Jeff, if I ever complain again about pulling putts just remind me to keep my head still on the downswing. It only takes a minute head movement to pull a putt out of the hole. I recently went through a period of not pulling the ball, concentrating on watching the spot where the ball was until the ball reached the hole. It is the hardest thing I have ever done in golf, but I putt well when I do it. I stopped and began to pull putts again. It is difficult to remain on the spot after the putt but essential in my stroke.

Wade

Dear Wade,

When the head moves in the putting downstroke, I think there are at least two separate problems causing a pull that both involve head motion. These two causes need to be attended to separately in your technique.

First, the eyes may start to look towards the hole to follow the ball as it begins its roll out of the setup or to get ready to see the result. This looking towards the target side is an imperfect rotation of the head on its axis that casually involves the base of the neck coming out of plane open, and this carries the shoulder frame open. The shoulder frame normally mirrors the orientation of the base of the neck.

So cure #1 is don't look, but if you look anyway, don't let the looking alter the shoulder frame orientation by making sure any head turn is rotating cleanly on a stable axis from the base of the neck out the top of the head that does not itself move or shift, and simply roattes in place.

Second, the swinging of the arms carries the torso targetward with the weight of the arms moving. Since the pivot of the stroke is located at the base of the neck near the clavicle below the Adams apple, the lateral shift of the torso carries with it the pivot of the stroke towards the target. This would be okay (no pulling action introduced) so long as the line of torso motion kept parallel to the putt line. And it could and would if the targetward forces of the arms swing were "managed" inside the plane of motion of the shoulder frame motion. That would move the pivot laterally on a path that did not diverge off a parallel track with the putt. (A "hip putt" is a lateral shifting of the pelvis targetward parallel to the putt line that carries the putter head straight at the target. A pelvis shift laterally obviously carries the base of the neck with it, so a mere shifting of this location of the body during the stroke is not itself the reason for the pull.) The pull comes about when the forces of the arm swing shove the pivot backwards out of the plane of the parallel shoulder frame action. This twists the shoulder frame open, and causes a pull. The reason the forces of the arm swing do this is because in the thru-stroke the putter head is rising past the bottom of the stroke and the "triangle" shape of the setup needs for the top apex of the triangle on the target side (the left shoulder for a right-hander) to rise above level but, while the raised right shoulder at the top of the back-stroke will surely return to level in the downstroke by gravity, the momentum of the stroke is not itself sufficient to carry the left shoulder up past level in the thru-stroke -- so the momentum of the arms gets resisted by the bodt structure and tissues like a round rock in a stream -- and the flow of the stroke takes the easy way around this blockage, which is a collapsing back of the left shoulder to absorb the forces of the stroke. Again, the shoulder frame opens and you get a pull.

Cure #2 is to minimize the forces of the arms in the stroke by using a nice smooth tempo with good transitions, keep the triangle stable with a steady mild muscle tone that does not change, prefer no independent arm action apart from the movement of the shoulder frame so the triangle shape does not collapse or "flap" going forward, and aim to manage the forward momentum of the body parts in the thru-stroke so that the left shoulder moves vertically up and not back. This presupposes a shoulder stroke in which the plane of motion is vertical. In the case of a tilted stroke plane, the idea is all the same except that the rising of the left shoulder needs to be managed so it remains in the plane and is not forced backwards behind the plane. Fundamentally, it is the forward momentum of the arms in the triangle that tends to twist the plane of shoulder frame action open, so it is something that needs to be "managed" by the technique of the stroke. So far as the head is concerned, the forces of the arms simply move the head with the twisting of the shoulder frame, and it is not really the movement of the head that the golfer did.

If you have some independent action of the arms in your stroke, then the left arm pit would be widening open in the thru-stroke, as the arms move more than the shoulder frame. To keep the forward momentum of the arms from twisting the stroke action out of plane, you have to have the arm pit opening in a fashion that directs the lead elbow away from the lead hip on a path parallel to the putt line and the orientation of the shoulder frame. This is artificial and requires maintaing the same steady-state muscle tone to the end of the stroke in the arms. If you get too relaxed right after impact, then the stroke seems to "quit" and the hands start to drop towards the thighs and the shoulder frame opens a little. This might not always harm the stroke so long as it does not occur until well after impact is complete, but golfers are so trained to feel the impact, that this impact vibration tends to serve as an "all-clear" signal to the golfer allowing relaxation but the signal is premature. In either an armsy stroke or a shoulder in-plane stroke, it is necessary to "finish" the stroke and not relax the action in a quit too soon. My sense of impact duration is that it requires continuing the stroke action into a finish that gets the putter head square thru the back of the ball and another three or so inches past the front of the ball before the "all-clear" signal can safely be heeded.

All this is entirely separate from pulls caused by an out-to-in stroke path.

Here are some head-steadying tips and drills:

1. Tie a weight of some sort on a string and hold the string in your teeth when putting so the weight remains stock still below your face during the putt. Anything flexible might serve, like a belt or a necklace chain.

2. Putt with your eyes closed, so looking is not an option.

3. Setup next to a doorframe in the house so your lead soulder is nect to the wall and the shoulder frame is aimed into the wall, but the putter's heel would just swing clear of the door jamb thru the doorway. Make stroke so that the heel of the putter does not come inside in the thru-stroke but stays clear of the edge of the door jamb. Whether you have a pure in-plane shoulder stroke or an armsy stroke, see that all four knuckles or the full back of the lead hand meets the door jamb flush and square all at once, moving along a trajectory that stays parallel to the putt path.

