OK Geoff, I need your help, . . BAD!

History: I was a very good putter, wanted to be great, got David's putting bible and through the changes I tried to make [taking the putter straight back and through, lost my putting totally with the yips coming in. Then I tired and re-tried everything. Left hand low, long, belly, left-handed, left long, left belly, . . need I say more. It wasn’t until I watched Stan Utley on TGC in 2003 that I suddenly realized I had become very controlling and there was no natural flow to my stroke, no release. So the next morning I went to the green and it was almost magic, felt so much more natural, BUT, it is a work in progress. And I mean work. I work at it almost every day, both indoor and outdoor, with the latter being 2 hours plus. But the rate of improvement has been painfully slow, and it’s not because of lack of effort. It took me a long time to get some of the hitches out of my stroke, from flipping my wrist, to changing the spacing in my triangle. One of the problems is I think I ‘found’ something different, usually something very small, like the feeling of the face being a little closed going back or locking the triangle or whatever. That works for that day amazing well, or maybe the next, but then that stops and the flaws creep back. Then I search for something else, find it and the cycle begins. Over time, it has improved, and I have gone from 3 putting 3 or 4 times a round, to about 36 putts and the occasional 3 putt, to some rounds with 27 – 28 putts and one three put.

Most recently I have been playing with the gravity drop, trying to get something a little more natural that will work under pressure. At first, I got great results from it, but this seemed to fade and I reverted to more of a tempo theme and try to move the triangle at a consistent pace, although with much less fluidity than I would like. I am very good and fluid with only my left hand on the putter [I am left handed] but as soon as I put that right hand on it stiffens up and doesn’t flow nearly as naturally [I find the very same thing with chiping – I am actually better one handed than two]. I seem to hit up on the ball so that I think the putter is being hit closer to the bottom than the middle of the face. I also still hit some putts very short, some pulls left and generally some just not starting on the line I intended. I think this latter issue is where my problems all started, trouble hitting it on the line I intend, because if you can’t do that, regardless of your weight, you won’t sink puts of any length. And, without the confidence of hitting it on the line, I start ‘controlling’ the putter and there goes my weight. In addition, while sometimes I am pretty good at short putts [inside say 3 or 4 feet], a lot of times I don’t even hit the hole, again probably from not hitting it on the intended line which becomes more obvious with short putts. Part of my problem with shorter putts is I seem to be more focused on the stroke which then becomes very mechanical.

The funny thing with all of this is that I have often fooled around, both on the practice green and at home on the carpet. Most times I can putt better this way, from almost any style [some pretty ridiculous], often sinking 3 in a row time after time from 12 plus to 20 feet. So that tells me I have some ability, if I could just get out of the way.

Any suggestions of what to do, both indoors and outdoors. I am still prepared to put in the hours, whatever it takes [although it has already been 2 + years of long daily practice], I just need better results that I am getting now. My goal is that within 30 feet every putt at least scares the hole and I have no more than 18 inches left, preferably from the long side of the hole [so that all the putts at least get to the hole]. So to summarize, what I feel are the things I struggle with the most are:
• Hitting it on the line intended.
• Hitting it toward the bottom of the putter face
• Hitting it on the heal of the putter face
• Taking the putter outside going back and looping it. [This is strange because as soon as I move the putter back, it’s almost like it has a spring in it to make it immediately move outside the line as soon as it starts back.]
• Lifting the putter a little bit on the way back. When I become aware of it, and I keep it down, it almost feels like a stretch of the left arm going back.
• Struggling with a free flow of the swing back and through. I want it to feel as easy and natural as it does one handed.
• Hitting it very short [outside of 6 feet] from a distance of say 30 feet.

Long story I know, and you are probably thing, ‘Why is this guy not taking up tennis or something else’. The answer is it has become almost an obsession and I am determined to conquer this, some how.

