[LeslieMoran]

I alternate between using an alignment mark to point down the line of the putt or not. I had always been a strictly feel putter. By that, I mean I just putt the ball back down, preferably with nothing but white showing, picked a line from behind the ball, and made the stroke. I putted very well like that.

At some point a couple of years ago, I was struggling with my putting and I decided to start to use the alignment mark. This seemed to help my putting considerably because it made me keep my eyes concentrated on that mark through the stroke.

Lately, I have days where using the alignment mark is helpful and other days where I am much better off visualizing the line from behind the ball and not using the alignment mark at all. Those days, it is all about feel, not mechanics.

How do you putt the best, or do you experiment at all?

I just went through about 6 months of experimenting and changing everything, grips stances putters, everything, I was average probably 36 or 37 putts a round until I started doing the following on putts, now I am turning in cards with 28 and 29 putts a round almost every time. Some of that is better iron play getting th ball closer to the hole but you still have to make them.

Putts inside 10 feet I try to keep the stroke as mechanical/technical straight back and through as possible and sometimes I will line up the logo or something as an aim point. I do not like using a line on the ball, it causes me to baby the putt too much and they come up dead center but short by two or three inches all day long. Longer putts of 20 plus feet I line up and hit them kind of like I would a chip with a more handsy, more feely type of stroke, it is kind of a potshot at the hole. For me grinding over these longer putts will tend to make me stiff them and leave it way short or hammer it and run it way past the hole. A smooth full stroke hit along a good line, aim for a foot or 2 past the hole, and some of them will go in. If you seem to putt better from just a foot or so off the green than you do from on the green on these really long putts or if your chips sometimes end up closer to the hole than a putt does from the same distance then this looser more of a feely or touch based putting approach is the reason. You have to give longer putts a little pop to get them there, a mechanical stroke won't get the ball to the hole on a 40 foot putt unless you hammer it and then you lose control of it. Putts in between 10 and 20 feet are the hardest for me I think, it is all hit and hope and depending on the slope I might hit uphillers more handsy and downhillers more rigid, mechanical stroke. I expect to make every putt from inside 6 feet and I expect to do no worse than 2 putt from 20 plus up to 60 feet. My second putts are usually not more than 1 or 2 feet out 90 percent of the time.