The lines on your Putter really do help

Take a moment and grab your current putter…I’ll wait….Ok now look down at the top of the putter. How many lines do you see? Most of you will only see one line. This is ok, but multiple lines would be better.

The reason I like multiple lines on the putter are simple…they help you aim. If one line is good, then two would be better and three? Even more super-licious! The lines on the putter help us correctly aim the face in the direction we want the ball to go. Heck we are totally visual when it comes to the game of golf.

In all my years of teaching it never failed to have a lesson where the comment came up…”I just don’t know where the ball goes when I putt on the green” or “it never seems to go where I think it should!”.

The Ball goes where the face aims it

Simple but true. The direction of the face at impact will determine where the ball travels. Reach back to 8th grade math and remember a few geometry formula’s like parallel and perpendicular, add in the definition of a line and you can begin to tackle putting.

Parallel is two lines in a plane never cross (equidistant). A perpendicular line bisects another line at a 90° angle, or the two angles are congruent at the intersection.

So if we imagine that the face of the putter is a line with two endpoints C & D and the sweetspot or center of the line C~D is B, the ball will move towards the Target or point A. The point A is perpendicular to the face of the club. Kinda strange but it all works out. Just remember, the face points to the direction of where the ball will go at impact!

Now if the face is pointed left of your target, the ball will go that way (ok, there is some strange ways the ball can start out that way, but then move towards the target, but I unfortunately do not possess my Grandpa Keeler’s PhD in Mathematics in order to make it understandable).  It’s easier to remember that the ball always follows the face…and it has to do with perpendicular!

The many Lines of a Putter

If you putter has only one line, it might be difficult to visually see if the face is square to the target. If you putter has multiple lines, then it makes it easier to “see” the direction the face is pointed, and that is a good thing.

Newer putters even have a two or even three ball alignment system in place. This is again for helping you see the direction the face is pointed. If you seem to struggle with direction, or have any questions to where the face is pointed, try getting a putter with multiple lines…they do work.

Photos of Rife Putters. The multiple line photo is the Sweet Aussie Mallet.

Putting is all about…You!

Take a minute and think about your golf game, actually just think about how you putt. Are you a “feel” putter? Someone that can look at a putt and know how the ball will get to the hole. You tend to trust your instincts, and just react to the situation. Your hands provide the feedback…. Or are you a Mechanical putter?Someone that sets up and goes through a routine, and your focus is that every putt, no matter what, will be done the same way. Mechanical putters trust the set up, the path, and that constant attention will provide consistent results.

I don’t care….I mean you can be either or even a mixture. That’s the great thing about putting. You can be any style, because there is no real right or wrong way to putt. Think of all the great putters. Jack, Arnold, Lee, Tiger, Payne, Danny Kraft (he worked for me at Cantigny and was a Illinois State high school champion). The list can go on and on. Arnold Palmers putting stroke looks nothing like Tiger Woods stroke.

However, all great putters have a few common elements within their stroke. Great putters also understand the importance of speed and direction.

Putting depends on Speed

How fast a ball travels when struck will have the most impact on your ability to sink putts. Seriously we have all heard the “short ones never make it home”. So a ball that is struck without enough “energy” to get the ball past the hole will never find the bottom of the cup. Feel putters tend to die the ball into the cup, while Mechanical putters find success when the ball travels at a speed that would send the ball @ 10-12 inches past the hole…There are more differences between the two types, but I’m focusing on SPEED.

For both styles to work, the speed has to be correct. This is the area that I find most golfers struggle with…how to judge speed.

Speed (k)ills

For those of you that struggle with putting…just remember speed (k)ills. The bracket around the -k- emphasizes that your “ills” are related to the speed at which you putt. I said earlier that putting is all about speed and direction. I focus on speed, for I feel that it is the least known or practiced principle.

When you strike a golf ball, the speed at which it leaves the clubface will determine your success. We’ve all heard the saying..”all the short ones never go in” well there should be a second familiar saying, “how did I knock it 5 feet past?”. These are some points that I want you to remember

• the putting stroke will be equidistant
• the length of the putt is related to the length of my putting stroke
• a swing is different from a stroke
• I accelerate my swing, I use tempo to stoke a putt

The pendulum Stroke

That old clock, you know the one…with the thing going back and forth. Well a pendulum is a great brain aid to think about when putting. Pendulums were used to maintain time from their invention in the 1600’s up until the 1930’s. Pendulums are a great visual when describing the putting stroke. The starting point for all putting strokes is A, the clubs draws back to point B, then returns to A and ends at C. The stroke should be equidistant, meaning the length of A to B is the same as A to C.

For example: If I have a 20 foot putt I determine that the stroke needs to be X inches. I take back the putter X inches and..FOLLOW THROUGH…the same distance after impact.

The stroke should be even in length as it is in Tempo. I want to slightly accelerate my putting stroke prior to contact which promotes a “solid” contact.  After impact I need to continue letting the club move forward. The typical “poor” putter decelerates the putter after impact. By slowing down the stroke after impact, you have stopped momentum, thereby adding an additional “force” to your stroke. Which is bad….

Now the ball’s speed is relative to the amount of force or transfer of kinetic energy. We increase or decrease this force by….wait for it….the LENGTH of the stroke (keeping in mind that we accelerate the putter face only slightly).

Speed of the golf ball is also determined by the amount of friction (how fast the greens are, length and type of grass) and gravity. Both of these are factors that we need to gauge to develop a sense of how much energy we will provide with a stroke. Suffice to say, an uphill putt requires more energy or a longer stroke. While downhill putts require less initial energy to roll. We will talk more about friction in another post.

By working on our length of stroke, we can become better golfers. The goal is to add some shots to our Shot IQ database and use this knowledge when we go out and practice or play.