Hi Geoff,

OK, I think I finally have my stroke where I need it to be, and the rest is practice to allow it to happen without being conscious of stroke mechanics. What has been a key for me is the notion that everything moves proportionately in the stroke. What I often did was had my hands move too much with the putter header, ie at close to the same speed. This change means my hands, in contrast to the past, now move very little in the stroke, which is basically a shoulder stroke with a gravity tempo [your past advise has helped a lot].

My problem is for very short putts on very quick greens, where there is almost no energy needed to get the ball to the hole. If you supply too much, your looking at a longer putt coming back. I try taking the putter back by pushing my left shoulder under while keeping the triangle intact, but since it moves so little, I find my hands becoming too involved in the through stroke, which leave me open to the adrenalin surges or just plain nerves. Any suggestions as to how I can get this a little more natural and consistent?

Thanks,

The Putting Nut

Dear Putting Nut,

Short putts are mostly about the straightness of the stroke. If the emphasis stays on the "touch" timing of a gravity-sponsored stroke, this causes a lack of calmness that arises from the internal sense that the stroke is not big enough. On many occasions, the stroke needs to stay small, alright, and this "constraint" that makes any larger stroke feel "wrong" and "to be avoided" is definitely there. I believe that this disquiet is really coming from the pendulum gravity-sponsored stroke requiring a minimal bigness to kick fully into gear. There seems to be a certain minimum largeness of backstroke and corresponding peaking speed downward to fully engage the comfortable sense of timing that usually goes along with this sort of stroke.

A number of people experience the same thing you report, so I have been working on just this issue for a few months or so. My "solution" or "suggestion" thus far is to forget "touch" for these putts and shift focus almost entirely to the straightness of the stroke and roll. This means pay close attention almost exclusively to the squareness of the putter coming into impact, the centering of the sweetspot thru the ball, and the slight rising blow thru the back of the ball out the front of the ball as the rising lead shooulder and steady pivot cast the putter face square down the line. With this "action" in the stroke being the primary focus of attention and intention, and only modest attention to get the distance right without babying the putt or over-rushing the hole, the concern for what happens in the backstroke dissipates. The end result is a more secure, confident management of the task.

None of this is to say "a quick stroke is best on short putts", because I have not found that to be true. A nice, smooth even-tempo stroke thru the ball on short putts is still the best approach, in my view, but in this case, the primary attention shifts from the distance-control pattern of a "one potato" backstroke to more simply any easy-going backstroke and then a perfectly straight stroke and roll. So just don't try for any particular timing in the backstroke -- just make an easy backstroke of any size and then gently sweep the putter squarely up and down the line thru the ball, with the pivot staying centered and the lead shoulder doing the sweeping.

The visual attention that goes along with this is getting a good strong sense of the line the sweetspot ought to take as the blow rises thru the back-center-front of the ball on the line. It is as if you "see" in advance the straightness of this path thru the ball. The sense is of the middle, upright "disk" of the ball that will roll along on the ground, and then pre-seeing the square putter face rising into and thru the plane of this "disk" out the other side. There is also an awareness of the bottom of the stroke occuring where it is supposed to happen (a bit behind the back of the ball), and the putter face thereafter rising slightly on its way thru the ball.

All this is equivalent to Don Pooley's usual exercise of setting two tee pegs as a "gate" facing the hole from 3-5 feet away, backing a ball up to this gate so the back of the ball protrudes behind the gate (the pegs are almost as wide apart as the ball), and then making a stroke that sends the putter face flush against both tee pegs at the same time on a slight rising trajectory, thus sending the ball off straight. The tendency is to strike the outside tee peg first with the toe end of the putter face, so watch out for that.

Once it is very clear to you what body action will make this sort of straight impact, that is mostly what you focus on to execute these short putts. I wouldn't worry much about having enough pace on the ball to hold the line and make it to the hole -- the real worry is avoiding putting too much pace on the ball, thereby either spoiling the squareness of the stroke or blowing the ball thru the break.

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Coach and Theorist
PuttingZone
http://puttingzone.com
Golf's most advanced putting instruction.

Thanks very much Geoff. You mentioned Don's peg drill, which I have heard reference to many times. While I think I understand the concept of the drill, the thing I don't understand is that you would knock the tees down on every putt, and after several, the holes would be very loose.

So if this is right, wouldn't it take more time setting the drill up each time than performing it? What am I missing?

Dear PuttingNut,

True enough, but you only do about 6-8 repetitions with the tee pegs and then you remove them and make more strokes, doing what you have learned by this exercise. While the tee pegs are in the gate setup, your focus is on what the body does to make square, rising impact into the back of the ball. After the pegs are taken up, your focus is on the same thing.

It takes Don Pooley a bit of trouble to get the tee pegs aimed correctly to start with, and they only seat in the green's turf for a little while before they get knocked too loose, but it's still worth it. Just pay close attention to your body action while the exercise is still good.

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Coach and Theorist
PuttingZone
http://puttingzone.com
Golf's most advanced putting instruction -- you're either in the PuttingZone, or not.

I'd just like to add to Geoff's thoughts on short putts. Rather than a focus on what speed your body or putter 'should' be moving on those putts inside of maybe 6 - 8 feet, I like to sense a certain speed that I want the ball to roll as it reaches the hole. Mostly that would be a 'falling' speed,or about 2 revolutions per second, and sometimes it might be a more aggressive 3 revs on the straighter, more uphill putts. I would leave the drop speed of 1 revolution per second to the faster, downhill, and/or longer putts. Once you've ascertained the speed, you work out your line, then it's up to your ability to putt straight.

Cheers,

Since gravity and pendulum stroking is virtually eliminated on shortened backswing putting strokes, you should consider also shortening the swing radius.

If you use your torso to swing the arm-putter assembly you will have a swing radius in the region of 48" - 56" ... depending on your height and putting posture. Also moving all that body mass just to move the putter head an insignificant 6" - 8" seems somewhat inefficient if not impractical.

For short putts you might consider only rotating the putter at the wrists and keeping the arms, shoulders and body entirely still thus creating a very stable swing radius. Of course this requires applying a force couple or opposing hand forces to rotate the putter around the vicinity of the wrist joints ... the way Palmer, Nicklaus and Player used to putt in the 1960s ... and did very well too.

Using a long shafted putter propped at the chest creates a secure long radius pendulum ... and these putters are very accurate for short and mid range putts but suck for longer putts because feel seems to be cancelled out.