Geoff,
I recently found your website while in search of some putting help. I just want to say your doing a amazing job. There is just so much useful info on here that most instructors avoid teaching or just don't know. And in sifting through your site I have found a great deal of information on the great Bobby Locke's putting technique. He has quickly become my idol. But what I am confused about is his hooding technique. I am under the impression that he would swing the blade with a closed face inside his aimline, then swing through the ball with the putter face still closed, in an inside to outside motion to impart topspin. But when I try this method I feel as if I either push the ball right or it is yanked left. Can you clarify this technique? what is it about this stroke that worked so well for Mr. Locke, what can I take from his stroke to help my own? And do you think this technique would hold up on greens the speed of which the PGA tour plays on today?

hope you can help.

steve

Dear Steve,

Welcome to the PuttingZone! Nice question.

The key to understanding Bobby Locke's stroke is the line he draws the putter back along (the verb tense here is the "eternal present," suitable for the immortals of golf). He sets up with the putter aimed square down the line at the target with a narrow stance but with his right foot drawn back from the line about 3 inches. His feet are still aimed perpendicularly into the putt line, though. This slightly "closes" his hips to the line of the putt, but he keeps his shoulders square. He then draws the putter back along the line of his toes (and hips). The "hooding" is the keeping of the putter face aim unaltered during the backstroke by a counterclockwise rotation of the wrists as the backstroke progresses.



Locke's narrow, closed stance with feet straight at the line.

Once he reaches the top of the backstroke, he fixes the wrists and then redelivers the putter along the line of the feet into the ball on a slight inside-to-out path (perhaps something like the 6:30 to 12:30 line on a clockface centered at the ball). However, right at the bottom of his stroke just before contact with the ball, Locke starts the putter head upward into impact and extends the putter head straight down the line. This whole forward-stroke action is basically a movement of the right shoulder out towards the line and forward until the bottom of the stroke in the middle of the stance, at which point the shoulders have rotated counterclockwise above the closed stance (feet and hips) to re-square to the line of the putt, and then a transition to a movement of the lead shoulder upward to cast the putter head straight down the line right at the critical section during impact.



In the above animation, the face-on view makes it difficult to see the shoulder action. It wold be nice to have a view from above Locke's head, showing the outward action of the right shoulder to where the shoulders square to the line. As it is, you can still see this action by carefully watching his cap, which rotates right-side forward with the shoulders.



This photo above shows how in the forward stroke Locke's shoulders return to square and the putter face is also square to the line of the putt (as it was when it started). Note that the putter face line from heel to toe is the same as the alignment of his left foot. So, square the left foot up to the line, draw the right foot back 3 inches or so to close the stance while leaving the shoulders square, draw the putter back along the toe line while keeping the face aimed as it is at the start, freeze the wrists at the top of the backstroke, move the right shoulder to redeliver the putter back down the toe line and to re-square the shoulders, and transition to an up-stroke once the shoulders re-square.

By setting up with shoulders closed to the line, Locke makes it very hard (practically impossible) to pull the putter across the ball to the inside, so his only real problem is avoiding a push. This he accomplishes by the consistency of shoulders-arms coordination so that a) the sweetspot of the square putter stays on the line of the toes (doesn't come inside the line or run across the line to the outside), and b) he always transitions right smack at the bottom of the stroke before impact.

The stroke is just fine on today's greens, if you can stay relaxed enough. Locke learned his craft on some near-perfect greens in South Africa, and he always remarked that a master putter could not really reach the highest levels of his craft unless he worked on extremely fine greens. but then ocke was notoriously unperturbable, and was always as calm as a daisy in summer on the golf course. There is probably something about Locke's body and his personality that suits him better than most to his particular technique, so if it doesn't work for you as well as it did for Locke, you probably shouldn't fault the technique per se.

I hope this helps.

Cheers!

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

Over 845,000 visits and growing strong ...

518 Woodlawn Ave
Greensboro NC 27401
336.230.0612 home

Boy I wish I could write like you Geoff
That is the best description of Bobbys putting stoke i have ever come across.
When he came to England to visit the Dulop Slazenger factory he used to stay near to our house.
My dad used to make all his clubs.
He came to visit us when i was about 6 years old, my mum was very embarrased because all we had in the house was a tin of SPAM.
She asked if that would be ok, he said not a problem and ate the sandwiches.
He told my mum they were the nicest sandwiches he had tasted and as he was leaving gave her a £10 note to say thankyou. My mum didnt want to take it but he insisted
What a Gentleman
There are many stories and i hope no one minds me adding this, it took me back a few years

Mr. Womersley: I, for one, appreciate your wonderful story. Like the gentleman that posed the original question, there are many of us who are interested in Mr. Locke's method and his outstanding career. For us, any bit of information, especially first hand, is like gold. It's funny, but when Mr. Locke was in the U. S. dominating the tour for a short period of time, he was known as being extremely tight with money. Your story would seem to lend credence to the contrary. Thank you again for sharing your story.

We are but humble students. One of my first golf books was "Bobby Locke on Golf" given to me by my grandmother who brought the book back from South Africa when visiting her brother. I was 13 years old and had no idea who this man was, or that he is, arguably, the best putter ever. I mimicked Mr. Locke's stroke and description, although alot of what he actually does was not indicated in the text and it was difficult to tell from the face on photographs. And I never saw a film clip of him stroking a putt until about 20 years later. I did exactly what he wrote to do, and I still have the loopy, occasionally effective, stroke to this day. Looking at the films of Mr. Locke's stroke, it actually looks pretty wristy, or handsy in some film clips, while it looks exactly as you describe in others. What I mean is that it actually looks as if he uncocks his wrists on the forward stroke instead of keeping them "frozen". In addition, I have noticed on most short putts that he doesn't really follow through at all, with the blade stopping right after he strikes the ball. Gary Player describes this in a part of his appearance on "Playing Lessons From the Pros" on the Golf Channel where he does an impression of Mr. Locke's stroke on a short putt. For me, trying to figure out what Mr. Locke actually does is kind of like playing films of Mr. Hogan frame by frame. Or the Zapruder film of the JFK assassination, if you like. I think that what we may be left with, in my humble opinion, is that what made Mr. Locke a great putter had little to do with his stroke mechanics and alot to do with his ability to concentrate, read greens, and keep himself under control, as you pointed out. Thank you again for the description, and if you want a laugh, please picture Steve and myself with your post up on our computers and putters in hand going, "Let's see now, back to the inside and closed then rotate the shoulders out and forward....." Thanks again.

Dear Geoff,

Please include me in the picture, as I try out what I suppose Bobby Locke's stroke to have been quite frequently on the practice green!

I agree that he probably had more than one technique, but his mainstay technique was typically a longish, flowing stroke. I would encourage you to read what Dick Mayer recounts, as he quotes Locke extensively.

Here's a great photo of Gary Player and Bobby Locke together, right at the point in history when Player was taking over the reins as the king of South African golf, 1957.



Cheers!

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

Over 850,000 visits and growing strong ...

518 Woodlawn Ave
Greensboro NC 27401
336.230.0612 home