Year by year, Tommy Fleetwood has grown into one of the best putters on the planet.
This wasn’t always the case. He started his career on the PGA Tour losing strokes to the field on the green, but he has improved every single year, and last season gained over half a shot on average in Strokes Gained: Putting.
His best putting display of the season was, of course, when Fleetwood won the Tour Championship at East Lake. There, the Englishman finished the tournament gaining 2.37 strokes on the greens alone.
But the number one thing you can do to improve with your putting has nothing to do with the stroke itself, said Fleetwood. It’s all in the preparation for the shot.
The easy way amateur golfers can hole more long putts
When giving out golf tips on Rick Shiels’ YouTube channel, Fleetwood said the most important thing you can do is take the time to properly read the green. Not just from behind the ball or behind the hole. Take time to explore the putting surface and map it out.
He explained: “The number one thing, and my kids don’t do this, and I’m always rattling it on and I’ll go and watch them and I can see it straight away, is they don’t walk around the hole. Like it’s the most simple thing.
“This put we’ve actually set up is uphill, and you can see pretty much most things because the putt’s facing you. But so often, it doesn’t take much to start walking to the side and have a look.
Should AimPoint be banned?
“And I think people might struggle from this distance, but I think also you can hit a good putt and hit it to eight feet and wonder, ‘What happened there?’ Because you’ve not assessed it.
“And it’s just walking around. But I would say the important thing is to always find you should always walk around the putt, but also read the putt from where the lowest where the putt’s facing you.
“I always think of it as like reading a book. I wouldn’t read a book like from that way. So that’s one of the first things. Make sure you have a walk.”
Tommy Fleetwood explains how golf buggies have made it harder to read greens
Part of this process is done on the walk up to the green. As you’re walking up the fairway, keep an eye out for the contours on the putting surface and really take it in.
But Fleetwood admitted that with the growing popularity of golf buggies, there is now less time for this.
He said, “I actually think buggies maybe stop that sometimes because you drive a buggy up and then just get your club and walk to the green, but you can always be looking.
What is the one golf rule you would change if you had the opportunity?
“You can always have a look, and there’s a lot of green actually over here, but if we were stood over here and we’d parked up, you can start to see the green might be, you know, flowing that way.
“There might be an edge where it’s higher than the other. You know, there are things that you can always see and pick up, and you start to build just a picture of that putt.”
It’s something we can all do to read putts correctly. Just take your time on the green, and you’ll see instant improvement!