Now I am sure you have covered off all the areas extensively in past posts, although I have read many [which are excellent by the way], but I thought if I put it all together, if might paint a picture for you that might lead you to a conclusion I have not yet made. After you have stopped laughing, any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I am currently putting with a Scotty Newport, with a conventional square set up and a standard reverse overall grip.

Not a problem! Just fire the whole Perfection Department and putt the ball into the hole!

Seriously, thanks for the detailed presentation. That's exactly what I need to help.

Let me respond to your list of problems, seriatim, even though these problems all have a common nucleus (which I hope emerges as I discuss these):

• Hitting it on the line intended.

All putts are straight. All putts are the same. Everytime you look down to the ball in your setup, the path of the putter (whatever yours is) and the line the ball rolls out of your stance (whatever that is) will always look identical every putt and the putter head and the ball both will pass out of your stance and setup over the same spot in front of the ball. In an Utley-style stroke, golfers expect this spot to be different (closer in to the feet) a few inches past the ball than the spot the ball is then passing over. I'm not sure this is really true if you take into account Utley's forward-press, and I bet there is a bit of a push action that results in the ball and the putter head BOTH staying on the same line for some minimal distance along the startline. The ball line and putter path are BOTH clearly the same with a vertical-plane stroke for a very appreciable length down the startline.

So my first recommendation is to get focused on how the body moves the putter from one or two inches before impact on the back of the ball until the putter head and the ball BOTH travel down the identical start line for a few inches. This means: 1. keep the pivot at the base of the neck from "following" the stroke across the midline of the body at address (the center or bottom or middle of the stroke); and 2. do not pull the putter head thru impact but instead move the lead shoulder out of the way vertically up. The second part is what many folks seem to label a "release" but can't describe what is happening with the body. The word "release" is kind of used to mean you are not doing anything to move -- you are "releasing" the stroke (not literally the putter) like a bird from the hand. That's sort of right and sort of not. Actually, you are not doing anything other than "riding" the ongoing stroke movement thru the bottom and then upwards a little. That means you are "getting out of the way" so as not to stifle the stroke as it heads up. That means the lead shoulder clears out of the way just a bitty bit ahead of the oncoming "triangle" as a whole swinging beneath the fixed crossbar of the swingset (which is the pivot and neck line held steady over the midline of the stroke). The "triangle" sweeps down fine and gets mostly thru impact but then hits resistance if the shoulder frame is inert (it doesn't naturally want to go up), so you have to KNOW HOW TO FINISH THE STROKE during impact. Hold still at the base of the neck and "release" the triangle as a whole by allowing and even directing the momentum of the swing up vertically into the lead shoulder. The stroke stays in a vertical plane for just a few inches. Then the bloomin' ball will roll straight, wherever the putter face was aimed at address.

To practice this, use two tee pegs or wooden skewer sticks aimed at the hole on a straight 6-footer so that the two stick are a little less apart than the width of a golf ball, back a ball up against the sticks on the target side so the butt of the ball protrudes behind the two "posts" of the sticks, and then setup with the putter face an inch or so back from the rearmost equator of the ball. The top edge of the putter face is the same as the middle / bottom of the stroke, so set the line of your neck (pivot at base of neck to point of chin) to match this putter face edge. Establish the front edge of the putter face as the symmetrical middle of what you are actually putting away from and back to with extreme symmetry and precision, with no concern for the ball (which just gets in the way). You should even reach down to the green with your finger and draw a line on the ground at the front of your putter face to indicate the space you are referencing in the stroke. Now start back to the top of your backstroke for this 6-footer. At the top of the backstroke, make sure that THEN the neck line "freezes" in place so it won't go forward with the stroke across the midline. Then, after "freezing" the neck line, "release" the triangle by allowing the hands to drop the arms as if the hands were big potatoes stuck on the ends of your forearm bones. The hands will drop wherever gravity wants them to drop, so you have to stay out of this action -- just drop them and watch what happens. The hands will stay low and propel the whole triangle right back to the mibline on the ground, arriving square and centered. (You may need a little schooling in proper setup so as not to mess this up, but just work at it until the hands drop the putter head back passiv ely to the address position without your involvement.) As the triangle swings down, holding the pivot and neck line stable like the top of a swing set REQUIRES than the stroke return the putter to square effortlessly. The only trick is not getting in a hurry to participate. Instead, just wait your turn to contribute, which is only to clear out of the way headed vertically up as the triangle and putter head swings thru impact. It takes PATIENCE and ASSUREDNESS. So practice and watch until you believe. The putter face will rise on a straight-line path square and solid into the back of the ball behind the two posts and then the putter face will contact both posts at the same time with the toe and with the heel of the putter face. Square, Solid. Straight.