4. Have a small gap between the putter face and back of ball at address so you can identify one blade of grass on the line between the putter's sweetspot and the dimple on the back of the ball for impact, and simply look or gaze steadily at this blade of grass the whole time the stroke is in progress.

5. Putt while looking at a spot on the ground a few inches in front of the ball on the line of the putt, so the head is turned slightly and the base of the neck is stabilized in that square orientation.

6. Take an old pair of glasses or some of the plastic work goggles that sell for $1 and draw a plus sign on the lense that intersects at your "aim spot" or where your pupil looks straight out of the face thru the lense on the dominant-eye side. Make a matching plus sign on a small card and place this card directly behind the ball so that the left-right line of the plus sign matches the putt line and points sqaurely into the back of the ball. When looking down thru the goggles, then, the plus sign on the goggles or glasses should be held to match the plus sign on the ground. Then during the stroke it is a lot easier to detect whether your head is moving.

7. Place a dime under the ball and wait to look at the dime after the ball is sent on its way.

8. In the downstroke, read the label on the golf ball in your head and silently (or not) say the name of the logo to yourself while the stroke goes to completion.

Finally, there is the issue of whether the body's center of gravity in the gut is wandering about during the stroke. The body COG at address is basically between the hips, up a little, and back in the gut a little. If the forces of the stroke are not very smooth in comparison to the stability of the base of the stance, the COG can wander about in the stroke going back and then coiming forward. If the COG shifts inappropriately in the thru-stroke, the changing pelvis orientation can alter the orientation of everything above it, specifically the torso and shoulder frame. This COG motion can obviously be accommodated artfully and accurately as it is in the full swing, and great putters like Crenshaw have learned to manage this COG action with a subtle knee reactivity.

The two basic plans for this are either no COG motion or symmetric and laterally-managed accommodation of the COG motion. The way to quiten COG motion is to widen the base of the stance in the direction of equalizing pressure in both feet. Harold Swash describes this as standing like the Eiffel Tower. Padraig Harrington's stance for this purpose is as waide as his driver stance, that is, a little wider than the width of his shoulders. The Crenshaw-style management of the COG motion is to artfully keep the COG trajectory on an arc that mirrors the force-path of the arms and putter going back and then going forward. Basically, the forces of the stroke arcing back and forward are allowed to move the COG in a natural reaction that tells in changing muscle tone in the thighs and subtle changes in the knees, as in the full swing. This is a delicate skill that is more like Fred Astaire's style than a mechanical technique, but fundamentally anyone can learn it if they want to put in the time.

I hope this helps.

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
PuttingZone.com
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Dear Wade,

I forgot three other good tips.

1. Point your nose at a spot on the ground and keep it pointed there during the stroke. Pointing the nose controls the head, regardless of what the eyes are doing, and controlling the head keeps the base of the neck and hence the shoulder frame square.

2. Don't care about the target. This is a little tricky to understand, but it is really concern for "where is the target" plus "where is this putt stroke going to roll the ball" at the time the stroke is made that generates an impulse to look and move the head and shoulders before the stroke is finished. My approach is to commit firmly to the belief that the target is where you have aimed the putter face, so you KNOW where the target is by looking at the putter face-ball setup relationship, plus to commit solely to the idea that only a straight stroke is a good stroke and a straight stroke by definition alaways rolls the ball straight away from the putter face as aimed. looking down at the ball and putter at setup, then, there is no concern for "where is the target"or "where will this ball be sent by my stroke" since EVERY SINGLE PUTT IS ALWAYS EXACTLY THE SAME PHYSICAL ACTION AND ALWAYS LOOKS THE SAME AT YOUR FEET, except some strokes are longer than others but with the same tempo. This is why, once the face is aimed, you can putt without eyes, blind, eyes shut, or blindfolded, or looking off to the distance somewhere. There simply is no reason or need or implse to look and never should be. Taking care of the business at your feet may be done with or without the eyes, but it is only the business at your feet that can possibly matter to a successful putt. So aim well, but once the aim has been settled, forget the target and make the same repeating stroke action you make for every putt in your life.

3. Block your view of the target. You can keep your eyes open looking down at the business of the putt at your feet while also blocking any possible view of the target. This can be done by having a friend stand down the line several feet between you and the target with feet apart, so the firend's upper body blocks any view of the target even if you tuurn the head and look. Just putt the ball between the friend's legs by taking care of the business at your feet. Another way is to suspend some sort of flag or board or drape down the left (target) side of the face -- possibly from your ear or from a cap -- so that the object prevents vision to that side while allowing vision straight down. A friend of mine has designed a funky looking strip of cardboard that hangs from the left ear like a do-not-disturb sign for a motel door, and this not only blocks looking left but also provides by the stillness or moving of the lowest edge of the strip an indicator of whether his head is remaining still.

Cheers!

Geoff

Geoff, thanks for the tips. My thought yesterday was related to the long shuffleboard table technique of looking down at the end of the board nearest and sliding the puck to the far end of the board. I putted well, 28 putts, no three putts and a some long ones. It is still difficult to not look after the ball, especially on the short ones, but success is a great motivator.