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Anonymous (no login)
Posted Oct 19, 2005 2:20 PM
Thanks Geoff and David. Intersting stuff.
Ive been working on all of the above and my results have been very good. If only Id been putting like this in some of the tournaments this past summer.
Perhaps you will allow me to make some observations and pose a few questions.
I have, as David warned, been seduced by the gravity stroke. It has allowed my shoulder frame and hands to work in sync and smoothed and straightened out my stroke. Gone are the short stabs on the short putts, now my short ones are long and smooth and the cup just sort of gets in the way of the ball (at present, touch wood).
But upon further thought I would suggest that this stroke is not weightless but rather weighty. To me, while the stroke seems to float as if in the weightlessness of space, the putter heads weight is most noticable to me and feels very much like a weight on the end of a long stick. This may be a function of light grip pressure and a lack of tension in my arms and body. I have a feeling that this weighty feeling is directly related to how well I am able to gauge putting weight. The heavier the head feels in my hands the better my ability to judge distance. When I firm up my grip pressure the weight of the club head seems less noticable. If my grip pressure gets too light the face of the club seems to lose its aim as my wrists are too loose I think. So I am striving to find a happy medium where my grip pressure is just above that point where I lose my face angle and just below the point where I start losing my feel for the distance of the putt. Please let me know if this is crazy talk.
I recently read that Retief Goosen loves super fast greens because he can lengthen and slow down his stroke. Does this mean he has adjusted his tempo to suit the green? Is it possible that certain putts may require different tempos? An uphill into the grain putt vs a downhiller? Or is it just a matter of adjusting the length of the stroke? Would grip pressure change accordingly or is this complicating the issue? Do you subscribe to slight changes in tempo and grip pressure and perhaps ball position to suit the occasion?
Thanks for all the help. Putting is like the life blood of the game for me. It can ruin a well played hole or save a poorly played one.
Regards
James |
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