Geoff,

Let me say I love your website. It is by far the most informative resource for putting.

I have been working very hard on my putting as I am a +1 handicap who is averaging 32 putts per round. Most par 5's are two putts for birdie as I have plenty of distance to spare. Misses are usually short and a touch left. I play in tournaments at least 2 times per month year round (have to love living in South Florida).

Some more info, my height is 6' 4" and my putters are currently at 33". My hands hang 27" from the floor and I play the ball 7 3/4" out from my toes. I tried the 32.1" but it just felt a little too short so that's where the 33" came from. The 33" is measured from the sweet spot (center of the face) to the top of the grip.

Anyway now to the question, after seeing the lie angle concept of using the notch on the 'Two-Bar' putter I started messing around with some old putters by drawing a line on the top of the putter or on the flange (depending where the alignment aid was on the head) and quickly realized some of these putters had lie angles that were way too upright. Out to the garage to start bending away. Get all of the lines on the putters to 'line up' and have this verified by two other methods. First by a small bubble level taped to the top of the putter and second by having another person look at the putter to see if the toe or heel are raised. So now when I am in the set up position with my eyes directly over the ball the putter is perfectly level with the ground and everything looks perfect......or so I thought. All of the heel shafted putters are now roughly 3 degrees flatter than the center shafted putters. What would cause this? All putters are the exact same length. The putters are as follows; heel shafted, Scotty Cameron Coronado Mid Slant and Kirk Currie Brazos and center shafted, Bettinardi/Hogan BHB8-C (this has been my gamer for the past year) and TaylorMade Lambeau 7.

I hope you can help as there does not seem to be any good reason for this to be occurring but may explain why I seem to putt much better with a center shafted putter.

Thanks,

Ron

Dear Ron,

Sorry for the delay -- I've been puzzling over the problem.

The only thing that occurs to me to ask is whether your hands hang differently with a center-shafted putter versus a heel-shafted putter. Typically, the hands hang above the toes, while the shoulder sits above the balls of the feet. If the hands are in the same position above the toes for both putters, then the heel shafted putter should be more upright -- it's strictly trigonometry. The only way one putter gets flatter is when the hands are farther back from the ball or lower than otherwise.

On the other hand, the hosel of the center-shafted putter is farther from your hands than is the case with a heel-shafted putter. That means that the "hypotenuse" length of the center-shafted putter is longer than the "hypotenuse" length of the heel-shafted putter. If the hands are in the same position both times, and the ball is out from the toes the same position both times, then the hosels point at the ground two different distances out from the toes. The center-shafted hosel points at the ground right at the ball (7.75" out from the toes), but the heel-shafted hosel aims at the ground perhaps 2 inches short of the ball (5.75" out from the ball). This means that the handle meets the center of the hands 28.1" up from the center-shafted sole, but only 27.6" up from the heel-shafted sole. If you hold both putter handles in the same "middle of the grip," and also hang both arms the same way, then this forces you back from the heel-shafted putter, and this in turn "flattens" the heel-shafted putter more than the center-shafted putter.

My guess is that the laws of geometry are not changing, but instead you are not standing as close to the ball with the heel-shafted putter. In order for the lie angles to be the same, the distance from the hosel to your toes has to be the same, not the distance from ball to toes. If the lie angles are the same and your hand positions are the same in the way they hang and the way they are placed on the handle, then the heel-shafted putter will have a shorter total length.

Cheers!

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

Geoff,

Thank you for the response. I think I kind of figured it out. Both of the heel shafted putters have shafts that angle what I will call towards the back of the club. After many measurements and thought I realized the 3 degree flatter lie was my bodies compensation (probably optical) for the rear angling of the shaft. When I bent the hosel to get the shaft in line with the face of the club the lie angle had to be bent exactly 3 degrees up or to the same lie angle as the center shafted putters.

Not sure if this is exactly right but in the end the lie angles all ended up the same so it appears it did.

Thanks for your help!!

Ron