Hi Geoff,

Thank you very much your invitation. If you don't mind I'll capalize on it right away and ask a few questions.

1) Do you believe in the theory of "keeping the putterhead on a straight line throughout the entire stroke" instead of letting it take a path from "inside to inside"?

I ruined my putting by trying to keep the blade square.Thus I have only seen two persons who were capable of putting that way. Michael Campbel from New Zealand and Tobias Dier from Germany who went away from it again.(Dier has won a European-PGA tournament in Ireland last year)

2) I often have the problem of not beeing able to read the green properly. According to D. Pelz "Pumb Blobbing" doesn't work out. Do you have any idea how to improve my reading?

3) Why is it necessary to hit the ball in the up-movement of the putterhead. (I heard about tests which showed that the ball is slipping instead of rolling the first few inches no matter if the head is moving upwards or downwards)

I hope it won't take too much of your time to answer my questions.

Thank you very much in advance.

Bye,

Axel
Germany

Dear Axel,

Her are my responses:

1. PATH. Not especially. I do believe the putterhead ought to be moving square at impact and hopefully for about 0.3 metres on either side of the ball (1 foot). technically, however, it is perfectly possible to send a ball off straight on line by a combination of stroke path coming across the startline and a putterface twisted out of square. A 30-degree cut stroke path plus a 5 degree open twist of the face goes pretty straight. (Face twist has more effect than path.)

2. READING. Sure! Use good posture, use your feet for balance and feel, find the highest and lowest parts of the green, see a line that is straight uphill thru the cup, read my tips on green reading, and always look at the surface with a rolling ball's speed in mind.

3. UP-TICK AT IMPACT FOR LINE. It's practically impossible to hit a golf ball sitting on the grass of a green and start it rolling immediately without spin. I'm not convinced that a little spin is all that hurtful to line or distance. Bounding or bouncing by hitting the ball into the spongy turf or launching it too much does hurt. But to me hitting a little up on the ball has more to do with using the solid part of the putter with a square blow that sends the ball straight, not about "true roll" or eliminating skid. It really works best to reduce side spin of face twist. I'm not perfectly clear why that works that way, but it's something I've paid a lot of attention to. The ball goes a lot straighter more often using a slight uptick thru impact. It also makes the shoulder rise vertically instead of curling around the hip, so that is probably why the ball goes straighter that way.

--
Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
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Hi Geoff!

I read your article on green reading. It worked out great!!!

Today I played three holes (it was Ladies Day-and I didn't want to spend days playing a full round). On the first hole I made an 8 footer. On the third hole I drained a 30 footer.The idea of picking out the spot where the ball starts taking the last break is great.

Thanks a lot,

Axel

Dear Axel,

In re-reading my response to #3 above, I noticed the first two times I said "spin" in that reply I meant "skid." Sorry.

Geoff

Re: your first question, I've been successfully using an outside-to-inside stroke, myself, and I will never go back to a straight-line stroke. When I use the traditional straight-through stroke, the result is no better, and often worse in terms of accuracy, and definitely worse in terms of holding the line and maintaining speed and momentum. With the stroke I'm using now, I can easily vary the ball's speed, keep it on line, and hold the line to the hole nine times out of ten. I can also control the ball better when I want to curve my line either right or left. There is always more than one way to do anything, and that applies to putting, as well.

Gary

Dear Gary,

Putting well personally and teaching others to putt their best are two different undertakings. Whenever I find myself liking a particular technique, I have to ask a lot of questions about it so I can think it thru and explain to others what the advantages or disadvantages are. I do a lot of comparing different techniques, and I try not to prejudge one solely by my personal skill with it or lack of skill with it. if I lack skill in a certain technique, I ask lots and lots of questions to try to ascertain why I'm not better with it -- is it me or is it the technique? So my personal experience, in order to be valuable in teaching others, has to qualify as a general experience that any normal golfer would have. That is, I have to understand the technique from the point of view of a normal golfer, regardless of my personal quirks.

With that in mind, I was wondering why you aren't better with a straighter stroke path, AND why you are good with an outside-to-inside path. Perhaps you can give some more detail about your personal experience, so I and others can better understand how your approach applies to golfers generally.

Cheers!

geoff Mangum
The PuttingZone
World's most advanced putting instruction