Dear Geoff,
Yes, I have done research on this and my conclusion is that A) when you set up first at the top of the body, orienting the throat line same as or parallel offset behind the plane of the putter face (actually optional for stroke, but not really optional for aiming perceptions) and shoulders parallel offset from aim line of putter face (not optional, needed to simplify and enhance biomechanics in stroke that travels thru impact on line square), then B) the remaining joint pairs below the shoulders simply "settle" into comfort and balance with whatever oddities have crept into your body over the years, these pairs being hips, knees, ankles, and even elbows and wrists before placing the hands onto the handle. The priority is the shoulder frame, and control of this is mostly the base of the neck above calm hips, regardless of the hip alignment.
I analogize this to orienting the shoulders of a marionette on strings to a putt line and then letting the other lower joints pairs settle below the shoulders to whatever creates comfort and balance.
The right foot (right-handed player) being too far forward is not really a hip alignment problem but is very common from odd neck angles out of the shoulder frame instead of good posture featuring a neck that extends vertically and perpendicularly out of the shoulder frame. People who work a lot on ballstriking develop what I term "ballstriker's neck", which is a slight lean of the neck to the rear / right that develops over time from hours hitting balls in a "modified K" fullswing setup posture. This becomes "normal" to the player, so he doesn't notice it. When pros set up to a putt with this neck lean, not aware of what they are doing, they set the neck into the setup first and this results in the shoulder alignment being slightly "open" to the line of the putter face (left shoulder back off line to inside, right shoulder forward closer to the line of the putt), and then the feet settle into an "open" stance as well. The pros don't have any idea why they like an "open" stance but they make up justifications for it, one being "I can see the line better." This 'visual" orientation to a far target is biomechanically not a good thing for putting straight sideways with consistency and accuracy and repeating biomechanics. As a consequence of these observations, I don't really believe the slight hip alignment out of alignment with the shoulders is causing the right foot to be forward.
I believe that if you set the neck vertically and perpendicularly out of the shoulders first and then set the throat line to match the face of the putter, that this automatically sets the shoulders aligned parallel to the aim line of the putter, and the lower joint pairs can settle wherever they go for comfort and balance, and then just basically remain still or nearly so in whatever relationship the hips and feet may have to the shoulders. The upper torso is where the accuracy comes from in stroking on line.
If the throat / neck does not really extend perpendicularly out of the shoulders, then the player needs to set the shoulders into the setup first and ignore the neck. I do this by pretending I have two dowel sticks projecting about 4.5 feet off each shoulder exactly / nearly / or not quite parallel to the surface (try different ones) when I'm standing erect beside the ball, and then I perform a ritualistic "Japanese bow" that places the ends of each imaginary stick on the aim line one behind the ball and one in front of the ball. Then my chest and shoulders are parallel to the putt line.
The "non-tense" relationship between the shoulder / torso alignment "facing" the line of the putt and the "whatever is you" hip alignment is the body signal I pay attention to, instead of trying to align the hips with the shoulders. Then I pay attention to leaving the hips pretty much where they are at the start when the shoulders "twist" a little to the inside with the backstroke over top[ of the "stay-at-home" hips, and wherever "home" might be doesn't really matter. The "twist" of upper torso over lower torso creates muscle-tissue tension in the abdomen / lower back where the upper torso connects to the lower torso. That's the backstroke muscle activity and stretch of the backstroke. The body signal that tells me the shoulders are "back to square" is when the mid-body tension dissipates in the forward stroke and my shoulders return to once again "face" the putt line parallel. That's a "feel-timing" skill that is critical, and is called in golf "resquaring the putter face before impact". (Ball position has to be further along the line than this point, which ideally is the middle and bottom of the stroke arc about where the sternum is located when facing the line or perhaps a bit towards the heart (right-hander), depending upon your putter design and grip and setup form as these establish the bottom and middle of the stroke.
The "grip form and pressure" is just establishing a stroke form of shoulders, chest, arms, hands, and putter face so that the putter face is square to wherever the chest and shoulders aim this unchanging shape. That's why a "dead hands" shoulder stroke is better than a handsy-armsy stroke where the arms and hands outrace the shoulders and hence send the putter head and putter face all over the map in the back and thru of the stroke -- in contrast, a nice unchanging shape used with the shoulders puts the whole job of re-squaring the putter face simply on returning the shoulders to facing forward at the putt line by the bottom of the stroke, regardless of the alignment of the hips and feet.
Another biomechanical / setup cue I use is to identify the spot in front of the ball along the putt line straight away where the putter face aims that is also directly off from my lead / left big toe. This makes an L-shape or Carpenter's Square that is always the same every setup and putt. Typically, a balanced stance is as wide as the shoulders naturally and that's usually 14-15 inches wide, so the distance from middle of body to left big toe is typically 7-8 inches and that is 3-5 inches in front of the front of the ball, depending on how far left of the bottom of the stroke the ball is played. The distance from the toe out to this spot on the line of the putt is typically 7-8 inches. That's because humans balance the balls of their shoulders (the chest and head is the heavy part of the upper torso) when leaning forward (as in a putting address posture) over the balls of the feet and not past the balls of the feet, so as to keep the weight on the feet balanced in the heel-toe direction on the arches of the feet or perhaps a touch towards the toes, combined with the usual body dimensions of humans in which the distance from the shoulders up to the height of the eye pupils is about 8-10 inches (one putter grip), so leaning the head and eyes and shoulders into a putting posture orienting to the line of the putt has a "minimum" distance back from the ball when the neck and face get set parallel to the surface or horizontal of this same shoulder-to-pupils length, and golfers who setup with their eyes inside the line and their face slightly tilted up forehead higher than horizontal (95+%) are slightly farther back from the ball than this. At any rate, there is always this L-shape that connects up and makes consistent and accurate 1) putter-ball position and putter face aim with the putter sweetspot squarely aiming thru the ball at the corner; 2) setup posture with shoulders on the short part of the L thru the ball down the line at the corner so the body in the shoulders matches the intended aim and stroke line, and 3) the stroke movement / action that sends the putter face squarely down this line at least as far as the corner of the L.
This consistent "all-putts-are-straight" and "all-putts-are-the-same" for setup and "all-putts-are-the-same" for stroke except some have larger backstrokes than others is ALL about the aim from the ball to the target in the forward stroke. The rear foot, frankly, is irrelevant to these other body orientation and movement priorities.
So, bottom line, I would bet that your feet and hips align open to the line of the putt not because of your hips-shoulder relationship but because your neck-shoulder relationship is a bit off OR you approach the setup not from the top down but from the bottom up. My recommendation then is start from orienting the shoulders to the putt line and complete the setup from the top down for comfort and balance and not perfection in all joint pairs to the line of the putt. You can do this by involving the orienting of the throat line as well to the putter face but only if you have a good neck-shoulder perpendicularity; otherwise, focus on a Japanese bow into the setup with the shoulders.
Cheers!
Geoff Mangum
Putting Coach and Theorist
Offering Free Podcast Tips for Putting Every Friday on
GolfSmarterTips.com.
The best putting instruction book in golf history is now available for purchase in hardback or as an immediate ebook download:
Optimal Putting: Brain Science, Instincts, and the Four Skills of Putting (2008, 282-pages)
Geoff Mangum's
PuttingZone
PuttingZone Clinics
Flatstick Forum
PuttingZone Channel on YouTube
PuttingZone Picasweb Image Gallery
Golf's most advanced and comprehensive putting instruction -- you're either in the PuttingZone, or not.
Over 2.5 million visits -- 200,000 monthly from 50+ countries -- and growing strong.