How is your putting?

A few years ago Dr. Ralph Mann at Grand Cypress resort in Fla. studied a number of the world's best putters and found some interesting things.

Here is a summary:

Regardless of the length of the putt [they measured four foot, eight foot, 16 foot and 32 foot putts] the completion time of the strokes are exactly the same.

The down swing time is roughly half of the back swing time, showing that the player is accelerating the blade through impact.

As an example, on a four foot putt by Greg Norman the back swing took .62 seconds, the down swing .3 seconds, the total completion time .92 seconds.  For the 32 foot putt, the back swing took .63 seconds, the down swing .29 seconds, for a .92 completion time.

All of the professionals measured consistently produced a follow-through distance almost twice as large as the back swing distance again due to acceleration.

The  Model set-up:

The feet were about 12 inches apart at the toes with the front foot drawn back an inch from the target line; the ball is two inches inside the front big toe and 10 inches out from the foot; the eyes are positioned about two inches inside the ball, contradicting instruction that tells you to have your eyes directly over the ball; the weight is toward the heels and evenly distributed, again contradicting that most of the weight should be on the front side.

Please remember that these are averages so individuals differ. 

 

The Model Putting Stroke:

Is predominantly straight back and straight through, a pendulum-type motion that stays on the line as long as possible.  The recommendation is to putt with the arms and the shoulders [not the wrists] thereby creating the motion of the club by using a tilting of the shoulders. Over-using the wrists open and closes the clubface and this leads to slapping at the ball.  The lower body does not move much at all.

 

The key is returning the putter face to its address position at impact with the putter face perpendicular to the arc of the stroke.  This makes the stroke as simple as possible with fewer chances for error.

A Drill 

Stroke the putt by taking the putter back to your right toe, and then through the ball, to actually twice the distance. Use tees to create gates to guide the putter. Do this for all distances until you develop a feel of how much back swing you need for each length putt.  Then practice putting to the hole, focusing only on the right distance.  You can actually learn to putt this way out on the golf course.  It's a great way to get your backswing under control and to get the relationships between the backswing and the follow through correct every time.