Putters Arc Putting Stroke (Video) - by Pete Styles
Putters Arc Putting Stroke (Video) - by Pete Styles

Here we're going to look at an arc putting stroke. Now for a lot of golfers the arc putting stroke is actually something that comes quite naturally to them. And lots of golf instructors myself included sometimes, try and work hard with golfers to try and stop making the putting stroke arc. We often talk about a straight back, straight through method, almost like the idea of throwing a dart or putting with a snooker or a pool cue, we want to be straight back and straight through.

But the arc putting stroke works a bit more naturally with the body's natural inclination to have a curve in it. So you can imagine that if I'm standing to the side of something and something is out in front of me, it would inherently have a curve. And the arc putting stroke works on that principle entirely. So you can see I've got a white line on the ground here, and that kind of works to demonstrate the art quite nicely. I set the club up to that, and I'll have the club swinging back and forwards around that arc. Now there's a couple of adjustments that you need to make here over and above the standard straight back and straight through technique. Straight back and straight through, we would often talk about getting the eyes over the top of the ball, the elbows away from the body a little bit more, the club up a little bit higher, having the ball positioned ahead of center and trying to take the club on a straight line back, and a straight line through. The arc putting stroke is slightly different to this. We would probably lay the club flatter, stand a little bit further away from it, almost the eyes are hanging inside the line of the golf ball here, maybe six to eight inches inside the line of the ball. Now quite importantly if that club is coming round on an arc, the clubface could be aiming right of target, square to target and left of target. So the ball position is very, very important here. If you have the ball positioned too far forwards in your stance and your stroke is arcing, it’s going to be hitting the wall left. Likewise if the, that is too far back in the stands, the club face is going to be open and it's going to hit the ball to the right. So it's really important we’ve the ball positioned dead in the center of the feet. Then we follow the arcing nature of the stroke, the elbows come more in, the hands and arms rotate around the whole body. Now it's quite important you don't try and manipulate the clubface with the hands. It's one of the things we're trying to get away from when we’re making this arcing stroke is we're not manipulating the clubface in the hands at all. We just keep the elbows nicely into the side of the body. The whole body turns back, the whole body turns through. As long as the ball position is exactly in the middle of the feet, we should hit the ball quite consistently straight. If you're struggling with a straight back, straight through idea you feel like you are not consistent, you are not holding enough putts, maybe the arcing stroke is going to be suitable for you. But make sure you go ahead and make the relevant changes, ball position, elbow position, eye position and try and make that putting stroke work for you. 2015-07-15

Here we're going to look at an arc putting stroke. Now for a lot of golfers the arc putting stroke is actually something that comes quite naturally to them. And lots of golf instructors myself included sometimes, try and work hard with golfers to try and stop making the putting stroke arc. We often talk about a straight back, straight through method, almost like the idea of throwing a dart or putting with a snooker or a pool cue, we want to be straight back and straight through.

But the arc putting stroke works a bit more naturally with the body's natural inclination to have a curve in it. So you can imagine that if I'm standing to the side of something and something is out in front of me, it would inherently have a curve. And the arc putting stroke works on that principle entirely. So you can see I've got a white line on the ground here, and that kind of works to demonstrate the art quite nicely. I set the club up to that, and I'll have the club swinging back and forwards around that arc.

Now there's a couple of adjustments that you need to make here over and above the standard straight back and straight through technique. Straight back and straight through, we would often talk about getting the eyes over the top of the ball, the elbows away from the body a little bit more, the club up a little bit higher, having the ball positioned ahead of center and trying to take the club on a straight line back, and a straight line through. The arc putting stroke is slightly different to this.

We would probably lay the club flatter, stand a little bit further away from it, almost the eyes are hanging inside the line of the golf ball here, maybe six to eight inches inside the line of the ball. Now quite importantly if that club is coming round on an arc, the clubface could be aiming right of target, square to target and left of target. So the ball position is very, very important here. If you have the ball positioned too far forwards in your stance and your stroke is arcing, it’s going to be hitting the wall left.

Likewise if the, that is too far back in the stands, the club face is going to be open and it's going to hit the ball to the right. So it's really important we’ve the ball positioned dead in the center of the feet. Then we follow the arcing nature of the stroke, the elbows come more in, the hands and arms rotate around the whole body. Now it's quite important you don't try and manipulate the clubface with the hands. It's one of the things we're trying to get away from when we’re making this arcing stroke is we're not manipulating the clubface in the hands at all.

We just keep the elbows nicely into the side of the body. The whole body turns back, the whole body turns through. As long as the ball position is exactly in the middle of the feet, we should hit the ball quite consistently straight. If you're struggling with a straight back, straight through idea you feel like you are not consistent, you are not holding enough putts, maybe the arcing stroke is going to be suitable for you. But make sure you go ahead and make the relevant changes, ball position, elbow position, eye position and try and make that putting stroke work for you.