So, the straight stroke rolls the ball wherever the putter is aimed at address by your body simply "putting from the top" -- freeze the neck line (only -- keep this action narrowly compartmentalized in the base of the neck without spreading tension into the shoulder frame out to the sides of the neck or into the chest as a whole -- yes, it's a trick), and "release" the triangle as a whole from the top of the backstroke, and "ride" the stroke down passively and patiently, and then finish it gracefully by keeping the upswing headed vertically into the position of the lead shoulder socket and not back inside to your rear.

Make a bunch of these strokes at the sticks and then remove the sticks and keep "putting the bottom not the ball." The reference is the midline of the body staying with the bottom line of the stroke where the putter face starts at setup.

Once you see this required dynamic thru this small impact range, you will not have to work so hard to keep the ball rolling straight all the time. You will see that the clearing up action of the triangle on the thru-side of the stroke requires the lead should to stay headed up vertically away from the balls of the lead foot, the rear shoulder to head down and under the neck line towards and along the line made by the balls of the feet, the hands to drop and swing along the toe line without you having to do anything, and the neck line staying in place over the bottom midline of the stroke on the the ground. The stroke practically makes itself once you start back, but you do have to learn the finish bit. Alll in a smooth tempo, not a steady speed of motion, but a symmetrical acceleration gradually down and then a deceleration gradually up. Coast to the top of the backstroke, swoop down and thru smoothly, coast to a stop at the top of the thru-stroke.

Sticking with the tempo coming down is the same as 1. putting with patience, 2. doing nothing but letting gravity's perfect timing handle this for you, 3. riding the stroke down, 4. reaching the exact bottom of the stroke without manipulation.

• Hitting it toward the bottom of the putter face

That's okay, don't sweat it. The real deal is that the impact point on the face is higher than the center of gravity in the putter head, and this is usually the case even if the impact point is below the middle of the face top to bottom, since the COG is even lower than that.

• Hitting it on the heal of the putter face

This is a takeaway problem. Starting the stroke back outside the line causes a re-0routing coming forward that delivers the putter head thru impact from in to out and with impact towards the heel. You need to rid yourself of the idea of moving the putter anywhere except back to the top of the backstroke -- not any movement coming down. To start the putter back, you also need to rid yourself of using the hands or arms to power the backstroke. Instead, push the triangle as a whole from the lead shoulder socket headed down. This makes it IMPOSSIBLE to send the putter head out beyond the line of the putt going back -- only a gross open alignment of the shoulders at address would result in that. If the shoulder alignment is square (parallel) to the aim of the putter face, then starting the stroke by shoving the lead shoulder down will send the putter either straight back on line or perhaps slightly back and inside. Never across the line, which is great. This shoulder start also makes the impulse back one that keeps the triangle intact, thus repressing independent arm and hand action (which causes forearm "rolling" or "rotation" back inside both ways.

• Taking the putter outside going back and looping it. [This is strange because as soon as I move the putter back, it’s almost like it has a spring in it to make it immediately move outside the line as soon as it starts back.]

See above.

• Lifting the putter a little bit on the way back. When I become aware of it, and I keep it down, it almost feels like a stretch of the left arm going back.

