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Since joining the PGA TOUR in 2018, Denny McCarthy has established himself as one of the best putters in the world, ranking first in Strokes Gained: Putting in both 2019 and 2020. This week, McCarthy is set to compete in the Wells Fargo Championship at TPC Potomac at Avenel, which is just 14 miles from his birthplace of Takoma Park, Maryland. While preparing for the event, GolfWRX.com caught up with the 29-year-old to learn more about his putter, his mentality on the greens, how he prepares and why amateur golfers may struggle with putting themselves. Below, we highlight five key takeaways from the putting discussion with McCarthy, one of the game’s best putters. 1. FIND YOUR ‘FOREVER’ PUTTER McCarthy currently putts with a Scotty Cameron TOUR-only GoLo N7 mallet putter with a black finish, a white alignment line, a custom long neck, and a deep-milled face that produces a soft feel and muted sound. While he says he doesn’t always putt with the same exact putter from week to week — he makes slight variations depending on his feel and the green speeds — he does stick to the same style of putter head. McCarthy started using a GoLo mallet model while at the University of Virginia, and he’s stuck with it ever since. “I have 10 different versions of this GoLo head, basically,” McCarthy told GolfWRX.com. “The one thing I do keep very consistent is the black mallet style with the white line and the milled face. Then I might change the neck, or the weighting of it, depending on how fast the greens are, but I like to keep the head and how it looks the same. “I used a blade putter for a little bit as a kid, and then I used an old Odyssey Rossie mallet for a little awhile. Then in college I used a white (TaylorMade) Spider for a bit, then landed on the GoLo… it was very trial-and-error. I putted well with a mallet, with the Odyssey and the Spider, and then really liked the GoLo and everything about it. That was kind of like, ‘this is going to be my putter forever’… it’s just, to me, it’s the appearance of it. The way it sits on the ground.” Experimenting with different putters can be a fun and informative process, but once you find a head style that suits your stroke and preferences, it may be best to stick with it. 2. THROUGH THE GATE “I kind of stole it from (Tiger Woods),” McCarthy told GolfWRX. Like Woods, McCarthy uses a two-tee “gate” putting drill, which helps him square the face and make center contact. The drill is easy to set up. Simply place a golf ball about 5 feet from the hole on a straight putt. When you approach the ball with your putter, place a golf tee just outside of the toe and heel portions of the putter head. Then, hit putts by trying to keep the putter head within the tee “gate” at impact. It’s an easy way to train your stroke to make consistently centered impact with the golf ball. 3. GETTING ALIGNED Even though he has one of the best putting strokes in the game, McCarthy said his stroke can get a bit “wipey” if his alignment gets off. As he told GolfWRX, his stance tends to get a bit open at address, which leads to an outside-to-in stroke that leaves the face too open at impact. This causes a miss short and to the right. To help combat the issue, McCarthy simply lays down an alignment stick parallel to his target along his feet line. This helps him focus on keeping his stance square, and his putting stroke can flow freely from there. 4. AWAKEN YOUR INNER ARTIST According to McCarthy, putting should be treated as more of an art than a science. As part of his process, McCarthy picks out a target between his golf ball and the hole, such as a small imperfection in the green, or a piece of grass that’s a different color. Then, he lines up his golf ball to the intermediate target, and without taking a practice stroke, he lets his inner artist take over. “Treat it more as an art form than a science,” McCarthy said. “You don’t have to have a perfect stroke. My stroke is not perfect. I’m a good putter because I can see the greens well, and I track spots and I treat it more as an art form. I’m picking spots and ball marks, anything that stands out in my line. I line up my ball around those areas and see the arc of the putt as opposed to worrying about what my strokes doing.” To ensure that he’s lined up toward his intended target, McCarthy draws a line on his golf ball using a black marker. Then he aligns that line to his target, and he hits putts so that the line rolls end over end. While this is a common method of putting, McCarthy does it a bit differently. Instead of aligning the ball with the entire line showing, he tilts the line toward his target. He says he does this because although he wants the line there for a reference, he doesn’t want it to be his sole focus during the stroke. Remember, he treats putting as an art. Worrying too much about the line can restrict your stroke and make it less reactionary. 5. TRY TO MAKE IT Of course, not everyone can have the same confidence that one of the best putters in the world has, but a quick switch in mentality can work wonders. “I’m stepping into every putt like trying to give it a chance to go in,” McCarthy told GolfWRX. “I’m stepping into them trying to make them. I’m not trying to wish them up near the hole. If I’m getting a putter in my hands on the green putting for birdie, to me it’s like any putt is a good look to me. “Have fun with it as opposed to like, ‘Oh shoot, I haven’t putted well today. I’ve missed a bunch from this length.’ No, …go up there and pick a spot and get up and be confident and just hit a good putt. It’s more about the process than the result … to me. I’s about the process of going through what you’re seeing and hitting good putts. Once you hit the putt there’s nothing you can do after that, it’s out of my control. If I do everything well that I can control, I’ll be in good hands.”

