April 12, 2017 2:52 pm

By World of Golf London Master Professional, Jon Woodroffe

One of the most regular errors I see when putting, particularly with newer golfers, is missing the hole on the low side, or the amateur side as we often describe it.

All too often I believe people see the slope that the green has and know that they need to aim to allow for this. In the pictures shown, it is a right to left break of about 6 inches and what I find is that the golfer knows this but at the last moment their eyes are inextricably drawn to looking at the hole and thus their putting stroke is also drawn similarly towards the hole thus pulling the putt to the left and missing on the amateur side of the hole.

I always advise people to move the flag in their mind, as I have got a golfer to do here so that it is the necessary 6 inches to the right of the hole. Then putt the ball towards this flag as if it was the hole. Then as the putt rolls along it starts towards the flag, but then the slope takes over and the ball falls towards the hole. As as you can see from the picture, there is a greater chance that the putt will either drop in, or if it does miss, it will miss on the high side, or professional side as we call it, which means it always has a chance of dropping in.

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