Putters Straight Back Straight Through Putting (Video) - by Pete Styles
Putters Straight Back Straight Through Putting (Video) - by Pete Styles

Now, the straight back and straight through method of putting is probably the most commonly seen, and probably the most commonly taught method of how to get the ball into the hole. It works on the principle that if the club comes back in a straight line and goes through in a straight line with a square club face, it has a higher percentage of chance of getting that ball rolling to the hole on a straight line. It's almost taking the croquet theory of just coming straight back and through pushing the ball to the hole.

It should be more accurate than anything that's on a curve or a gated kind of action. How do we play the straight back and straight through putting stroke? Well here I’ve got the white lines on the carpet here. So I can hopefully show you. As I set up, we want to get your feet exactly parallel to that line. Now I stress the feet don't point at the hole, but they point parallel with your intended starting line. So my feet are parallel to the white line on the ground. So are my knees, my hips, my shoulders. I'm very tilted forward from the hips and my eyes are hanging directly downwards over the top of the golf ball here. So my eyes are over the ball, therefore when I tilt my head I look exactly down the target line, straight at the hole, straight at the camera. That feels therefore like I'm shooting a rifle with my eye straight down the barrel. I'm not trying to shoot a rifle from over here. So my eyes are looking down the target, everything is squared up. As the club comes back, I'm going to try and keep it square to the intended target. And as I push through, it stays on the white line and goes through to the target. And even in this level of my follow through, I don't have the club dragging or turning left. If I was to make a very long stroke like in a 30-40 footer across the full length of the green, we might start to see an element of curve start to come into the putting stroke, just because it’s very unnatural to keep it straighter for any longer than that. But for any sort of 10-15-20 foot putt, we would probably try and keep the putter face as square and as straight as possible. Most putting stroke works particularly well for left-hand dominant players, and for anyone that's left below right. So I tend to putt my left below my right. Therefore my putting stroke is straight back and straight through. It doesn't have much of the curving stroke in the arc. So when you're out there putting on the putting green, just consider whether you have an arcing stroke or a straight-back straight-through stroke. Try each one, work out which one you feel is most successful for your putting stroke, and then have a good look at all the good players on the all the good players on the tour, see which one is a straight-back straight-through, which ones are arcing. Try both methods for yourself and stick with the most successful. 2015-07-15

Now, the straight back and straight through method of putting is probably the most commonly seen, and probably the most commonly taught method of how to get the ball into the hole. It works on the principle that if the club comes back in a straight line and goes through in a straight line with a square club face, it has a higher percentage of chance of getting that ball rolling to the hole on a straight line. It's almost taking the croquet theory of just coming straight back and through pushing the ball to the hole.

It should be more accurate than anything that's on a curve or a gated kind of action. How do we play the straight back and straight through putting stroke? Well here I’ve got the white lines on the carpet here. So I can hopefully show you. As I set up, we want to get your feet exactly parallel to that line. Now I stress the feet don't point at the hole, but they point parallel with your intended starting line. So my feet are parallel to the white line on the ground. So are my knees, my hips, my shoulders.

I'm very tilted forward from the hips and my eyes are hanging directly downwards over the top of the golf ball here. So my eyes are over the ball, therefore when I tilt my head I look exactly down the target line, straight at the hole, straight at the camera. That feels therefore like I'm shooting a rifle with my eye straight down the barrel. I'm not trying to shoot a rifle from over here. So my eyes are looking down the target, everything is squared up. As the club comes back, I'm going to try and keep it square to the intended target.

And as I push through, it stays on the white line and goes through to the target. And even in this level of my follow through, I don't have the club dragging or turning left. If I was to make a very long stroke like in a 30-40 footer across the full length of the green, we might start to see an element of curve start to come into the putting stroke, just because it’s very unnatural to keep it straighter for any longer than that. But for any sort of 10-15-20 foot putt, we would probably try and keep the putter face as square and as straight as possible.

Most putting stroke works particularly well for left-hand dominant players, and for anyone that's left below right. So I tend to putt my left below my right. Therefore my putting stroke is straight back and straight through. It doesn't have much of the curving stroke in the arc. So when you're out there putting on the putting green, just consider whether you have an arcing stroke or a straight-back straight-through stroke.

Try each one, work out which one you feel is most successful for your putting stroke, and then have a good look at all the good players on the all the good players on the tour, see which one is a straight-back straight-through, which ones are arcing. Try both methods for yourself and stick with the most successful.