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AUGUSTA, Ga. – One day after making the Masters look easy, Jordan Spieth reminded us how hard it really is to win the Green Jacket. Spieth rolled through the second nine Thursday, making five consecutive birdies en route to a 66 that gave him a two-shot lead. He had that look of focused determination that he gets when he enters a state of flow. He stared down his iron shots without a hint of anxiety and pumped his fist while putts were still rolling toward the hole. He looked like a man unconcerned with any outcome besides the one he envisioned. The game looked simple on the course that brings out his best. The ease with which he took that two-shot lead made it seem feasible that we were witnessing another coronation at Augusta National. Yes, it was only Thursday, but his demeanor was reminiscent of 2015, when he tied the tournament scoring record and won by four shots. Even the bogey he made on the 18th hole added to his confidence after he averted a worse score with a skillful pitch. He received a warm ovation when he arrived at the first tee shortly before Friday’s 10:53 a.m. tee time. He spoke again Thursday evening of his reverence for this event, and the patrons responded with a gesture that showed their admiration for another of Augusta’s adopted sons. They could hardly envision what the next five hours would hold. He drove into the pine straw on the first two holes. Both times, he hit three shots before his ball came to rest on short grass. He needed a series of par saves to keep his deficit from getting even larger, then stayed in contention by answering the siren song of the second nine’s two par-5s. He still had to fight on the final two holes, holing an 8-foot par putt on 17 and saving par from a fairway bunker after a drive that caused him to slam his club into the tee. He wasn’t happy that he failed to convert the 10-foot birdie putt that followed a strong approach from the sand, but he could still walk off the course proud of the fact that he’d played his final 11 holes bogey-free to keep himself in contention for a second Green Jacket. He sits at 4-under 140 after Friday’s 74. He was 3 over after his first two holes, but birdied both of the second nine’s par-5s to shoot 34. “The wheels could have come off there, but I made some nice par saves and was able to grind out some phenomenal second shots (to the par-5s),� he said after his round. He hit just half his fairways Friday, resulting in several adventurous holes. He was so far right on the first hole that he had to ask multiple times for the crowd to move farther into the trees to give him a clear shot to the green. His punch-out from the pine needles stayed in the second cut and his third shot rolled off the false front. He missed his 11-foot bogey putt. He hooked his tee shot on No. 2, rushed his punch shot and had to hit a phenomenal 6-iron just to reach the green in three shots. He three-putted from 52 feet. Both errant shots were caused by mishits on the toe, he said. Not a good start, but Spieth has been doing this long enough to know that 52 holes remained. His caddie, Michael Greller, reminded him, “Man, you always take punches out here and come back stronger.� Even after the quadruple-bogey that cost him the 2016 Masters, he birdied two of the next three holes to give himself a chance. He made another quad in last year’s first round but started Sunday just two shots back. “So what’s the first couple holes on a Friday mean? It doesn’t really mean much to me,� he said. “It means let’s figure out what was wrong and fix it, but it’s not going to affect the outcome of this tournament off of those two holes. I’m still in a great position.� His biggest mistake may have been his approach shot to the seventh hole, because that miscue came from a mental mistake. “I just didn’t trust my instincts there,� he said. His tentative approach shot plugged into one of the bunkers fronting the green, resulting in a bogey that dropped him to 4 over for the day. After parring the par-5 eighth hole, he played what he called his most important hole of the day. His tee shot on No. 9 snuck into the second cut and his approach shot went over the green. He two putted from 75 feet, holing a 6-footer for par to shoot 40 on his front nine. “When that went in, I thought, okay, forget about everything that’s happened. Let’s try to shoot 2 under on the back nine. That was the goal,� he said. He accomplished it with two birdies on Augusta National’s famed par-5s on the second nine. They were his only two birdies on a day when inconsistent wind gusts made it difficult to get the ball close to the hole. He hit 12 greens Friday, one more than he did in the previous day’s 66, but had just a handful of birdie chances. The first came from an unlikely spot after he drove into the pine straw on the par-5 13th. A tree stood between his ball and the hole, but he had room to hook a 4-iron onto the green. It wasn’t until after he hit the shot that he realized the risk. Sometimes it’s better not to overthink it. “When I was walking (to the green), I’m like man that was a really, really difficult shot to pull off. I don’t know why I didn’t have any nerves,� he said. “I just kind of stepped up and hit it. It was probably the quickest shot I hit today, which is weird.� Spieth also hit the 15th green with his 212-yard second shot after hitting a 320-yard drive. It was another shot that allowed him to move closer to the lead, increasing his chances of another Masters title in spite of a horrible start to the day.  

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