- Grip the putter with your right hand; with the left hand, hold your right arm just above the elbow.
- When making a stroke, you should feel the shoulders rock or tilt back and through, with little or no wrist involvement.
- Switch the putter to your left hand, holding the left arm with the right hand, and repeat.
- After several strokes with each hand, put them both on the club and stroke a few more putts using the same rocking motion.
Back when greens were slow and bumpy, golfers used a “popping” stroke with lots of wrist action to power the ball across the surface. As greens became faster and smoother, an arms-and-shoulders stroke became the preferred method.
Unless you play greens with conditions circa 1955, your hands and wrists should have very little involvement in the stroke. Check yourself in front of a mirror to see if you’ve got excess flipping of the hands going back and through.
If so, you need to adopt a stroke that’s controlled by the rocking or tilting of the shoulders, taking the wrists out of action. This drill will help you develop the correct putting technique:
Once you’ve got the hang of the proper shoulder movement, you’ll notice that the wrists are passive and your stroke more fluid. Your pace on the greens will improve dramatically.
