Geoff,

Do you feel that the putter shaft should lean slightly left when you strike a putt? If so, why do they make putters with the shaft "leaning" right. A good example is the new Odyssey "3-ball putters. They all seem to have the grip "behind" the leading edge. Why?

Also, a question about rhythm. Do you use a metronome when you teach. If so, do you set it to 60 beats a minute based on your one potato, two potato theory. Or, do your students have some room for individuality? I get the feeling that you disagree with Dave Pelz's personality based theory.

Thanks,

Jack Carter

Dear Jack,

The main point is to have the right sort of dynamic loft combined with a non-percussive stroke. The easiest way to get this is a minimal loft on the putter and the shaft not much offset from the putter face and make a stroke that bottoms out with a vertical shaft and then rises slightly thru the ball not too far ahead of the bottom. This impacts the back of the ball with some dynamic loft but not too much to launch the ball seriously into the air.

I have never cared for the way the Three-ball putter is designed or the way it performs. I don't really think current putter designers have good reasons for most of what they do, and this is one of them.

No I don't use a metronome because each individual's timing in gravity is specific to their body and their putter and their address postures and a few other minor influences. A metronome is "my way of the highway" and has to be on one beat or another with nothing in between. And the golfer doesn't really match the timing perfectly over and over but approximates it pretty well. So a metronome acts sort of like a straight-jacket that stifles the learning process, and neuroscience studies confirm this.

I do not believe Dave Pelz has any basis for his claim that the golfer is best served by matching his putting tempo to his personality. If that is a "theory" in Pelz's mind, it is one empty of any scientific basis. I have searched for many years to find any credible science that supports that claim. Pelz has never indicated any scientific basis for his claim, although he plainly wants his readers to believe he has such science. What I find to be the science is that all adult humans are trained by gravity and reality to the same basic fundamental timing for movement roughly speaking, and golf instructors mess up instinctive putting by trying to lead players towards something different. I believe that NASA experiments in the NeuroLab neurophysiology experiments on the International Space Station have now verified what I teach and support my view about common fundamental timing processes underlying human movements. These timing processes are "trained" into all human brains by the common experiences in one gravitational environment on earth, and in fact by the common movement experiences of all terrestrial animals since the beginning of life on earth to the extent that this timing is now "evolved" into all such animals, including humans. As the highly respected golf psychologist and teacher Carey Mumford says: "Play according to your 'personality'? Personality has absolutely nothing to do with playing golf."

The "poster boys" for playing golf with a "fast" personality have always been Lanny Wadkins and Nick Price. Lanny sucked as a putter. Nick sucks when he putts with a tempo matching his swing tempo. Nick set the Masters record with a round of 63 on Saturday in 1986. Thursday he shot 74 and Friday he shot 70 and nearly missed the cut. David Leadbetter took him aside and told him flat out: "Stop putting aggressively. It's killing your score." Then Nick shot 63 and on Sunday shot 67 and finished third. Leadbetter was reiterating this very lesson just last month in Golf Digest. I don't know any good putters who putt with a tempo anywhere near the one that usually results from Pelz's "pop psychology" approach, which is between 75 and 90 beats per minute. Great putters all get slow, as they shed unwanted movements and effort in putting.

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
PuttingZone.com
Golf's most advanced and comprehensive putting instruction.

Geoff,

What do you think of the Zen Oracle Putter concept. It seems to me that it teaches the type of "release" you are talking about.

Also, along the lines of your rhythm concept, I have the V1 Putt. I tend to "show up" as slow in the rhythm catagory instead of ok. The ball seems to roll into the hole just fine, so I do not pay too much attention to it. My balls have always died in the hole and my putts tend to "break" way more than everyone elses. I assume that I am on the right track when you talk about gravity and slow. However, maybe not. I assume that you use V-1 putt or something similar. How do you "show-up" on the readings?

What is the quickest way to learn about utilizing gravity? Did you learn some of this from David Lee? Is your method similar to his?

Thanks,

Jack Carter

Dear Jack,

The Zen Oracle concept is based upon fine down-the-line dynamics. I personally don't like the focus on that specific part of the stroke -- too late. I also don't like the restriction the design imposes on the backstroke -- can't go too far back or the ball will come loose backwards.

I also show up "slow" according to the folks who think they have a good bead on what is good or bad (they don't). my backstroke is 1000 ms or thereabouts, whereas most "average" golfers are around 700-800 ms.

I think the quickest way is to forget about hitting the ball or making sure you "get" the ball to the hole, and instead work first on the stroke itself, coordinating the shoulder with the dropping under of the putter and the arms and hands as a unit. You might try letting the stroke drop from the top of the backstroke against your left foot's instep, with the foot stretched out in the way of the stroke. Doing this, watch that strokes of all sizes reach the foot in the same total amount of time coming down to impact. So long as the downstroke time is always the same (about 1/2 second), then you are neither speeding up gravity or slowing it down.

After you get a strong sense of how long gravity actually takes to deliver the putter head against your foot, then you have to be able to verbalize this timing in the way you pace your tempo phrase ("one potato" backstroke and "... two" down to impact). Then you watch both timings -- backstroke and downstroke -- independently to make sure you don't speed up or slow down the timing. The backstroke always takes one full second or so (your way of phrasing "one potato"), and then the downstroke takes 1/2 second or thereabouts (your phrasing of "... two"). The ball impact always "clicks" right smack on the two. Never hurry, never worry.

When you get this timing down, AND you don't worry about whether the ball makes it all the way to the hole, then you are in a good initial position to "grow" a bigger backstroke. When short, the cure is "bigger not faster". So if you are short to begin with, that is great. Just take your time with the backstroke until the size and the timing start to reach the hole. This way, you won't revert to hurrying at the back of the ball with a "hit" to "get" the ball to the hole.

You'll never get smooth with gravity until you start leaving the full distance to the backstroke only, and never even "do" the downstroke.

I have studied some of David lee's notions about putting and the full swing, and I like his "toss" back of the stroke. Other than that, I believe my ideas are much more deeply developed and fleshed out in detail, grounded in science, and articulated. But that's just my personal opinion about my work.


Cheers!

Geoff Mangum's PuttingZone.com
PuttingZoneŠ Clinics and
PuttingZone Magazine
Golf's most advanced and comprehensive putting instruction.

Hi Jack,

Did you find the investment into the V1 Putt of value? I was considering the unit primarily for the face angle results. However, I wonder if the V1 Putt has the sensativity, accuracy and repeatability to be useful. Furthermore, I am speculating the Rail by Harold Swash is just as good in terms of sensativity, accuracy and repeatability for learning face angle errors.

Geoff, I would be interested in your response as well.

Thanks
David

Hello Geoff:

Just perused the V1 Putt system and I see they determine the velocity-acceleration of the putter head and produce a graph too.

If the velocities of the putter head can be determined then acceleration due to gravity and acceleration due to applied force can also be determined.

Have you tested the 'gravity-sponsored' putting stroke for the gravity force component and any additional force due to applied force? If you did, what were your results?