It’s been a while since I last gave you a new tip that’ll see you returning to the clubhouse frustrated with a scorecard even worse than usual.

Today, I’m giving you a foolproof tip for putting.

To really ruin your scorecard on the green, all you simply need to do is… line up too well.

What on earth are you on about, Pierre? Have you gone mad?

Not at all – I’m simply going to explain how my friend Simone lines up for a putt.

I’m sure many of you use a line on your ball to line up. Often, all you need to do is use the brand name printed on the ball – which is particularly handy if it’s a long name, like Taylormade, for example (I don’t own any shares in them).

Others personalise their ball by neatly drawing a line on it with a marker pen. There are actually little tools designed for this purpose sold in all golf shops.

Let’s get back to my friend Simone.

When it’s her turn to putt, my friend Simone walks over to the marker she’s used to mark her ball on the green, positions herself exactly behind her marker with the flag in front of her, and carefully aligns the mark on her ball towards the flag.

She takes careful aim to ensure it’s perfectly aligned with the centre of the hole.

Then, still crouching behind her ball, she places her putter on the ground and perfectly aligns the line down the centre of her putter with the line on the ball.

Next, without moving her putter at all, she stands up and takes her stance.

All she has to do is swing her putter strictly down the centre line and, in 90 per cent of cases, watch her ball miss the hole and come to rest more or less some distance behind it.

I’m sure you’ve seen people align themselves this way before; perhaps you use this technique yourself?

Why does this perfect alignment fail in 90 per cent of cases?

No doubt because it’s rare for a green to be perfectly flat.

I’m not a pro, so I can’t give you any effective advice on alignment; all I can tell you is that by doing it this way, you’re almost certain to ruin your scorecard and rack up plenty of three-putts.

Personally, I never use the marks on my ball.
In fact, I prefer to position my ball so that no marks are visible.

And for those who’d like to know how I find the right line for my putts, I invite you to watch – or rewatch – the best golf film I know: *The Legend of Bagger Vance*.