Correct Head Position For Golf Putting (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles
Correct Head Position For Golf Putting (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles

So you now join me on the putting green where we are going to discuss the role of the head movement and the weight shift in putting. Now quite specifically in putting there shouldn’t be any weight shift, there shouldn’t really be a great deal of head movement at all, we’ve got to work quite hard here to stop doing the things we’ve done quite a lot in our normal golf swing. We know a normal golf swing has a weight shift right to left and then a nice big follow through for the right handed golfer. But in putting we need to try and do everything we can to resist those temptations. We often see golfers when they start learning how to putt they still sort of follow through with their legs and follow through with their head and look up to see where the ball goes. But its quite important as a golfer to actually restrict those motions, so during our set up position here everything is nicely balanced with 50/50 left foot and right foot, 50/50 between the toes and the heels, and then during the swinging action although the club moves backwards and forwards, the head doesn’t. There is two areas of concern that I see for a lot of golfers here; one is that they get used to watching the club back and through, so their head will follow what the club does, they will watch it on the way back, they will watch it on the way through, and we really to try our hardest to avoid doing that.

Once the head is set and fixed over the ball the club should move independently and the eyes should never move from the golf ball. The other area where I see golfers sometimes fall foul is that they actually watch the ball leave the club head and watch it roll down towards the hole, they are so keen and desperate to see whether the ball goes in, that they have a little twist of the head to watch it as it flows so they get a good set up position. They work hard keeping their head still on the backswing, but then they are off and the head moves which in turn moves the chest, moves the body weight, moves the legs. So I stress that during the stroke we are actually trying to keep things very, very still and as stable as possible. Nice set up position, everything still, eyes on the golf ball, back, and through, nothing moves. And even as this ball rolls away towards the hole, we are not going to let the head move and watch it until it’s well out of view, then I would turn my head to look up, but the ball was probably a good six or ten feet away from my hitting point before I looked up, and that encourages me to stay still and look rather than moving the whole body and the head at the same time. So go ahead and try and work on keeping your body weight nice and consistent with no instabilities, and no twisting of the head during your putting game and then let it move a little bit more during your full swings. 2015-10-19

So you now join me on the putting green where we are going to discuss the role of the head movement and the weight shift in putting. Now quite specifically in putting there shouldn’t be any weight shift, there shouldn’t really be a great deal of head movement at all, we’ve got to work quite hard here to stop doing the things we’ve done quite a lot in our normal golf swing. We know a normal golf swing has a weight shift right to left and then a nice big follow through for the right handed golfer. But in putting we need to try and do everything we can to resist those temptations. We often see golfers when they start learning how to putt they still sort of follow through with their legs and follow through with their head and look up to see where the ball goes. But its quite important as a golfer to actually restrict those motions, so during our set up position here everything is nicely balanced with 50/50 left foot and right foot, 50/50 between the toes and the heels, and then during the swinging action although the club moves backwards and forwards, the head doesn’t. There is two areas of concern that I see for a lot of golfers here; one is that they get used to watching the club back and through, so their head will follow what the club does, they will watch it on the way back, they will watch it on the way through, and we really to try our hardest to avoid doing that.

Once the head is set and fixed over the ball the club should move independently and the eyes should never move from the golf ball. The other area where I see golfers sometimes fall foul is that they actually watch the ball leave the club head and watch it roll down towards the hole, they are so keen and desperate to see whether the ball goes in, that they have a little twist of the head to watch it as it flows so they get a good set up position. They work hard keeping their head still on the backswing, but then they are off and the head moves which in turn moves the chest, moves the body weight, moves the legs. So I stress that during the stroke we are actually trying to keep things very, very still and as stable as possible. Nice set up position, everything still, eyes on the golf ball, back, and through, nothing moves. And even as this ball rolls away towards the hole, we are not going to let the head move and watch it until it’s well out of view, then I would turn my head to look up, but the ball was probably a good six or ten feet away from my hitting point before I looked up, and that encourages me to stay still and look rather than moving the whole body and the head at the same time. So go ahead and try and work on keeping your body weight nice and consistent with no instabilities, and no twisting of the head during your putting game and then let it move a little bit more during your full swings.