A Controlled Putting Stroke

When I write these posts I like to keep two rules in mind. First, write only about things that a reader can learn form reading the post. If something is experiential, too open to interpretation, I won't write about it it, because I don't want a misinterpretation to send anybody off in the wrong direction. Second, keep my own game out of it. What applies to me may not apply to you and may even be detrimental to your game. I try to write about golf's universals--things that anybody can put into their game and become a better golfer.

This post breaks both of those rules, but I want to mention it for whatever it's worth to you. If it makes you think about putting a bit differently and encourages you to make explorations on your own, even if they don't end up where I am now, that's fine with me.

Since my back surgery seven weeks ago, I have been putting. Nothing but putting. You can imagine that with nothing else about golf to distract me, I am getting to be a better putter than I was before. One problem I have been trying to solve for many years is how to take the putter back smoothly from the ball and in such a way that the putterface doesn't open so that it can't get square again when it gets back to the ball. That sound like two things, but it's all of the same piece.

The square putterface is clear enough, but let me explain exactly what I mean by taking the putter back smoothly. It's hard to bring something from a dead stop into motion without having a little jiggle at startup. Not impossible, but hard to do. With the putter, the little jiggle is expressed with the putterhead moving a bit along the Y-axis of the stroke path and the putterface turning slightly. (The Y-axis is at a right angle to the X path toward the hole, just like in your algebra book.)

When the putterface moves in that way, returning to it your carefully positioned starting point is seldom going to happen. As a consequence, having the ball go where you intend to putt it will seldom happen, too. Another putt you should have made gets missed.

A few days ago I fell into doing this one thing which seems, so far, to have cleared up the problem. My first move back is to take the handle of the putter back with very gentle push by the right hand. The putterhead stays where it is for only the merest instant before it starts back, too. This move is so subtle that if you were looking casually you wouldn't notice the lag between the handle and the head of the putter. That lag also puts light pressure into the palm of my right hand, since for an instant the handle is moving but the head is not. I maintain this pressure throughout the stroke.

The result is that the putter has no Y-axis drift, and the putterface stays where it needs to be to return to the ball squarely. I feel like Zach Johnson looks.

There's more to it than this, in that this move is combined with my particular stroke, which I'm not going to try to describe (Rule 1). I need to check out Eddie Merrins's book, Swing the Handle - Not the Clubhead, to see if this is what he had in mind. Incidentally, I tried this same move with a driver (not swinging in fully, because I'm not up to that yet, but just making a takeaway) and it feels promising.

Like I say, this is my personal exploration, and I found something that means something to me. If this opens you up to new possibilities, so much the better. The only thing I would remind you of if you want to try it for yourself is the subtlety of the movement. The added pressure in your right hand is very slight, and the lag in the motion of the putter is almost unobservable. More in those two things might not be the ticket.

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