Don’t look at the ball! Nothing is more fatal to consistent accurate
putting than the habit of looking at the ball. The fact that many persons
who do look at it putt very well, and often brilliantly, merely proves
that man is a patient and persistent animal, and can overcome almost any
obstacle. I am aware that “keeping the eye on the ball” is regarded as
a virtue; the agreement on this point is pathetic. But I have found in
jogging through this world, that oftentimes a piece of advice works very
well if it is turned upside down. I never could see any good reason for
falling in a trance over a ball before putting it, and I suspect that
this is one of the theories which work well when reversed.
To draw, freehand, a straight line from A to B do you look at A? No,
you look at B. Does a billiard player look at the cue ball when making
a shot? No: having taken his “stance” and made his calculations, he
fixes his eye on the object ball. Billiards is played with the wrists,
and the cue is taken back automatically, as a putter should be; and so
you will never master the art of putting until you swing your club as
unconsciously as you move your arm in tossing nuts to a squirrel, or
pitching a quoit or doing a number of other things of a similar nature.
Looking _up from_ the ball is fatal; your head moves. Looking _at_ the
hole is not; your head remains still. Take your line carefully and
as deliberately as you please, and, having soled your club, fix your
attention on the hole, and _don’t look back at the ball_.