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The final bit of information which would bring me to my present state of affairs was my 3 hour session with Scotty Cameron in his putting studio in California. The Titleist people were kind enough in the early spring of 2001 to have me out to test their clubs and to visit with their resident putting genius. Scotty began by testing the putter I was using at the time, still the Odyssey mallet, measuring the length, loft (to a tenth of a degree), weight, and shaft flex. He then had me hit some putts while filming me with high tech video cameras from just about every direction possible. Before we watched my stroke he asked me what I was trying to do with the putter. I explained to him my idea of moving the putter inside then down the line, and he predicted that my stroke would have a tendency to loop in the transition from the back stroke to the forward stroke. We then watched my strokes and, sure enough, there was the loop, something I had no clue that I was doing. It may have been subtle to the eye but it was quite evident when watching in super slow motion. I asked him how he knew what we would see, and his explanation would be the jumpstart I needed to move to a new level of putting proficiency.
He explained that if I was successful in taking the putter back inside and going straight through the ball and down the target line with the blade finishing square to the line, then I would be guaranteed to push most of my putts off to the right, the reason being that the putter cannot come toward impact from the inside with the face open and expect to square up unless it releases back to the left of the line. The stroke needs to be balanced, meaning that the swing back needs to match the swing through. If you are going to take it back straight with the blade square, then you can swing it straight through and keep the blade square. By the same token, a putter that is swung inside the line and open going back must close and arc to the left on the forward stroke.
This was a true eye-opener for me, since I had spent countless hours on the practice green trying to keep the putter from going left after impact. It certainly wanted to go left, but I kept hammering away at driving it straight up the line, thinking that going left was bad. Now I was being told that I actually wanted to let the putter release to the inside coming through. You can’t imagine how happy I was to hear this from someone as reputable as Cameron, who had the luxury of working with and studying many of the best putters in the universe. I felt like I had been set free, that what I thought was a bad tendency was really quite desirable. Scotty further explained that because the putter was built on a lie angle of at least 18 degrees (as per the Rules of Golf) that the natural stroke was an arc, since the shoulders had to rotate slightly as the upper body moved the putter back and through. A straight back and through stroke was certainly possible, but he did not consider it the most desirable technique due to the fact that a rocking shoulder motion was unnatural and that to keep the putter moving straight and the face square felt manipulated.
Scotty built me a new putter, radically different from anything I had previously used, and I committed myself to using the new stroke. It worked marvelously in my first venture out with it, the U.S. Open local qualifier, where I hit it all over the place but made everything to make it in a playoff. I was too chicken to use the putter or the stroke in the Sectional qualifier, and I paid for my lack of conviction. After that it was all arc or bust, and by the time I got to the National Club Pro a month later I felt like I was ready for something good to happen. And happen it did, as I putted better than I ever had for four rounds, capping off the victory with an impossible 20 footer for par on 12 to keep the lead, and a fifteen-footer on the 16th to move ahead by three and wrap up a wire-to-wire win.
In the year and a half since I have putted consistently well, and I feel now that my knowledge of stroke mechanics and the means I use to practice will help me remain a consistently good putter for the rest of my career.
With that, I would like to end with a short list summarizing some of the items that I feel are important for solid putting:
1. Decide what you want your stoke to do, then practice doing just that. You basically have two choices: straight back and straight through, or inside to inside (arc).
2. Use a string or a chalk line to practice. The above ground string is preferable, since it doesn’t stay around for every person who comes out to putt to stand on and wear out the green.
3. Use a metronome. You can get a digital version at any music store for around $25. I set mine on 85 beats per minute. This is close to the speed of Tiger’s stroke, which is good enough for me. I found that faster is better than slower, especially on short putts, where you want less chance for the putter to wobble in transition.
4. Keep your eyes down and your head still until the putter stops moving. If you use the “one-two” of the metronome you can basically swivel your eyes up to watch the ball on the next beat. This would count out as “one-two-look up”. On a short putt you will see the ball drop into the hole.
5. Use the string for breaking putts. You will find that breaking putts are really straight putts that curve off the line due to the slope. Thus, the stroke is exactly the same, just aimed at a spot to the side of the hole.
6. Use the same rhythm for putts of all lengths. The length and pace of the stroke will adjust to the distance the ball needs to travel. A stroke for a long putt will speed up and lengthen, while the stroke for a short putt will be slower and smaller.
7. Make sure your putter has 4 degrees of loft. This is the optimum loft to roll the ball most effectively. There is no such thing as topspin, nor does a ball “skid”. In order to hit the ball with 4 degrees of loft on the putter at impact make sure the putter shaft is vertical when seen from the front view, and get rid of any forward press or backward lean. Hitting the ball with less than 4 degrees of loft drives it into the ground and causes it to bounce. Hitting it with more loft than that launches it up and creates backspin, causing it again to bounce and probably come up short.
8. Give the ball a rap. When I hit the ball on the second beat I accent the beat, giving the ball a strike. To get the feel for this put the ball between two tees stuck down into the ground that will completely stop the putter at impact. You will be surprised how the ball rolls when you do this. Remember that Gary Player was one of the great putters of all time with zero follow-through.
9. Find a comfortable set-up position, check it in the mirror, and do it exactly the same way every day. I suggest an athletic posture that mirrors your set-up for a full shot (although your hands will be closer to your body in the putting stroke).
10. Make sure your shoulders are square. A consistent arc depends on consistent shoulder rotation. This is hard to do when they are open or closed.
11. Match up your hands when you grip the putter if you use a conventional grip. Make sure your hands are symmetrical: if the right hand “V” points to the right shoulder, make sure the left hand “V” points to the left shoulder.
12. Keep your elbows tucked into your body. Try to get the feel that when the shoulders move the arms move with them. Another way to think about it is to feel the chest, shoulders, elbows and hands moving at the same time and at the same rate of speed.
13. Try different methods. The belly putter is the best alternative stroke that insures an arcing putter.
14. Practice lots of long putts. There is no secret to great lag putting. You just need to hit lots of them until you get the feel.
15. Your green-reading will improve as your mechanics improve. It is hard to learn to read putts when you never hit the ball on the line you choose.
16. Create a routine that you use every time, and don’t spend too much time looking at the ball after your last look up at the hole.