Don't follow the ball.
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One of the first pieces advice I was given when I took up this game was keep your head still and your eye on the ball.
Ironically it was the same year Doug Sanders missed that infamous short putt at St Andrews and let in Jack Nicklaus to win the Open championship in a playoff.
He could have done with that tip himself.
I have remembered it from time to time but not enough to let my handicap improve to a potential I often dream about. Sadly I wake up and discover I still have my amateur status.
However, playing with some friends yesterday, one of them noticed how my head came up and through with the putter head causing me to miss a handful of makeable four-footers for par.
I had thought the reason I'd missed a succession of tiddlers was the temptation to take a peak at the hole with my left eye while looking over the ball with my right. The move tended to pull the ball to the left.
Head still in follow through.
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"Keep your head still and listen for the ball to drop, don't look for it," he told me.
Bingo! I holed three tricky four and five footers over the closing holes and suddenly got my confidence back.
By sharpening by focus on the top of the ball - so I could read the writing on its circumference - and the strike of the putter, it stopped my left-eye from wandering to the hole. It was then a case of listening for it to drop.
I have to admit, the anticipation is scary and what happens to my pumping heart if it doesn't drop - deflected by a spike mark or a misread borrow - I won't discover until the next time I play.
For the time being, however, I'm looking forward to putting again after a few miserable weeks of three-stabbing.
Distractions, distractions…
Golf is full of distractions - rattling change in a pocket, the birds singing, the thwack of a shot by a player on a nearby fairway.
If you're like me, you're almost anticipating a sound to put you off your stroke, every time you stand over the ball. A built-in excuse.
Whether it's an age thing, I can't say, but lately I've been hearing noises like the rustling of a fieldmouse in the undergrowth, the distant hum of cars on a motorway, somebody breathing!
I've tried cotton wool in the ears but it tends to make me unbalanced. I've tried humming to myself - which helps to maintain the rhythm of the swing - but after a while the tune starts to irritate. Whistling like Fuzzy Zoeller has a similar effect.
If anyone has any suggestions for retaining your concentration and shutting out all distractions over the ball I'm sure we'd all be delighted to hear them.
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