Geoff-

If I set up with arms hanging naturally straight down and relaxed, feet, hips shoulders square, everything is in alignment. When I grip the putter (left hand low), my right arm is not be able to "hang straight down" because the right arm is holding the top of the putter and has to bend. This bending has a tendency to close my shoulder alignment by moveing my right arm "back" off the square alignment I started with before I griped the putter. Thus, my shoulders get closed. I suspect the opposite "tendency" exists for conventional grips.

What is your recommendation to get the shoulders back to "square"? Open the stance? (I have toyed with a slightly open stance, but that causes me different problems of alignment) or simply adjust the arm that cannot hang straight down so that the shoulders are square? or something else.

Thanks

Dear 300Drive,

I agree with Harvey Penick that the putter should be placed and aimed with the left hand. (I believe the left hand, under control of the right side of the brain, which is where spatial awareness is concentrated, is better at this than the right hand.) This being the case, I start to square up to the putter face after aiming the face, and while holding the putter solely with my left hand. I then "square" my "eye line" across the skull to the line required by the putter face's aim. This alignment of the head / skull to the face aim operates thru the neck to square my shoulders also, and from there down to the feet.

So I am not attaching my right hand until the putter face is set, my skull is aligned to the face aim, and my shoulders are square parallel left of the face aim. I have my right arm hanging so that the elbow is directly beneath my shoulder socket and I move the right hand out and up to the handle from inside / underneath. My feet are already where they belong, which is fairly near the ball and even closer to the handle, which leans back fromthe ball to my body. So the right forearm doesn't have to reach out very far, and I can grip the putter with this hand without disturbing the face alignment, my head alignment, or my shoulder alignment.

I like to think of my two shoulder sockets as connected down to the putt line by rods that are equal length. That way, I feel the shoulders are parallel left of the line. I also like to feel the lines of my joint pairs (shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, ankles) are all aligned parallel to the putt line.

Let me know if this answers your question.

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
PuttingZone
http://puttingzone.com
Golf's most advanced and comprehensive putting instruction.

Over 555,000 visits and growing strong ...

Geoff-

My question is more about the arms and shoulders at address. If everything is "square" and I grip the putter on the "same location" with both hands, no problem. However, I have one hand gripping the putter below the other (in my case left hand low). Accordingly, only one of my arms truely hangs straight down (my left) the other has to have a bend at the elbow to accomodate holding the top of the putter. This tends to push my right arm and shoulder back, and away from being square before I gripped the putter (i.e., in the quest for arms hanging straight down, only one really does, the other is bent). The question is, how to address the arm that does not hang straight down, esp. since it tends to have an impact on the shoulders being square (well, in my case anyway). Should I open my stance to "adjust" for the right arm creating a closed shoulder alignment, or simply "compensenate" for the inability of both arms to hang straight down by forcing the shoulders to square?

Dear 300Drive,

The shoulder joint has a very wide range of motion, especially in the direction across and away from the frontal plane of the body in a transverse way. The reason the shoulders are generally set up square to the line is to promote square impact (the same as at address) and a motion of the limbs thru the impact area that is straight at impact and for some distance on either side of the ball. The squareness of the shoulder setup also promotes consistency.

But it is perfectly possible to make a straight putt with only one shoulder being involved. Professor George Shoane at Rutgers has performed studies of right-hand-only putting, and Dr Tony Piparo of Down the Line Golf has designed a putter for use solely with the right arm (for a right-hander) while facing the hole. And the "Claw" grip taught to Chris DiMarco by Skip Kendall, who learned it from an elder in Wisconsin, basically is a left-arm-only stroke to the extent the movement of the putter is really controlled in the shoulders without independent arm action.

The true fundamental is square putter face moving straight thru the ball to the target at impact. Building up from the putter face into the body, this recommends that the back of the left hand mirror the putter face orientation at setup and impact, and this further implies that the two forearm bones of the left arm make the top of the forearm mirror the orientation of the back of the left hand. To make this orientation repeat at impact, the movement of the left arm back to the top of the backstroke with a shoulder rock (left shoulder down) will necessarily move the right shoulder up. If you can visualize the TWO shoulders in coordinated motion in three dimension of space plus time, the fact that the right shoulder is offset closed a little at setup does not mean the two shoulders cannot move in the same plane of motion or that this plane of motion can remain "square" to the putt line in that the intersection of the plane of motion and the green is a line paralleling the putt line.

For example, if the left shoulder moves vertically down, the right shoulder CAN and WILL move straight up, even if the starting position of the right shoulder is a bit back, or closed. The real "twist" in the body is not along the shoulder line but in the waist and lower back. A little twist is not a big deal, but too much twist moves the chest off plane so that the left side of the chest gets too close to the ball, in a closed setup.

Bobby Locke setup really closed, with the right foot drawn back from a toe line paralleling the putt line by about 4 inches. This reorientation of his hips twisted his torso closed. he took the putter back along the closed line of his toes but then in going forward, his right shoulder moved laterally out towards the putt line, effectively resquaring his shoulder to the putt line just before impact.

So you have a number of options:

1. With a mild degree of closed shoulders, just ignore the starting position and focus on the shoulder motion staying in plane and moving the left arm straight at the target thru impact with back of hand and top of forearm aimed square thru impact.

2. Open the hips and feet to the same degree the shoulders are closed to resquare the setup, and again focus on the shoulder action and the movement of the left arm.

3. Add a little right-shoulder motion forward in the downstroke a la Bobby Locke (pretty dicey, takes years to perfect).

4. Use more of a combined shoulder-arm movement of the left arm, in which the left arm moves somewhat independently of the left shoulder, as this shifts the brain control of the motion as a whole from the shoulders to mostly the left arm and side-steps the issue of the right arm.

In any case, I would suggest working on the squareness of the face of the putter thru the impact area -- trying to make a shoulder-powered move that naturally allows the left shoulder to rise past the bottom of the stroke in a manner that brings the left arm along behind it so that the putter head and face moves squarely down the line.

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
PuttingZone
http://puttingzone.com
Golf's most advanced and comprehensive putting instruction.

Over 555,000 visits and growing strong ...