I've been in touch with Peter O'Leary at Drop Putters, as you can see because I'm one of his few links. I pretty much agree with the phenomenon he describes. The lesson is face-balancing is better than non-face-balancing, but not as good as it can get.
If you alter the lie of a putter by your setup or stroke mechanics / dynamics, I know you alter the sweetspot as well, so this quite naturally will alter the putter's tendency to flare open in the backstroke and throughstroke. It is also true that the flatter the lie, say 65 to 73 degrees (25 to 17 degrees back off vertical), the more the putterhead-hand interaction promotes flaring open. And it's also true that the location of the shaft-hosel in relation to the putterhead shape and weighting mixes with your lie, setup, and stroke dynamics to influence flaring open. And it is VERY ture that alterations in grip pressure during the stroke change the face orientation. And it is also true as well that the more the hands and forearms are involved in starting / initiating the stroke and indeed in powering the stroke, the greater the danger of grip pressure alterations and stroke-path wandering out of straight.
Because of all this, and a few other matters, such as eye positioning that lowers the shoulders closer to the ground, I like the following in a putter:
Short (under 30")
Upright (14 degrees off vertical for me)
Center-shafted
If I could get a short, upright, center-shafted putter that was also "reality-balanced" (as Leary says) at 76 degrees, I would probably be in heaven!
I think Peter posted something on the Flatstick Forum in my site if you want to take a look. I have to say I certainly like the idea and would like to check it out further.
Cheers!
Geoff Mangum
Greensboro North Carolina USA
"Your personal putting assistant."
http://hometown.aol.com/puttmagic
"The World's most comprehensive putting resource."
I am absolutely sold on Reality Balancing. I have tested several putters, such as the Railgun, some from Positive Putters, and some others that balanced towards the target and they all gave me better results than my face-balanced putter. For target-line balanced putters my results have improved with the following items: center-shafted, slight onset and less than 34". This setup puts my eyes directly over the target line, and the center-shaft makes alignment second nature, although I mark all my golf balls with a line. Since these lofts are a little bit less due to the slight onset, my putts have rolled a little further than I am used to. In any case, my putts per round all dropped by a few strokes when using these types of putters.
I have done a tremendous amount of research into this type of putter, and know of many manufacturers that have this type of putter. Geoff has listed many on his site. If you would like some assistance, please let me know.