My thoughts on the stroke
Given the speed of the greens we play on tour, the length of the stroke that you are required to make is generally such that you can focus on keeping the blade running true to the line you see to the hole. On anything up to a 20- or 30- foot putt, I would expect to keep the putter moving square-to-square. Obviously, as you get further away and the stroke gets longer, the putter will swing slightly inside the line. But by and large, I work on gliding straight back and straight through, and the way that I set-up to the ball (and indeed the length of the putter itself) helps me to achieve this.

A visual guide is the key
More on the make-up of the stroke and the ‘customising’ of the putter in a moment. Before that, let me stress the importance of practising with a visual guideline. Having studied the 10-footer you see here, I have aimed the putting board and stretched out the length of string between two skewers so that it provides me with a distinct visual reference of the line – in this case running at the left edge of the hole. The beauty then is that when I set up to the ball, it’s as if a subconcious process takes over as I run the putter back and through beneath the string, rolling putts one after another into the cup.