I spent about an hour on the putting green today [because I'm looking for a new putter] using an Odyssey DFX 2 Ball Blade putter. I pulled around 90% of my putts. I putt right handed, with left hand low, and just kept pulling most of my putts....even the ones less than 6'.

At least my distance control was better than normal. With my Scotty Cameron Pro Platinum Newport 2 Midslant and my Odyssey Rossie II I had been having major distance control issues - especially on fast greens.

I try to have a straight back and straight through stroke on my putts but find that on longer putts I typically end my stroke with the toe of the putter pointing towards the hole. I believe, even though I try to go straight back and straight through, I have a slight arc to my putting stroke.

My questions are:

1) What should/can I do to try and correct my tendency to pull my putts?

2) Does the pulling 'say' anything about what type of putter (ie: full shaft offset, half shaft offset, no offset, center shafted, etc.) I should be looking to purchase?

Thanks for any advice.

TBB

Dear TBB,

All golfers naturally pull the ball unless they learn how not to.

The cause of a pull is armsiness or handsiness or both combined. When the arms go further in the thru-stroke than the shoulderframe, the forearms tend to rotate shut, and this sends the putter path and face to the inside (pull). If the hands power the stroke, especially the rear hand, this hands senses loss of control as the handle moves to the other side of the body's midline in the thru-stroke and "holds on" and spoils the stroke with some "at the lap" pull action.

In your case, it could be one or both.

The basic cure is to slow down, leave the rear hand out of the stroke, casually send the lead shoulder and shoulder frame up to complete the thru-stroke without tension so the rear arm doesn't come racing across the belly independently, and keep the thumbs aimed down the putter handle the same orientation they start with at address. By "leaving" the hands as low as they start and not engaging the hands or forearm muscles, and powering the stroke casually with the shoulderframe, the hands end up being moved along a line above the toes that stays the same distance back from the putt line at all points in the stroke back and thru, assuming you move the shoulder frame in vertical or tilted plane. The feeling is that the hands are getting FARTHER from the enter of the feet both going back and then going forward as the stroke lengthens. In a pull, the putter head and hands want to stay closer to the feet than that, keeping close to some sort of arc like frightened chickens.

If you setup with the putter under a string line and make a stroke that is a vertical shoulderframe motion, the putter will stay right under the string and the sweetspot will rise to touch the string going back and going thru. The putter face will stay square all the way, as the hands are dead and stay on the parallel line off your thighs. Watch Phil Mickelson's follow-thru -- the putter stays aimed at the target, not toe-in to the inside. If you exaggerated a good follow-thru all the way until the putter shaft and lead arm were horizontal to the ground, the putter face would still be out over the line of the putt and the face of the putter level like a waiter's tray aimed at the sky. If you setup without a putter with palms together (no putter) hanging nicely beneath your neck, and made a stroke powered only by the shoulder frame, the hands would get moved into the thru-stroke like the rear hand slapping at the sky and the front hand backhanding the sky.

So, a pull is a little carelessness about this stuff. Try the form of the stroke in slow-mo until you see the problem with the arms and hands and how to quieten them out of the stroke.

The backstroke is not the big deal. You can putt straight with an arcing backstroke so long as you can get the sweetspot back to the line before impact, then keep it on line square into the down-stroke, and even if the sweetspot doesn't make it back to the line, if the putter face is simply square at impact and moving square, the ball can still roll straight (absent a grip looseness that permits face twist) without too much distance loss.

Cheers!


Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor

Geoff Mangum's PuttingZone
Golf's most advanced and comprehensive putting instruction.


Over 740,000 visits and growing strong ...


518 Woodlawn Ave
Greensboro NC 27401
336.230.0612 home
336.402.1602 cell

Dear TBB,

Forgot to address the 2nd Question.

Really, the putter is not usually the problem in pulls. While it is true that a center-shafted face-balanced putter tends not to have much or any "toe-flow" (as Scotty Cameron seems to call it), whereas a heel-shafted 45-degree hanger probably has some, this "toe-flow" is easily handled by steady grip pressure.

See Scotty Cameron's remarks on toe-flow.

Golfers who try to tune some "toe-flow" into their stroke on purpose strike me as serious misguided on optimal putting. This arcing of the putter is ON TOP of whatever arcing the golfer is causing by his sort of body motion, so why would he just add a layer of stuff to keep up with? Nutty, I say.

A tilted stroke plane with the shoulder stroke is actually a straight-back, straight-thru stroke, although most people mistakenly believe this is an arcing stroke. "Toe-flow" for this stroke is pure-T nuts. No help -- all hurt.

