Putting One-Handed

[Joe Mama]

One-Handed Putting I'm a right-handed player who putts with my left hand. I tried a hundred different putting styles, but this one works better for me than any of them. Without my right hand on the club I'm able to stand taller, which affords a better view of the intended line. I also don't have to worry about twitches, staggers, jitters and jerks ("yips") of the right hand taking my club face off-line. I use a John Riley Tri-Liner: The ball is just to the left of my right foot, and the club face is just to the right; my right foot is pulled way back. The COMPLETELY relaxed left arm hangs virtually STRAIGHT DOWN, with absolutely NO leftward, rightward, backward, or forward push or pull on the shaft, and zero torque (twisting action) employed to keep the face square. If these conditions are not met, then forget it. Move your head one way or the other, or shift your stance slightly, if necessary, until the club in your completely relaxed hand and arm hangs straight down, achieving this without the use of any force except the supporting upward pull by your left hand, and the competing downward pull of gravity. The thumb must be on top of the shaft, else if the thumb is a little on the right side there might be a tendency to push the shaft on the way down. That must not happen: the motion down should be purely pendulum-like in nature. Naturally, the center line of the Tri-Liner points at the center of the ball, and the face is square to the intended line; the club is about 1/8 of an inch off the green. Take the club back however far is necessary in order to achieve the desired distance. The arm and shaft remain on the same line going back, and there is no breaking of the wrists. Now, here is the BEST part: don't worry if during the takeaway the face angle changes; your backswing won't be perfect; let the face angle change if it wants to; do NOT attempt to fix the angle going back, or coming down. On the way down, let gravity alone pull the club down to impact. If your arm happened to twist a little going back, it will automatically twist back into proper alignment in time for impact. Keep your arm and wrist TOTALLY relaxed, and trust that the club face will return to its exact position at setup. Do NOT attempt to manipulate the club's face angle on the way down. If your arm and wrists are totally relaxed on the backswing and downswing just as they were at setup, the face almost magically finds its way back to a perfectly square position at impact. If your face was square at setup with relaxed arm and wrist, is is guaranteed to return to the same place. Do NOT pull the club down to impact; if you leave that job up to gravity, you won't be disappointed. The motion down should be pendulum motion only. Just let it all happen. The key is trusting that gravity alone will get the job done, and trusting that it is not necessary to worry about minor club face angle changes during the backswing. If you make any effort at all to adjust the face angle, you will fail to return square to the ball. Likewise, if you attempt to intervene in the natural gravitational course of events on the way down, your club face will fail to return square to the ball. If the face was square at setup and the club was hanging vertically, freely, at the end of totally relaxed arm and hand, it will return to square through gravity alone, as long as you do not manipulate the face angle on the way back, or the way down. You will be AMAZED at how well this works. Some PGA pros have done well putting with one hand; Mike Hulbert is one example, but he was a right-hand player putting with his right hand. I am a right handed player putting with my left hand.

[Mr. Desmond]

Looking at your posts, you need to change your handle to Mr. Unconventional ... definitely an outlier.

[billchao]

I putt basically one-handed, also, except it's with my right hand. I wrap my left hand over my right hand, but it's basically for show (only one finger touches,the grip). It's so I can do this, which apparently I do pretty well: [CONTENTEMBED=/t/74295/putting-do-not-accelerate-through-the-ball layout=block][/CONTENTEMBED]

[Ernest Jones]

+1 on the don't accelerate through the ball thread!

I use both hands with a stroke that mimics a pendulum, it's not actually a pure pendulum (a true pendulum would be powered by gravity and centrifugal force alone) because I sometimes need to hit putts 20-30 feet and that would require one helluva backswing if it was truly a pure pendulum.

Question for the OP - how do you make long, uphill putts on slow greens?

[vangator]

This putting method sounds better than the other thread on your golf swing. But the bottom line is, if it works, flaunt it. Long putts do sound like they could be problematical.

[Joe Mama]

. Long putts do sound like they could be problematical.

The one arm putt works well for distances less than about 20 feet. It is, indeed, very problematical for very long uphill putts, or long putts on very slow greens, because of the extra-long backswing that is required, so I don't use this method in those situations. For very long putts I use a modified version of Snedeker's putt--what I call the "Snedeker Snap," a two-handed, almost all-wrists swing; no arms or shoulders. I hinge the wrists back as far as they will bend, then rapidly unhinge them, pulling with my left wrist, pushing with my right wrist, all the while the watch on my left wrist remains in place from start to finish. Distance is determined by the speed at which the wrists are snapped toward the target.

[Ernest Jones]

The one arm putt works well for distances less than about 20 feet.

It is, indeed, very problematical for very long uphill putts, or long putts on very slow greens, because of the extra-long backswing that is required, so I don't use this method in those situations.

For very long putts I use a modified version of Snedeker's putt--what I call the "Snedeker Snap," a two-handed, almost all-wrists swing; no arms or shoulders. I hinge the wrists back as far as they will bend, then rapidly unhinge them, pulling with my left wrist, pushing with my right wrist, all the while the watch on my left wrist remains in place from start to finish. Distance is determined by the speed at which the wrists are snapped toward the target.

