Open Stance, Free Wrists on Long Putts (Video) - by Pete Styles
Open Stance, Free Wrists on Long Putts (Video) - by Pete Styles

Do you ever get that situation where you’ve got a long putt? Maybe even you’re slightly off the green and you want to hit a long putt back on to the green. And you just don’t think you can swing the club far enough. You’re trying to give it a nudge, but you can’t hit it quite hard enough. One of the reasons for that is because you’re only involving your arms and you’re not involving your body, and actually your body is in a blocking position by having the feet square and not rotating the hip. We have to stand here and we actually get a bit blocked, we can’t swing the club freely through so we end up with a slightly shorter action. And if it’s a very long putt across a long green or off the green it actually helps if you just allow yourself to rotate through the ball a little bit. If you look at the way Palmer played, Arnold Palmer, he used to stand a little bit open with his left side and that would encourage him to turn through and to putt through and actually let the club release.

So we could advocate a slightly open stance to encourage you to hit the ball further on your long putts. So as I set up to my ball here, I draw my left toe slightly back, stand a little bit open, then let my club turn through and suddenly I’ve got a much longer stroke than I had before when I was square and a bit stuck. So if you really feel like you need the power to release the club through to the target on your putts, particularly long putts or slightly from the fringe grass, just let your left toes sit slightly open. Have a little bit of a longer back swing and then let the freedom of rotation happen as your coming through and you feel that you can just release the club nicely on your longer putts to really get them going across the green well.
2014-01-21

Do you ever get that situation where you’ve got a long putt? Maybe even you’re slightly off the green and you want to hit a long putt back on to the green. And you just don’t think you can swing the club far enough. You’re trying to give it a nudge, but you can’t hit it quite hard enough. One of the reasons for that is because you’re only involving your arms and you’re not involving your body, and actually your body is in a blocking position by having the feet square and not rotating the hip. We have to stand here and we actually get a bit blocked, we can’t swing the club freely through so we end up with a slightly shorter action. And if it’s a very long putt across a long green or off the green it actually helps if you just allow yourself to rotate through the ball a little bit. If you look at the way Palmer played, Arnold Palmer, he used to stand a little bit open with his left side and that would encourage him to turn through and to putt through and actually let the club release.

So we could advocate a slightly open stance to encourage you to hit the ball further on your long putts. So as I set up to my ball here, I draw my left toe slightly back, stand a little bit open, then let my club turn through and suddenly I’ve got a much longer stroke than I had before when I was square and a bit stuck. So if you really feel like you need the power to release the club through to the target on your putts, particularly long putts or slightly from the fringe grass, just let your left toes sit slightly open. Have a little bit of a longer back swing and then let the freedom of rotation happen as your coming through and you feel that you can just release the club nicely on your longer putts to really get them going across the green well.