Champions Tour Insider: Putting is a mind game

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World Golf Hall of Fame member Bob Charles is known as one of the greatest putters in golf.

Great putters make putting sound mystical. To them, it is. It's about spatial relationships, visual feedback and very definitely mind over matter.

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"Putting really is all about state of mind more than anything else," Bob Charles said. "You have to believe you are going to hole it."

But before you can believe, you have to see in your mind's eye the ball falling into the cup.

Ben Crenshaw spotted to a large drain cover about 20 feet from where he was standing.

"It's looking at that," Crenshaw said, pointing. "And seeing the roll of the ball and what it looks like."

There is no question that the hole on a green has always looked bigger to great putters like Crenshaw and Charles.

Crenshaw, a two-time Masters champion, is so good that even when he misses, the putts he hit look like they are going in. Charles, a former British Open champion, is the same way. It is a trait all outstanding putters share. That's where perfect pace comes into the equation.

"Obviously you have to have a sense of touch and feel, but I feel on sloping greens every putt you play is going to be maximum break, minimum speed," Loren Roberts said.

That's Roberts' mantra. Maximum break, minimum speed.

Roberts has a unique approach to putting. He tries to put himself into a temporary daze.

"That's one of the things I do," he said. "For me, when it comes to putting, I equate it with, you know how you're driving down the freeway and you're not really looking at anything, but you go a little bit out of focus, you're just cruising down there with one hand on the wheel and you don't run into anything, you don't run off the road, but you're not super focused on anything. That's kind of what I like to do with putting."

The best putters share other traits.

They rarely switch putters and prefer those with traditional looks to the newer technology-driven models with larger heads and broomhandle or belly shafts.

In his book, Groove Your Golf Swing My Way, Lee Trevino writes, "If you find a putter that works for you over the long haul, treasure it like you would a good wife. Don't go out playing around, looking for something better."

Trevino goes on to say he thinks Charles is the best putter in the world because of his simple, uncluttered stroke that relies entirely on the arms to swing the putter.

Charles looks at putts from the other side. The left-hander from New Zealand has been one of the game's great putters for decades and he does it with what many would consider a relic -- a Bullseye putter that he has used for 50 years.

Charles has enough back-up Bullseyes to make sure he never runs out. A while back, the United States Golf Association and the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, golf's ruling bodies, ruled the silhouette grip on Charles' Bullseye non-conforming because it didn't have straight sides.

"It had the silhouette grip," Charles said. "I put three wraps of surgical gauze on it and it became legal. John Reuter made that up for me in his little shop in Arizona."

Has Charles ever considered making a switch to a modern, high-tech putter?

"No reason to change," he said. "I suppose if I didn't use the Bullseye, I'd use a SeeMore. I used that putter, which Zach Johnson uses, for a half-season.

"Equipment technology doesn't apply to the same degree to putters because it's such a personal thing. You see different styles -- Locke, Aoki, Casper."

Bobby Locke, the South African, is considered by many as the finest putter ever. He putted with a very closed stance. Isao Aoki, the putting wizard from Japan, putts with an exaggerated toe-up method and Billy Casper, winner of two U.S. Opens (1959, 1966) and the 1970 Masters, relied on extraordinary hands and a mallet putter.

Another similarity among the best putters is a certain undeniable presence. It's true in every sport. Those who are best at certain disciplines command attention when they are in their element. They are relaxed and confident. The manner is unhurried, the focus undivided.

To improve in the skill set, Raymond Floyd, in his book, The Elements of Scoring, advises all golfers to study the demeanor of the best putters, like Dave Stockton, who is described by Crenshaw and others as "a brilliant putter."

"You can usually tell a good putter by the ease of his movements, the graceful way he walks on the green, the rhythm of his stroke," Floyd writes.

"I always get the feeling with really good putters that they have the grace of a pool shark running the table. Ben Crenshaw is beautiful on the greens ... watch how the best do it, and try to move like a player."