A real arcing stroke has some pivot wandering in the stroke, where the torso as a whole gets carried with the shoulderframe. You really want the center of your torso uninvolved with the stroke. But lots of golfers don't know how to make a stroke without this real arcing or gating of the putter head and body, similar to what happens with the torso in a full swing where power is the key issue. The "toe-flow" of a putter design is supposed to help get the arcing-open putter closed back to square coming into impact. That basically admits that the golfer can't get the putter square by his stroke movement technique. It's also a dumb thing to rely on to bandaid the flawed stroke motion, because the timing and degree of "toe-flow" varies with putter design, grip pressure, stroke length, stroke tempo and the golfer's ability to feel what's needed in his hands etc. Sure, right.

"Toe-flow" as an approach to optimal putting is just one of the many oddities left in the dustbin of history that golfers would be much better never hearing about again.

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
Geoff Mangum's PuttingZone
Golf's most advanced and comprehensive putting instruction.

Over 740,000 visits and growing strong ...

518 Woodlawn Ave
Greensboro NC 27401
336.230.0612 home

Geoff,

First I want to say thank you for all the advice and help you gave me in your responses. You have helped me tremendously.

In reading your comments and advice, I have a couple more questions just to clarify the information as well as a couple comments I had after reading your information.

1) It seems that I get more "handsy" as the putts get longer. Is this typically?

2) Since I putt right handed with left hand low, should I leave my right (top) hand out of the putting stroke? {I wasn't sure if it would be different with left hand low}

3) Should the putter remain "square" to the target throughout the entire putting stroke {having little or no "toe-flow")?

To me, it seems that Phil's putter does remain square to the target, especially on his follow through (it seems that there is little to no motion after impact).

4) Would a face balanced mallet (ie: the DFX 2 Ball) help to illiminate "toe-flow"?

Thanks again for all your help. A poster at another board said you were the Putting Expert...and he was correct.

Benjamin

Dear Benjamin,

Let me go thru your questions in order:

1) It seems that I get more "handsy" as the putts get longer. Is this typical?

Yes -- it's caused by uncomfortable conflict building up as the front-side rib cage pokes down towards the hip and by the stretching of the side of the torso on the rear side (right for a right-hander). This prompts the golfer to stop trying to get back any further, at least with a shoulderframe turn -- so the golfer gets armsy for the balance of the backstroke or simply curtails the backstroke. It's best to keep from getting armsy or so armsy in these big long putts, and it's really not too hard to do. (And it's definitely a bad idea to use a curtailed backstroke -- that makes you jump at the ball to make up the difference and this queers distance control pretty good and most often causes the running of the ball way past the far target.)

If you have a nice slow tempo and accept your long stroke will stretch you a little and maybe turn your head off the starting point -- tipping forward as the rear shoulder rises -- the predicament of getting back to square when the putter shaft returns to vertical is not all that difficult. The trick here is to envision the pivot as a spot at the base of your neck, where the clavicles join the shoulders to the sternum. If this doorknob-style joint is kept in place although rotating during the stroke back and then down, the head can do what it likes. Just be sure to get back upright at the bottom of the stroke in the middle of the body / stance before the down-and-thru stroke gets to the ball. If the pivot remains vertically aligned with the bottom of the stroke, these big strokes can proceed in a very relaxed manner that does not feel nearly as challenging as it does when the golfer is tight and fearful of the rib-hip conflict. You have more change in your lower back for these big strokes, and that won't feel "easy" to golfers used to the usual way to put (which unconsciously avoids the rib-hip conflict by allowing the whole torso to twist back as the putter goes to the top of the backstroke). The more you stay down in the setup in these big strokes and stay relaxed, the less the putter and torso twist to the inside.

2) Since I putt right handed with left hand low, should I leave my right (top) hand out of the putting stroke? {I wasn't sure if it would be different with left hand low}

Yes. Having the right hand higher than the left promotes a tilting of the shoulder frame front-side or target-side down a bit at address and this delofts the putter, a shifting of the bottom of the stroke a wee bit forward, and a hitting down on the back of the ball. The word "promotes" is used advisedly, because good use of left-hand-low putting counters these tendencies. The main feature of left-hand-low is not the lowness of the left hand compared to the right, but the fact that the left arm hangs fully and the left hand is the controlling hand for direction. This only gets you halfway to good use of left-hand-low. The rest of the way is to use the left shoulder (lead shoulder) to power the thru-stroke. The right hand's being high is not really a functional part of the style. If you simply let the left arm hang and used the left hand as the main hand on the handle for controlling the squareness of the putter face during the stroke (e.g., back of left hand mirrors putter face orientation), and powered the thru-stroke with the lead shoulder rising, the right hand ought to just ride along in a supporting role. Given this, you might as well let the right arm hang naturally down as well and just fit the right hand onto the grip over or around the left somehow and don't sweat it.

