Putt Like Cristie Kerr & Michelle Wie

Many consider Cristie Kerr to be the best putter on the LPGA Tour, and Michelle Wie's new stroke also wowed 'em at the Solheim Cup. Don’t you wish you could putt like they do?

You can… and it doesn’t take a lot of practice to see results.

Golf Channel’s Dottie Pepper described the two main characteristics of Kerr’s stroke this way:

• She grips the club very lightly.
• She uses a long stroke, rather than the short stroke most people make.

Michelle Wie began working with Dave Stockton just a couple of weeks before the Cup. Stockton said they made a “major overhaul” of her stroke, yet she seemed very comfortable with it. Golf Channel’s Michael Breed pointed out the two primary changes:

• She raises her hands so the putter shaft forms a straight line with her forearms.
• She leans the putter shaft forward at address, so she doesn’t ‘flip’ the club as she strokes the ball.

None of these changes is difficult to make, nor do they require much change to your existing stroke… but the results can be amazing.

I hope you’ll forgive me for tooting my own horn, but if you had my book Ruthless Putting, you’d already know these tips. The first three are in my list of the Basic Principles of Good Putting, which are seven things that Dave Pelz, Stan Utley, and Bobby Jones all agree on. And while it’s not part of that list, I recommended leaning the shaft forward as a simple way to improve your consistency of contact. You can learn more about the book by clicking on the cover image in the right sidebar.

In the meantime, tomorrow I’ll post the Basic Principles of Good Putting. They represent a standard of good putting that’s existed for over 80 years; it’s hard to go wrong with that.