Dear Martin,
Please send me your mail address and I'll send you a CD database. In general, the theory is:
1. Stroke and setup form first, putter second. The putter follows the setup, instead of the putter determining the setup / stroke form.
2. Good stroke form must not create targeting problems from beside the ball. This means that the bend of the head and neck must place the head and eyes in a position so that the gaze direction of the eyeballs is straight out of the face (perpendicular to plane of face as established by two lines up from base of neck thru ears and third line from center of neck up thru crown of head), and therefore the golfer must "face" the ball. When the gaze is straight, a simple rotation of the axis of the head towards the target will drive the line of sight along a perfectly straight line perpendicularly away from the putter face as aimed, and hence "reveal" where in fact the putter face is aiming. (I am the only person in the world who knows how to teach this.)
3. Good torso bend and arm and hand hanging should promote simple biomechanics for a straight stroke going forward from the middle or lowest point of the stroke thru approximately 3-4 inches past the front of the ball. This requires a little bend to make the elbows hang directly beneath the shoulder sockets, with the shoulder sockets balanced over the balls of the feet, so that the line of socket-elbow-balls of feet is vertical in gravity (or perpendicular to the surface). The normal muscle development on both sides of the elbows (upper arms and forearms) creates a slight bending of the elbows in all golfers so that the forearm-to-wrist line is angled out of the socket-elbow-balls of feet line. The hands hang naturally above the toes, closer to the ball.
4. The stroke path can be either inside-square-inside, or inside-square-square, or square-square-square so long as the pivot of the stroke at the base of the neck where the clavicle meets the sternum does not swing or twist during the stroke, even if the pivot spins, turns or rotates in place.So long as there is no arm or hand action independent of the shoulder frame motion in the backstroke or the downstroke (and the backstroke is gentle and not jerky or abrupt), holding the pivot in plane and in place above the middle of the stroke and simply "letting" the arms and hands and putter fall back thru the impact zone will naturally and automatically re-square the putter face with the sweet-spot centered behind the ball and will also require that the putter head rise slightly up thru the back of the ball. Artificially prolonging the squareness of the rising putter head and it's online path briefly thru the impact zone, instead of the inside-square(briefly)-inside stroke form is preferable, and this is done by NOT allowing the lead shoulder to come back from the direct line socket-elbow-balls of feet.
5. With this setup and stroke form, the hands are in a certain position. Now the only remaining variable is ball position, both in terms of out from your stance and how far left of the middle of the stance and the stroke's bottom. There is a minimum distance out from the feet established by the golfer's body -- the distance from the center of the shoulder socket up to the pupils of the eyes. This distance is usually about one putter grip or 8-10 inches. From the ball's of the feet out to the ground where the putter shaft aims when set behind the ball should never be closer than this golfer's distance. This is the minimum closeness to the ball. At this precise distance, the line from shoulder sockets to eyes when bent in the hips, upper back, and neck will parallel the ground with the forehead and chin the same elevation. Any lower forehead is bad. Any higher forehead is okay for comfort's sake, but the plane of the face and the straight-out gaze direction needs to point at the ball, or targeting from beside the ball gets messed up. So the distance the ball is played out from the feet is a) no closer than the minimum distance set by the golfer's body, and b) always at a point faced straight out with the face and eyes, and c) preferably at a distance out that combines to make the golfer's neck and head position comfortable and ALSO match up with the natural forearm-hand angle.
6. The elbow hangs vertically below the shoulder socket, but the forearm slants forward at an angle due to developed muscle tone on either side of the elbows. But then at the wrist, the hand itself again hangs vertically down. This creates an angle at the wrist where the line of the forearm meets the line of the palm / hand as both hang naturally in gravity. This angle is what creates the life line in the palm, as the meaty pad of the thumb is pulled down by gravity -- the lifeline follows the forearm line when the forearm-hand hangs naturally. So an address posture that hangs the arms naturally will "seek to fit" a putter handle that presents itself to the hand on THE SAME ANGLE as the forearm slants out of vertical. This angle is typically between 10-20 degrees for adult males, and putter lies are also 10-20 degrees off vertical -- not a coincidence. The BEST setup posture has the hands hanging naturally at a certain height above the ground, AND the putter lie angle matching the forearm angle at address, AND the head-neck posture so that the face and eyes are aimed straight out at the ball and sweet-spot of the putter.