I've created a grip that I call the Two Pisteleros grip -- point the index of both hands with the thumbs up like gun hammers, open the other three fingers of each hand so they point sideways towards the opposite hand, then slide the right bottom fingers over the far side of the left hand's lower fingers, but one-half a finger higher so the right fingers sit in the valleys made by the other three fingers, right second finger highest of the group. If you fit the handle into this grip so the handle edge to the front side fits into the lifeline of the left palm, you have a natural, relaxed grip that functions properly with both arms hanging relaxed, the left in control, the right kept out of control, and the shoulder frame not tilted off level at the start.

In contrast, if you leave the right hand high, it gets fully seated on the handle, rather than on the left hand beneath it, and the right elbow starts crooked. Having the palm and fingers of the right hand on the handle conflicts with the left-hand control and confuses the issue. It invites using the right hand to power something, and the right hand is pushing a donkey-cart from the rear, when you need to pull the cart from the front of the donkey. The elbow starting crooked is also bad, because it invites the right elbow to straighten and "shove" or "push" the putter thru the ball, when the putter head needs to rise past the bottom of the stroke into the ball and get cast down the line with the pivot staying still as the putter head moves away straight on line. People who successfully use a push stroke have to be very careful about setting the right elbow and aiming the hand during the push for consistency and accuracy. The "claw" grip and it's variants is in effect a way to isolate the influence of the right hand and to prevent it from promoting a pull action by converting it into a push action or by transferring power to the left side. It's better just to lift the lead shoulder so the putter head casts straight down the line as it rises a little.

Another trick to get the right hand neutral(ized) in the stroke is to lighten up the right thumb pressure. The right thumb is the key ingredient in tool use grips and power grips (screw-driver use, hammer use). Lightening the thumb of this hand "neuters" the right hand's power and control tendencies, and that helps to see this at least in practice. The awareness of how the right hand can jump into the act and mess up the stroke helps you stay out of trouble and prefer the other feelings of a shoulder-powered, dead-hands stroke feeling.

3) Should the putter remain "square" to the target throughout the entire putting stroke {having little or no "toe-flow")?

Yes, but a little inside going back is not that big of a deal. The trick is to focus on getting back to a good position headed into impact as the shoulders get closer to leveling out, so that the forward or thru-stroke gets nice and square and the stroke transitions from down to up right on the spot of the exact bottom of the stroke, with the pivot rotating in place right there. This ends up being a matter of not letting the hands get closer to the line of the putt going back or coming forward. If the hands get farther back from this line going to the top of the backstroke, as the stroke gets a little inside, that's okay -- just don't overreact and move the hands too far forward coming down. Keep the hands from getting out any farther than they were when at address. This "feels" a little like the hands are sweeping in close to the thighs in the middle section of the thru-stroke, but really they are staying on line. That's because the "line" (of the hands, which is parallel to the putt's line) has the hands getting farther from the thighs as the backstroke gets longer, nearer the thighs coming down to the bottom of the stroke, and then getting farther from the thighs as the hands move down the paralel line in the thru-stroke. But it's just a feeling, not reality. Really, the shoulder action moves the hands on a parallel line -- it just feels curved in towards the thighs. If you set up with the toe of a putter near but not touching a baseboard and make a big backstroke and pause and then try to just drop the stroke straight thru, the hands will feel like they drop close to the thighs. Keeping the stroke straight and the toe of the putter a constant distance off the baseboard feels like the hands move out away from the thighs. But they don't.

So if the putter cand hands come a little inside going back, you have to bring the hands and putter forward in the first part of the downstroke to get back to a squared torso facing straight ahead -- just don't over do it, and once you're back to square, stop resquaring the torso and just think about extending the putter head straight thru impact and down the line. In other words, the important part for accuracy is in the down-and-thru stroke from the bottom of the stroke arc forward, and not really the backstroke or even the first half of the downstroke. If you get unsquare going back, just resquare, but after that, always always go forward straight and square with the putter starting to rise right in the middle of the stroke arc and the stance.

