There’s the key. If a miss confirms what you were thinking, why were you having that thought?

Banana Putting is designed to place the golfer in a state of total and complete commitment as they stand over the ball. Once you have that, your great putting stroke shows up. Lose the commitment, and you lose your stroke, and miss the putt.

Trevor lost his commitment, and missed a key putt. I could also contend that he followed that up with another uncommitted effort on the next one, which he missed to lose the match.

3 putts from 4 feet from the Masters champion. Cost him the hole, and ended his tournament in the first round. I see things like this every week. Even from the best in the world.

I hope I have the chance to share my concepts with Trevor, and bunch of the other guys on Tour. I know it will make a huge difference in those critical few seconds before the putter swings.

More to come.

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Michelle Wie Uses Banana Putting to Maintain Her Lead!

by Paul Hobart

Watching the LPGA event in Hawaii. Michelle Wie is hanging onto a 1 shot lead on the back nine, and has done so due to a couple great putts. Michelle has always been a little iffy with the putter, and often looks completely shocked that the ball missed the cup. Today however, Michelle is sticking closely to the concepts of Banana Putting, and is rolling some tough putts into the cup.

Thanks to the great television angles, I have observed at least 4 putts in Michelle’s round that were perfect demonstrations of the concepts in the Banana Putting System. Did I teach Michelle my system? Not yet…maybe one of these days she’ll get the opportunity. I can watch a player, and tell you if they are adhering to the important concepts that I teach.

At least for today’s round, I would give Michelle a pretty good rating on her performance. One of the key components I watch for and measure when I teach putting is what I call “SLV.” When you follow the Banana Putting System steps, you want to have a very low SLV. A higher SLV means you’re putting the ball all over the place, and probably muttering to yourself…”what kept that out?” We’ve all had days like that, right?

Michelle’s SLV is pretty darn low today, and it’s got her in the lead. As I’m typing this post, she just holed another good putt to keep her lead through 12. Looks to be a great finish, and if she wins she can tell everybody to get off her back. Hope she closes the deal. I’ll keep watching, and if I see anything interesting, I’ll let you know.

Can you guess what SLV means? Remember…low is good, high is bad, just like your score.

Happiest of Valentine’s Days!

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The PGA Tour Needs Banana Putting

by Paul Hobart

Did you watch the Buick Invitational yesterday? I was spending the afternoon watching my beautiful daughter Sia, and in between wiping her runny nose, changing diapers (hers), and keeping her from jumping off the couch, I watched, too. Daddy is responsible for the hairstyle!

There was some great golf played, and I felt happy for Nick Watney, and  a ittle bummed for John Rollins. It seemed like Rollins had things well in hand, but in golf you just never know.

As a golf instructor, and specifically as a putting instructor, I really appreciate some of the close up camera angles you get to see as the player rolls his putt. To be able to see where the player is pointed, and where the ball starts, is great information. Although I didn’t see the whole broadcast, and obviously couldn’t see every putt, there were plenty of putts hit that were clear violations of the Banana Putting System. My entire system is designed to get the player physically, mentally, and emotionally prepared to hit a great putt. Judging by what I saw on those closeups yesterday, some of the guys aren’t at that stage of perfect preparation. If they were, I would not have seen the performance issues they displayed coming down the stretch.

Both john Rollins and Camillo Villegas hit putts yesterday that were clear violations of Banana Putting. I place my players in a position of “total and complete commitment” and these guys just weren’t there. Why weren’t they? I would have to speak to them about how they worked through the preparation to hit the putt. I monitor four key steps in the preparation process, and any or all of the four could be the culprit.

What did these world class players do? To simplify, they decided on a plan of attack for the putt, and then changed plans as they swung the putter. Banana Putting puts an end to this. Just so these guys don’t feel so bad, I’ve seen Tiger, and just about everyone else do the same thing. Was it the equipment? Nope. Was it because they haven’t practiced the mechanics of the stroke? Nope. Was their technique bad? Doubt it!

All of the things I just mentioned are hardware issues. Physical things and motions and movements. Banana Putting deals with the software inside the golfer. When the software doesn’t run properly, all of the physical stuff just doesn’t work.

Stay tuned, and I’ll share more with you!

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