The blade must be square at set-up/address and impact! This is so important that I'll repeat it: The blade must be square at set-up/address and impact!

If you address the ball with the blade open or closed, you have to make compensation to square the club at impact. When the pressures on such a reliance on hand-eye co-ordination it becomes vulnerable.

Start by aiming the putter face at your initial target (not necessarily the hole because there could be some break to allow for). Then, build your stance around the putter's position – rather than trying to line your stance up first and then aiming the putter's face.

A common mistake many golfers make is not aligning their club head correctly as they address the ball. Even the best golfer will suffer if the player is not aligning their club correctly. Alignment is crucial to be successful in putting. An easy way to do this is to choose a point between the ball and the target around 15 cm in front of the ball. Having the intended target line closer to the ball makes it easier to line up the putter. 

Practice your alignment

A great drill that is used on tour is a chalk line. This is a line that is made with a carpenter’s chalk line. Make a 6-foot line running directly into the middle of the hole. Start 2 feet from the hole and roll the ball on the line. Do not be concerned about the ball going in the hole. Look at how the putter sits behind the ball. Gradually move away from the hole to develop the stroke. If you don’t have a chalk line, then you can use an alignment stick to do the job. Only the alignment stick will be pointing just right of the center of the hole.

The numbers

In the table above, you can see how important the face angle is at impact. If the club head is only 1.5 degrees open on a  1.5m putt it will not go in the hole.

The table below shows the exact deviation per length of the putt, so you can see the importance! If you have a 7-meter putt and the putter head is 4 degrees open on a flat putt and the ball is struck in the center of the putter, it will miss the target by more than 30cm. So, you can see the importance of a good aim!