Golf Tip from Paige Spiranac: How Dustin Johnson Uses a Mirror on the Putting Green

For this tip, Paige Spiranac is joined by Dustin Johnson Golf School Director of Coaching Allen Terrell, who shows us how Dustin uses a mirror on the practice green to refine his putting setup.

Paige:
Hey everyone. It’s Paige, and I’m with Allen today at the Dustin Johnson Golf School. He’s going to give us some great tips – insider information, I’ll say, about how Dustin actually practices his putting.

Allen:
Thanks for being here, Paige. We’re going to talk a little bit about the setup. In putting, more than anything else in golf, this is the most important thing to make sure that your setup’s solid. So D.J., before he starts any of his practice, he starts with a mirror. And what he uses the mirror for is, for one, to check (and I’m just going to turn this mirror around a little bit here) where his eye line reference is – the target line, if it’s too far over, on, or inside. I would say that for average, most people’s eye line or tour player’s is slightly inside. That’s an average. So there are really good putters who don’t do that. And then he checks and makes sure that the clubface is super square. Very, very common to get your clubface either closed or opened, and then you’re compensating. So, really simple things. Check your setup and you may not have to really work on your stroke.

Paige:
Where would ball position be in your setup? And then, also, how wide or narrow should your stance be?

Allen:
Again, super preference of the player. D.J., because he’s a little taller, he may have a wider stance. It kind of changes week-to-week. Ball position is kind of based on your dominant eye. Usually, someone who’s right-eye dominant, you may see them shifted back a little bit. But again, that’s not a necessity. It’s really ball position, you just want it really equal to your stroke.

Paige:
When he is warming up in the morning or before a round, with this, how many balls will he hit before he maybe moves onto something else?

Allen:
He’ll start with this, and like the drill you’ve given your fans, his start line using a gate drill. He’ll try to get 10 in a row through that gate. Maybe a foot ahead just to give him the confidence, his setup’s perfect, his clubface is square, and he’s returning that clubface square when he delivers the club.

Paige:
Seems pretty simple.

Allen:
He makes it look that way.

Paige:
Even if it’s not.

Allen:
Anyone can at least check their setup. I would definitely encourage all golfers to really own their setup, and then it will make putting a lot easier.

Paige:
Thank you. I mean, that’s a really great drill. So this is the EyeLine mirror, so you can purchase this, and then you can work on your setup just like how Dustin does.

Thank you so much, Allen. These are great tips!