Do you really need special golf putting instructions? When you consider that so many golfers only seem to pay attention to their swing, you would think that putting is a simple matter. But yet you would be wrong. The putt can be a tricky matter, requiring a whole different set of skills to do well. Think about it - the putt has its own special club (the putter), and this putter works differently from your woods and irons. Whereas your woods and irons are designed to lift the ball off the ground, your putter is designed to roll the ball along the ground.

When you compare golf to a game of chess, the putt is the endgame in chess. The difference between grandmaster and casual player is the mastery of the chess endgame. The endgame is highly technical. Proper training tends to be boring. It looks dull and feels dull. And yet many of the greatest chess grandmasters of history do not defeat their opponents in the opening and middle-game - instead, they smash apart their opponents' positions in the end-game to achieve victory. This idea also holds true in golf. Make no mistake, to play winning golf requires you to think. Mess up your tactics and strategy in golf and you will lose the game to your opponents. How many times do we read in the newspaper reports of golf tournaments that a strong local player takes an early lead, only to break under the pressure of trying to keep ahead of the visiting international champions.

Not many trainers know how to teach their students to putt well. They make do with some demonstrations and the instruction to keep the head and body still. This is one place where the hoary old saying - "Those who can do, those who can't teach" - is wrong. Keeping your head and body still is easier to say than to do, and over-simplifies things for many inexperienced golfers. Every part of your body works together. All the bones in your skeleton, all the muscles and tendons and ligaments in your body - all work in harmony like the intricate clockwork of a Swiss watch. Very few people can just freeze their head and body and still generate the control and power to successfully putt the ball into the hole in one stroke.

The trick to the putt is to mentally draw a line from your golf ball to the hole. Just take a deep breath and mentally draw the line and release your breath and hit the ball. Exactly the same way as shooting a gun. Just relax and let your body move. After all, by this time you already know how to swing your club. Once you relax into the flow and the mental line from your ball to the hole, your arms will automatically swing the club in the right way. Your head and body will move together as one unit, yet seem as if they were actually still.

Remember that regardless of whether you are swinging your driver or iron or putter, you do not want to be stiff. If your body is stiff, you lose both power and control. Let your body remain flexible and limber and your hits will have both the power and accuracy you need. Given the choice between stiffly following all the correct body alignments and grip changes versus being more relaxed about my alignments and grip, I prefer to be more relaxed. Stiffness causes more misses.

At the end of the day, you just have to practice. Do your best to follow along the golf putting instructions, but do not obsess over it. Just do it, be it as little as 5 minutes or 10 minutes. Eventually, everything will come together smoothly and you will find vindication on the green.