Putters Putting Stroke Mechanics For A Conventional Motion (Video) - by Pete Styles
Putters Putting Stroke Mechanics For A Conventional Motion (Video) - by Pete Styles

Now although a good putting stroke actually looks like a very simple action there could be quite a lot that goes into a good putting stroke. Now for a lot of good golfers, we don't even think about most of it, we just stand to the ball and hit the putt. But if you want to break each element down and work out exactly what you need to do in which area, let's talk that through now, and make sure we get everything lined up for the best possible putting stroke. Now the first thing we want to try and achieve in a good setup is good alignment.

It's really important when you are putting the aiming in exactly the right direction. So we're going to line the club face up pointing exactly where you want the ball to start. And I stress this is where you want the ball to start. Now where you want the ball to finish because the ground is not always flat and it curves. So pick a starting line, line the line up on the back of your putter or the square clubface perpendicular to your target line. So we have the club lined up pointing at target. We then put our feet down now and medium width of stance is fine. We see few golfers with very narrow stances, a few good players, super wide. Let's just go from medium width to stance just to start with. Now it's important as well that the toes therefore are – sorry, it's parallel to your target line. So the club points at the target line, your toes also point parallel to your target line. Not at your target line, but level and parallel to it. Now if your toes are parallel, we hope that your knees, your hips, your shoulders and also quite importantly your forearms would be level as well. So as I take a putting grip here, the hope is that my forearms if I was to put a line across the front of my forearms, they would be parallel. If I’ve got a twist in my forearms, the chances are I'm going to have a twist in my stroke during my actual motion. So I get my body parallel and I get my forearms parallel. Now the grip is quite complicated when we are putting because some people put with that standard golf grip. Some people make a little change there. What I would suggest is you do what feels comfortable, but do what feels very stable as well. We definitely don't want to have any wrist hinging and releasing here. So ideally we would have the thumbs pointing down and the fingers pointing down as well, some version of this or even a slightly cross-handed grip just to make sure the hands on hinging and releasing because good strike mechanics dictate that would like the club to come straight back and straight through with no wobbling around. Posture can be quite important and putting as well. We want to feel like the hips are set back, the chest and the shoulders are up and the head's nice and high. We do see some putters that get over the ball here. They maybe feel like they get a bit more control down in this way. But ultimately if we want to have a nice bit of room to hang the club, the shoulders have enough space to hang the arm straight down. That creates a smoother back and through motion rather than everything been hunched up and pulled into the body. One last thing we can look at here is ball position. Ideally we would have the ball for a normal straight-back straight-through motion, very slightly ahead of center. If we just position the ball slightly up from the centre half, then as we stroke through the club slightly rising as it hits the ball it's going to get the ball rolling more smoothly rather than bubbling. Having said that, if you are an arcing putter stroker and you have the club coming round on a big arc, actually having the ball in the center of your stance is quite important. So you can just experiment with different ball positions to work out which gives you the straightest results and you are not pulling or pushing your putts. And hopefully if you can put all those elements together in a good putting technique, and then spend a good while on the putting green or the carpet at home, all of those different techniques will start to feel more comfortable. Then when you go and play, you can play with a good deal of feel, a good deal of touch and hopefully that will help you improve your scores and hold more putts. 2015-07-15

Now although a good putting stroke actually looks like a very simple action there could be quite a lot that goes into a good putting stroke. Now for a lot of good golfers, we don't even think about most of it, we just stand to the ball and hit the putt. But if you want to break each element down and work out exactly what you need to do in which area, let's talk that through now, and make sure we get everything lined up for the best possible putting stroke. Now the first thing we want to try and achieve in a good setup is good alignment.

It's really important when you are putting the aiming in exactly the right direction. So we're going to line the club face up pointing exactly where you want the ball to start. And I stress this is where you want the ball to start. Now where you want the ball to finish because the ground is not always flat and it curves. So pick a starting line, line the line up on the back of your putter or the square clubface perpendicular to your target line. So we have the club lined up pointing at target. We then put our feet down now and medium width of stance is fine.

We see few golfers with very narrow stances, a few good players, super wide. Let's just go from medium width to stance just to start with. Now it's important as well that the toes therefore are – sorry, it's parallel to your target line. So the club points at the target line, your toes also point parallel to your target line. Not at your target line, but level and parallel to it. Now if your toes are parallel, we hope that your knees, your hips, your shoulders and also quite importantly your forearms would be level as well.

So as I take a putting grip here, the hope is that my forearms if I was to put a line across the front of my forearms, they would be parallel. If I’ve got a twist in my forearms, the chances are I'm going to have a twist in my stroke during my actual motion. So I get my body parallel and I get my forearms parallel. Now the grip is quite complicated when we are putting because some people put with that standard golf grip. Some people make a little change there. What I would suggest is you do what feels comfortable, but do what feels very stable as well.

We definitely don't want to have any wrist hinging and releasing here. So ideally we would have the thumbs pointing down and the fingers pointing down as well, some version of this or even a slightly cross-handed grip just to make sure the hands on hinging and releasing because good strike mechanics dictate that would like the club to come straight back and straight through with no wobbling around. Posture can be quite important and putting as well. We want to feel like the hips are set back, the chest and the shoulders are up and the head's nice and high.

We do see some putters that get over the ball here. They maybe feel like they get a bit more control down in this way. But ultimately if we want to have a nice bit of room to hang the club, the shoulders have enough space to hang the arm straight down. That creates a smoother back and through motion rather than everything been hunched up and pulled into the body. One last thing we can look at here is ball position. Ideally we would have the ball for a normal straight-back straight-through motion, very slightly ahead of center.

If we just position the ball slightly up from the centre half, then as we stroke through the club slightly rising as it hits the ball it's going to get the ball rolling more smoothly rather than bubbling. Having said that, if you are an arcing putter stroker and you have the club coming round on a big arc, actually having the ball in the center of your stance is quite important. So you can just experiment with different ball positions to work out which gives you the straightest results and you are not pulling or pushing your putts.

And hopefully if you can put all those elements together in a good putting technique, and then spend a good while on the putting green or the carpet at home, all of those different techniques will start to feel more comfortable. Then when you go and play, you can play with a good deal of feel, a good deal of touch and hopefully that will help you improve your scores and hold more putts.