Improve Your Putting at Private Fairway

A video focused on using Trackman software to improve your putting golf game at Private Fairway.

Practicing Putting with Trackman at Private Fairway

Overview

This material is an instructional guide from Craig at Private Fairway on how to effectively use the Trackman golf simulator to practice putting. While most users focus on driving and irons, Craig emphasizes the often-overlooked benefit of practicing putting indoors, specifically using Trackman's features to improve putting skills for better on-course performance.

Key Points

Importance of Simulator Putting Practice

• Common Neglect: Most players overlook putting practice in simulators, assuming it's less effective than outdoor putting.

• Craig’s Experience: Regular use of Trackman’s putting mode has improved Craig's real-world putting by promoting a squarer putter face and better tempo.

How to Practice Putting on Trackman

• Virtual Golf Integration: Enable putting during virtual golf rounds for realistic practice.

• Practice Mode: Select a course (e.g., Mirafield Village), choose a hole, and manually place the ball on the green for focused putting drills.

• Aimed Putting Setting: Lets the computer read the green's break, providing visual cues for right/left breaks and elevation changes.

Practical Setup and Execution

• Distance Calibration: The putting mat is 12 feet from the screen; adjust stroke length for uphill or downhill putts (e.g., 14 feet uphill, 33 feet downhill).

• Feedback Metrics: Trackman provides data such as:

  • Launch Direction: Shows if the putter face was open/closed at impact (e.g., 2.8° right).

  • Distance to Pin: Immediate feedback on putt accuracy (e.g., 35 inches from pin).

• Adjusting Technique: Use feedback to correct pushes/pulls and tempo.

Skill Development and Learning

• Stroke Analysis: Immediate, quantitative feedback helps identify and correct putting flaws.

• Break Visualization: Simulator shows how speed affects break, similar to outdoor conditions.

• Confidence Building: Consistent practice in the simulator leads to more confident putting on the course.

Examples/Applications

• Short, Straight Uphill Putts: Practice 14-foot uphill putts to refine distance control and face alignment.

• Long, Breaking Putts: Set up 33-foot downhill putts with significant break to practice reading and executing complex putts.

• Adjusting for Green Speed: Experiment with different speeds to see how the break changes, simulating real-world variability.

Key Takeaways

• Don’t Neglect Putting: Simulator putting practice is effective and transferable to outdoor play.

• Use Data-Driven Feedback: Leverage Trackman’s launch direction and distance metrics to refine technique.

• Simulate Real Scenarios: Use aimed putting and practice mode to create varied, realistic putting challenges.

• Integrate into Routine: Add putting to every virtual golf session for ongoing improvement and confidence on the greens.

Next time you’re at Private Fairway, turn on putting mode in Trackman and use the aimed putting setting during your virtual rounds to build skill and confidence for your next real round.

Full Video Transcript

Hey everyone it's Craig at Private Fairway. We got a couple months left here in the season and I want to show you something you may not think about when you come in and use time here at Private Fairway.

A lot of times you come in we spend a lot of time hitting our driver, hitting our irons, playing a little virtual golf but one thing we don't really hardly ever do is work on the putter.

A lot of times that's because we think in the simulator the putter must not be must not you know be very good it must be a little gimmicky it's not the same as putting outside and what I'm going to show you is that you can actually really improve your game when you when you putt on the Trackman.

I've been using the putting setting the last four or five months which basically means when I play virtual golf I turn on the putting so that I have to putt and what it's really helped me do is keep my putt my putter square through the ball and and really work on my tempo and then I found when I've been putting outside it's really helped me improve because I've been I really been improving my putting stroke.

So I'll show you how a fun way to do it I usually just do it when we play virtual golf but a fun way that you can do it is you can do it by using practice mode here and pulling up a course.

So for fun let's go to Mirafield Village we'll pick the 18th hole we're gonna pull up the 18th hole here and we're gonna put it on practice mode.

Now I'd always put you on the tee but what we're actually gonna do I'm gonna put the ball right up here on the green so we'll just pick a spot like that and we're gonna put it here on the green and the setting that I like to use is aimed aimed putting so what happens is the computer reads the break for us and it you can see that we have this kind of little right to left break or kind of a big right to left break and and it's 17 feet downhill one inch but we could say oh let's let's create one that's a little more you know let's just create one that's uphill so let's create well let's put it like a 14 foot putt it's fairly straight it's uphill four inches and that's going to be our putt we're looking here at the clubhouse there at Mirafield Village.

So the way we can do this is the way I have it set up here is the middle of the mat is 12 feet from the screen now you might remember this from when we did the orientation and I had you putt you probably haven't putted much sense but if you put the ball here in the middle of the mat it's 12 feet to the screen but we have a four inch uphill putt so what we want to do is just calculate that knowing that we probably need to hit it a little further and what we're going to do is I'm going to hit a putt and I'll show you how we can learn from it.

All right so I hit that first putt not bad I hit it out there I can also something that's fun to do a couple things to look at so one is this launch direction so you can see on the launch direction that I actually pushed it 2. 8 degrees to the right so that's why we missed that putt.

If I click this the other thing I can do is I can come up here and click from the pin let's just turn one of these off like spin axis we don't care about save so it finished 35 inches from the pin so 3 feet I hit it to 3 feet not too bad not great though so let's uh let's start again here 14 feet let's not be the putter open hopefully I pushed that one to 1.

6 I felt it hit it a little too hard five feet from the pin that's no good that one should be good Oh pulled it just a little maybe hit it a little too slow accentuated the break now when I pushed again but looks like it's gonna go yep I didn't push it I felt like I did but you can see my launch direction on that was just 0.

2 degrees so pretty close to zero so you can do this on the track man you can try a lot of different things if you want to create like a kind of a long putt we could put the ball over here create kind of a big sweeping break 33 foot putt and what it's showing you here see how these two lines one is kind of slow one is kind of fast that's if you hit the ball a little faster hit the ball a little slower right so you know that from playing outside if you hit the ball a little slower it's gonna break a little differently than if you hit it a little faster so so we're gonna we got 33 feet it's downhill 12 inches so that's a lot downhill that's probably too hard not too bad a little bit open to the right not bad a little bit soft all right so what does that finish 27 inches you probably be happy with that right from 33 feet that one's way too soft so you can see that by practicing with the putter you can actually work on your putting stroke and work on keeping it straight so it's really about keeping that putter straight through the ball and making your putting stroke really smooth so a little open that one feels like it might be good oh it's close okay so come on in use your time at private fairway turn on that putting I like the aimed putting setting add that to your virtual golf rounds and work on your putting you'll find that you'll save a few putts on your next round because you'll have a little more confidence and being able to keep that club square through your putting stroke I hope that's useful and I will look forward to seeing you around