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.