geoff

i'm writing to give you a progress report, and to ask a question. first the report.

i visited you last year for a 5 hour session. although i thoroughly enjoyed myself and found your presentation fascinating, i was skeptical about the results i might achieve. now that i have given the system enough time to be "statistically significant," i can say that i am very pleased and impressed. although i keep statistics somewhat sporadically, i would say that my average putts per round have decreased by about 4 to 6 (i was logging 36-40 putts per round before, and multiple times that i have checked since the number has been around 32-34). much more obvious however is the fact that i am making many more long and medium length putts than i used to, as well as leaving many more long lag putts within tap in range.

perhaps the most amazing aspect of this is that i have not really practiced your system that much, certainly nowhere near the extent of practice time that i logged with the pelz system and others.

last saturday's round was a good example of what i now experience when i play. i made my worst lag putt of the day going for birdie down a steep breaking slope on #8, but then made the 10 footer coming back for par. on #9 i made a 50' birdie putt with about 15' of break. on #18 i had about 60' to the hole from just off the green, and put the ball within a foot for tap in par. i'm not claiming that i can do that kind of stuff at will, but it happens often enough that it really adds fun to the round.

thank you very much for helping me achieve this!

now, the question. i still have relatively worse results with short putts. saturday was an exceptional day for me as far as ball striking, and i had 5 putts in a row for par on the back 9 that were 6' or under and i missed all of them. i don't expect to make them all, but i am missing more short ones than i believe that i should. if you have any advice i'd love to hear it. two clues: i seem to miss the majority to the right, and on the last one i missed saturday i was really trying to pay attention to what was going on with the stroke and it felt like the putter wobbled a bit going back. this made me wonder if i'm taking too much backstroke on the short ones, but before i diddle around with anything i wanted to ask your advice on what you think may be going on and what, if anything, to do about it.

thanks very much for your time!

tom milton
asheville, nc

Dear Tom,

Go ahead and tighten your grip a smidgen and also your general arm muscle tone but stay focused on the straightness of the movement of the putter face thru impact and a little past.

Use the Don Pooley drill I describe in the Practice>Drills for Skills section of MyTips on the website starting about 3-4 feet out with a straight putt and then move back to about 5 feet. Make a dozen or more putts this way, then remove the Don Pooley "gate" and make the putts au naturel with the same sort of movement the "gate" teaches.

Missing to the right is an ambiguous diagnostic sign but often means that when you setup and then look from ball to target, you shift the top of your head back and this rotates the base of your neck off line to the right / outside for a right-hander. The putt then follows the base of the neck, regardless of where the eyes say the putt "should" go. So pay a little attention to setting your eyes so the line across the eyes matches the line of the putt. This "skull line" or "eye line" (as some call it) includes permanent bone features in the skull -- top of ears, temples, outside corners of eye sockets, inside corners of eye sockets, bridge of nose -- and also includes the pupils of the eyeballs, but only when the eyeballs are aimed / gazing straight out of the face to match this skull line. If you set the skull line to match the putt line, this sets the base of the neck square to the putt and also sets the shoulders square or parallel to the putt. When you pull the trigger, this should not have gotten changed off line by looking to the target.



If missing these putts is really a touch issue, then tightening the arms and grip a little will translate into a shorter stroke that would leave the putt short if you don't increase your tempo. So a tighter, quicker stroke is the desired combination. Even so, still just move ONLY the lead shoulder socket, just a shorter motion and a quicker motion, but still straight down and back along the balls of the feet, and back to level and up further and back a little. A nice one-two count as you putt will probably help.

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor

Geoff Mangum's PuttingZone
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geoff

thanks very much for the info. i'll definitly give it a try.

played last weekend with 31 putts, 2 for birdie with one being about 8 feet downhill with a foot break right to left. i'm very pleased that i invested the time and money to work with you. i think you need to do a book or instructional video series except that i don't want the guys i bet with to see it!

thanks again!

tom