4) Would a face balanced mallet (ie: the DFX 2 Ball) help to eliminate "toe-flow"?

Yes.

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
Geoff Mangum's PuttingZone
Golf's most advanced and comprehensive putting instruction.

Over 740,000 visits and growing strong ...

518 Woodlawn Ave
Greensboro NC 27401
336.230.0612 home

Geoff,

THANK YOU for all your help and insight. It has helped me more than you'll know. I'm going to try A LOT of the things you've mentioned over the next two weeks. I think I'll have more confidence in my putting using the techniques you mention.

1 Last Question:

Would a Heel Shaft or a Center Shafted putter work better with the putting stroke you've described or is that basically a personal preference?

Thanks again for all your help. I am extremely happy that I've found your website.

Benjamin
Hickory, North Carolina

Dear Benjamin,

A center-shafted, face-balanced putter works best with a shoulder stroke.

While it is true that a heel-shafted putter may be face-balanced, and also may have its "toe-flow" tendencies controlled pretty effectively by simply maintaining constant grip pressure (especially directed between thumbs and last three fingers of the hands), it is also true that the reason putters were ever heel-shafted to begin with is mostly attributable to the historical devlopment of the putter as just one of the regular clubs. Initially, there was no green specially prepared for putting, and the hole was just located in the fairway and the puttter was just another wooden headed club with a little loft.



Forgan Putter

Later, as greens became more separate and specially prepared, and with the advent of steel shafts and steel headed putters around the beginning of the last century, putters started being designed with center-shafting.



Chicopee #1301 Putter

The Schenectady putter used by Walter Travis in 1904 to become the first non-British player to win the British Amateur was one such "high-tech" putter (although not quite center-shafted), and its introduction to the game was resented.



Schenectady Putter

The R&A rulemakers later deemed this and similar putters illegal on the ground that the putter design was too similar to croquet equipment, and the ban stood until the 1950s. (The USGA did not follow suit on this.) Karsten Solheim's original Ping in 1959 was a center-shafted putter.



1959 Ping 1-A

The current trend is towards center-shafted, face-balanced putters, whether in a traditional flange design, or in a mallet or big-head high-MOI design.

TRADITIONAL



Chuck Todd's American Putter, now the SeeMore Innovation Putter



Ping G2i and C67 Center-shafted Putters


MALLETS



Taylormade TPi 27 Center-shafted Mallet



Nickent SS06 Center-shafted Mallet



Ray Cook Center-shafted M1 Mallet



Even Scotty Cameron is getting on this bandwagon with his Red X 2:



Scotty cameron Red X 2

BIG-HEADS




Railgun Center-shafted Big-head Putter




Reeso Putter



Macgregor Bobby Grace V-Foil 14K Long Putter

Phil Mickelson alternates between an old Wilson 8802-style heel-shafted blade made by Scotty Cameron (similar to his old Yonex blade on the same design lines) and the Futura, depending upon whether he "feels" more of a need for "toe-flow" or not in his stroke. I don't really recommend that as a basic approach. pros tend to be more ad hoc than other golfers, because the tournaments just keep coming.



In the final analysis, either sort of putter CAN be used effectively. making the distinction between the two sorts for purposes of deciding which is optimal in general probably comes down to an issue of simplicity (center-shafted) versus less simplicity (heel-shafted). When there is a difference between where the hosel is at impact and where the sweetspot is at impact, I view that as an unnecessary complication of the matter. But, hey, for any given individual, what's the general rule may well not apply.

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
Geoff Mangum's PuttingZone
Golf's most advanced and comprehensive putting instruction.

Over 740,000 visits and growing strong ...

518 Woodlawn Ave
Greensboro NC 27401
336.230.0612 home

Geoff,

Again, I want to say thank you.

I went out to the putting green today and worked on my putting using several things you mentioned in this post and I'm amazed at how much better I'm putting.

My pull has left (for the most part) my putting and my distance control is SO much better - - - from all distances!!! I used many of the things you advised as well as slowed down my take away and follow through speed.

Thank you so much for your help. It has saved me at least the $140 that I was going to spend on a new putter...and then my problem would still not have been solved.

Thanks again for all your help!!!!

Benjamin

PS: do ya know anything about hybrid clubs Now that I have that 'extra' $140, I'm going to get a Hogan hybrid to replace my 21* 3 iron...I have the 19* hybrid and can't decide whether to get the 21* or the 24* hybrid to replace it Just kidding....thanks for your help!!!