Putting Tips

Mastering Uphill Putts

Be Confident

Here are a few putting tips for putting uphill. The reality is uphill putts can be intimidating, particularly when they are relatively far from the hole. They shouldn’t be. In fact, an uphill putt is a great opportunity to impress the rest of your foursome by standing over the ball, taking a careful swing, and sending it straight to the bottom of the cup.

The biggest putting tip to remember on an uphill putt is to be confident. To sink an uphill putt takes a nice, aggressive stroke that aims for the back of the cup or slightly past the hole, in order to allow for the loss of momentum as the ball nears the flag. That loss of momentum keeps mis-hits from becoming disasters, so go ahead and target the flag. What’s the worst that can happen? As long as you judge the distance reasonably well, even if you miss the hole you should still wind up with a short putt coming back. Attack accordingly.

Tips on Putting Long Uphill Putts

Here is a putting tip if the uphill putt is a long one. Be sure not to compromise your putting form in an attempt to hit the ball hard. Visualize your swing line a pendulum, and simply bring the club back a little farther, and follow-through to the same length. That will impart greater distance without getting unwanted body parts like your wrists or hips in the way of the ideal putting stroke, and will encourage hitting the ball with the sweet spot of the clubface – especially critical for long uphill putts.

An uphill putt will break less than a downhill putt, since the ball is usually struck harder. Because the velocity imparted to the ball is greater, it will be less affected by the slope of the green. However, that changes as the ball slows down, so what often occurs is an increased break just before the hole. Shorter putts will have a greater break, since you aren’t hitting the ball as hard, but even so, the loss of momentum should allow for a solid putting stroke that reduces the pressure to read the break with total accuracy. Just hit the golf ball solidly towards the hole and let gravity and your golf ball take care of the rest.