Yes, a shoulder stroke feels a bit like a stretch along the sides where the rear side of the ribcage lengthens going back as the shoulder frame drops and swings beneath the neck line, and then a reciprocal stretching feeling occurs going forward as the lead-side ribcage reaches vertically up and lengthens. Lifting the putter is using your forearms to start the stroke, and a very subtle next-to-impossible-to-notice in-folding of the elbow is what does the lifting. Keep the arms relaxed from shoulder thru elbows all the way thru the hands at address, and DON'T USE THESE BODY PARTS -- use the lead shoulder shoving the triangle. The "gut" and lower back muscles are the ones that shoulve the lead shoulder down and back, so the shoulder mucles and pecs and arm and hand muscles all stay relaxed thruought the stroke. The jargon is "soft" hands and arms, but the HOW-TO-DO-IT part is "use the guts".

• Struggling with a free flow of the swing back and through. I want it to feel as easy and natural as it does one handed.

Every true "swing" is free-flowing. So "let it" swing and quit "making as swing."

• Hitting it very short [outside of 6 feet] from a distance of say 30 feet.

Again, if you stick to the easy-flowing tempo, your putts will roll the ball farther than otherwise. The problem is in not "letting" the stroke take its course. That's because you're chicken. A chicken won't "release" control because he doesn't know what to expect, so he manages the stroke down and thru. This engenders tension and muscle activity where it's not wanted -- in the arms and hands. "Tension" is code for "short." If the putter and triangle were left free to drop and accelerate, the putter head would gather a nice head of steam right thru the bottom of the stroke. A chicken hangs on coming down and so "slows" the fall. A controlled stroke is a slower stroke than a free-fall stroke. Read that sentence again, please, as no one seems to believe it. A free-falling putter head at impact sends the ball farther than a controlled stroke, at least when the golfer is trying to use a tempo. If the golfer doesn't care, he can always just BUST the ball farther, but is he wants a coherent system of tempo and backstroke and targeting, he has to stick to a tempo. The best tempo is gravity, the one every human learns from birth and every waking moment of life. The problem comes from mixing and matching: a gravity tempo with a chicken controlling stroke or a controlling tempo with a loosey-goosey free-fall of the muscles. The middle ground is a gravity tempo with a set but generally mild muscle tone to keep the basic triangle shape intact with an experience and comfort with what is going to happen when you "release" the stroke as a unit from the top. Once you learn how to do it, then just get used to it.

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Coach
PuttingZone.com
http://puttingzone.com

Golf's most advanced and comprehensive putting instruction.

Geoff:

First, thank you for both responding so quickly as well as taking the time to provide a detailed reply, which is typical of your style. I know what you are saying is correct, but you also know that it is very difficult to totally let go of control and let the swing happen. I will try your suggestions, out of which I must say the potato one, is amazingly effective in creating the gravity speed the stroke requires.

Why is it that making the stroke is so much more difficult when you put the second hand on the club? I can putt very well, as can others, with both my left and right hand alone, yet add the other and it’s almost like someone threw chewing gum in the gears.

Thanks again,

The Putting Nut

Dear Nut,

In Tai-Chi, you learn that posture is related to energy and stability. Relaxed is stable, and flexed for reactivity is not. As humans develop, the classic reactive posture is the fetal position of arms cradled in against the chest. This is a defensive, protective posture, at least for humans outside the womb. I think it has to do with animals hiding from predators, really.

So, when you complete the chain of your hands in front of you near your chest, you are approximating a defensive posture. The relaxed posture is the upright, hand-up welcoming gesture that was sent into space as a symbol of humans to alien civilizations.

One hand on is casual. Two hands on is controlling out of fear. Great putters don't fear a damn thing! (Especially, they don't fear missing.)

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Coach and Theorist
PuttingZone.com
http://puttingzone.com>

Golf's most advanced and comprehensive putting instruction.