7. Some golfers can't quite get all three requirements satisfied comfortably, so either the head-neck position or the handle-in-hands angle will need to be less than optimal. In that case, I recommend that the head-neck posture be used for targeting, then the golfer not worry too much about the degree of bend required for good targeting, and get a more comfortable head-neck bend that keeps tension out of the shoulders and upper back for the stroke action. But in any event, the putter sole must be flat to the surface (or else the loft biases the blow at impact to the inside) and the angle of the putter handle meet and comply with the angle of the forearm and lifeline with the hands and arms hanging naturally without tension in gravity.
8. Once all this is decided in the good setup for a good stroke action, there are only two measurements for fitting: the distance from center of hands to surface directly below hands (B), and the distance from that spot on the ground (typically at the toe line) out to spot on the ground where the shaft of the putter aims when the putter is soled flatly with the putter sweet-spot centered on the back of the ball (A). The spot where the shaft aims at the ground is used to account for different lies with heel-shafted putters and center-shafted putters, and the shaft itself is used instead of the hosel, because hosels and points where hosels attach to the putter head vary but the lie angle depends on the shaft angle. With these two measurements, A and B, the lie angle is ARCTANGENT(A/B). For example, a ball played 8 inches out from the hands with the hands hanging 27 inches above the ground requires a lie angle of 16.5 degree off vertical (90 degrees), which is the same as 73.5 degrees up from the ground. The length of the putter for this golfer is from the Pythagoreum Theorem: the hypotenuse is the length from the putter sole to the center of the hands (C), and this is the SQUAREROOT of the SUM of the SQUARES of A and B. So square A, square B, add these together, and take the squareroot of the sum. 8*8 is 64; 27*27 is 729; the sum is 793; the squareroot is 28.2 inches. So the length of the putter to the center of the hands should be 28.2 inches, and to center the hands on the grip material, add another 4 inches to this. The correct putter length for this golfer would be 32.2 inches, with a lie angle of 16.5 inches.
9. In fitting, golfers often get too "perfect" compared to what posture they really will use day to day. This usually means that adding 1-2 inches is okay. A putter is only too long when either: a) the hands are below the grip material, or b) the top of the putter snags the body or clothing in the stroke. Too long is fixable; too short is not fixable.
10. The "vibrational node" on the putter shaft is the point up the shaft where the vibration frequencies cancel each other out and there is a "dead spot". This spot for putter heads, shafts, and grips on conventional putter designs is almost always two inches above the bottom of the grip material, when it would be better if the node were actually in the centers of the palms halfway up the material. If the conventional putter is cut down to a shorter length for a specific golfer, this will alter the location of the node on the handle -- perhaps to the good, perhaps not. Using Balance-Certified Golf backweight inserts in the top of the putter shaft moves the node and proper weight adjustments can relocate the node inside the palms in the center for solid after-impact vibrational feedback.
11. Other aspects of putter fitting such as visual appearance of the putter, shapes of putter heads and aiming tendencies, alignment features, mass of putter head fitted to golfer's body and stroke timing and typical greens, swingweight as it may relate to the golfer's timing and feel, heel-toe weighting, face balancing, so-called "toe-flow", grip shape and material, grip weight, moments of inertia and changeable weighting schemes, shaft frequency, and lofting designs for better roll and less backspin are all important at the higher levels of golf but are too technical to get into now. But as a matter of perspective, the earlier points are more important for all golfers, and the minor adjustments only matter to really good putters and only then after these more important aspects are sorted out.
12. Putter fitting schemes that cater to whatever stroke the golfer brings to the fitting are worthless and only make flaws permanent. A scheme that seeks 'consistency" as a primary goal has a seductive charm, but is really only fitting whatever stroke the golfer presents to the session.
13. The Swedish Stroke Guide training aid has a very neat feature of helping the golfer find the stroke path or shape that minimizes the putter face opening out of the stroke path. That is unique in all the technology I've seen.
Let me know what else I can do to help. Also tell me you telephone number, since I can call Sweden for free.
Cheers!
Geoff Mangum
PuttingZone
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