Natalie Adams – PGA Teaching Pro

Here we’re going to look at how to create a really good Putting Stroke that gives a roll on the ball, but hugs the green. As a head over heel roll on the ball. Now to explain what that means, I’ve just drawn an alignment line onto this golf ball. And if the ball is rolling with a head over heel roll, you would notice that as you hit that Putt that alignment line just keeps returning to the very center of the top of the ball. It’s just toppling over and over. If we are not hitting a head over heel Putt, that line will topple over to one side depending on what type of spin has been imparted on the ball. So it’s still rolling forward, but rather than rolling directly over, so the line just stays in a straight line; you would start to see the line oscillating as you hit that, that ball. And that’s just being created by side spin that’s been Putt on the, on the ball. Or what we term as Tilted Axis Spin. That happens when the Putter Face and the swing path of the Putter on in the same direction. Swing path just purely mean it’s a direction that you’re swinging the club head in, and obviously face aim relevant to that swing path.

So if the two match up, so if you’re swinging the Putter Head directly along the target line and the Putter Face is pointing down the target line, you’ll create this head over heels spin. And we’ll just see that that line just topples over and stays in the straight line as it moves. If you’re swinging the Putter and its not being swung directly down the target line, and then you’re having to alter the face aim to try and correct that movement that will create – this movement where the, the line of the ball as it rolls forward, topples over to one side or the other, depending on whether you’ve got the Putter Face open or closed.

So let’s have a look at how to create that that swing path; which is directly down the target line with the face aiming down the target line to create that head over heel roll on the ball. First of all we want to set the feet up, so their shoulder width apart and we want to have the ball in the center of the feet. We want to have good balance, even weight distribute, distribution between the left and the right foot. And we want to set the eyes over the ball or just on the inside of that ball; because then that’s going to allow your arms to dangle nice and relaxed. And it’s going to put you in a position where you’re going to be able to swing the Putter in a nice straight line.

The key to hitting a good stroke here is to make sure that you keep the shaft just slightly leaning forward during the stroke. If you manage to keep the shaft slightly leaning forward during the stroke the Putter Face is going to connect correctly with the ball. If the Putter Face starts having more loft; on to the putter face, because your hands are back and the shaft is leaning back, it’s going to affect the angle that the face connects with the ball. So make sure that as you hit the Putt, your hands are just over the ball or just ahead of that ball, and you want to catch the, the ball on the upper half of the ball; and that going to really give you a nice roll on the Putt. You’re going to see the ball rolling over and that line’s going to really stay centered rather than moving to one side or the other.

So work on that set up, hands over the ball, really maintain the right wrist position now as you hit through, we are going to hit the Putt. You’ll hole the Putt and work on maintaining that right wrist angle. It will give you a really good stroke, the ball will look like its hugging the green and you’ll notice if you’ve got that line drawn on the ball, its just toppling head over heel.