With all due respect, that sounds like an awful way to putt. Distance control must be very difficult. Let me ask you this, on a 30' lag putt, how close to expect to be if it doesn't go in? How about a 60' lag?

I'm not against a little wrist action, I use it on longer putts, but it's an add-on to get a little more power without having to make a ridiculous back swing on longer, uphill putts. Using wrists only is, IMO, a recipe for terrible speed control.

[Mr. Desmond]

For very long putts I use a modified version of Snedeker's putt--what I call the "Snedeker Snap," a two-handed, almost all-wrists swing; no arms or shoulders. I hinge the wrists back as far as they will bend, then rapidly unhinge them, pulling with my left wrist, pushing with my right wrist, all the while the watch on my left wrist remains in place from start to finish. Distance is determined by the speed at which the wrists are snapped toward the target.

I'm watching Sneds putt on television ... that's not how he putts. He uses his shoulders and float-loads the putter on the thru-stroke.

But good luck.

[Abu3baid]

The one arm putt works well for distances less than about 20 feet. It is, indeed, very problematical for very long uphill putts, or long putts on very slow greens, because of the extra-long backswing that is required, so I don't use this method in those situations. For very long putts I use a modified version of Snedeker's putt--what I call the "Snedeker Snap," a two-handed, almost all-wrists swing; no arms or shoulders. I hinge the wrists back as far as they will bend, then rapidly unhinge them, pulling with my left wrist, pushing with my right wrist, all the while the watch on my left wrist remains in place from start to finish. Distance is determined by the speed at which the wrists are snapped toward the target.

I think putting is such a personalized action that depends on the persons ability to feel how far he can putt the ball on the correct line! I'm glad that you have found a way to play good golf while you're on the green! Keep us posted!

[Joe Mama]

Less than about 20 feet, I putt one-handed. Lags longer than about 59 feet I use my Snedeker Snap (with apilogies to him), between 20 and 50 feet I use an orhodox putting method. As for how close I expect my 60-foot Sneddy to go, the answer is, abou tsix feet, Distance control should be a problem, one would reasonably think, but the longer the lag, the smaller is the percentage error compared to traditional putts. In my first post I said I hinged my wrists as far as rhey would go. That's wrong; I hinge no more than about 20 degrees.

[Joe Mama]

Typos: 59 feet should be 60. Apilogies should be apologies. My iphone app didn't allow edits.

[David in FL]

I'll say one thing, you certainly march to the beat of a different drummer when it comes to this game! ;-) [quote name="Mr. Desmond" url="/t/76599/putting-one-handed#post_1042015"]Looking at your posts, you need to change your handle to Mr. Unconventional ... definitely an outlier. [/quote] Yup. Ordinarily I'd say, "whatever works.....", but unfortunately none of this weird stuff seems to be working very well either.....

[MS256]

The next time I break my right arm I'll give it a shot. In the meantime, since almost every putt that I miss is either bacause of a bad read or the wrong speed for the line, I'll stick with my fairly normal looking putting stroke.

[Joe Mama]

Here is a link to a website describing Snedeker's "pop" putt. [URL=http://www.golf.com/instruction/brandt-snedekers-putting-secrets-0]http://www.golf.com/instruction/brandt-snedekers-putting-secrets-0[/URL] He has a small arm swing, which don't have, but the main features of his swing are the the same as mine: little or no shoulder and arm movement; the swing is predominantly in the wrists. Energy is delivered to the ball over a very short period of time centered at the instant of impact, instead of being delivered over a "follow through" period as in the traditional putting stroke. As I indicated in a previous post, I use this putt only in those situations where a very long backswing would be needed in the traditional putt. I find that snapping the ball toward a cup sixty feet away more surely keeps the ball on line than does a putt with a long backswing and follow through, which gives more time and space for pushes and pulls to occur. The chance of a push or pull occurring with the snappy putt is much less than it is with the conventional putt. And, distance control, amazingly, is nowhere as difficult for me as you might expect. By varying the amount of wrist backswing, with practice one quickly gains a good feel for distance. As for my other "unconventional" putting style--putting one-handed, left handed, for distances less than 20 feet, I mentioned before that PGA pro Mike Hulbert putted one-handed. If it was good enough for him, couldn't it be good enough for some of those in this forum, too? If not, why not?

[Mr. Desmond]

Here is a link to a website describing Snedeker's "pop" putt.

http://www.golf.com/instruction/brandt-snedekers-putting-secrets-0

He has a small arm swing, which don't have, but the main features of his swing are the the same as mine: little or no shoulder and arm movement; the swing is predominantly in the wrists. Energy is delivered to the ball over a very short period of time centered at the instant of impact, instead of being delivered over a "follow through" period as in the traditional putting stroke.

As I indicated in a previous post, I use this putt only in those situations where a very long backswing would be needed in the traditional putt. I find that snapping the ball toward a cup sixty feet away more surely keeps the ball on line than does a putt with a long backswing and follow through, which gives more time and space for pushes and pulls to occur. The chance of a push or pull occurring with the snappy putt is much less than it is with the conventional putt. And, distance control, amazingly, is nowhere as difficult for me as you might expect. By varying the amount of wrist backswing, with practice one quickly gains a good feel for distance.

As for my other "unconventional" putting style--putting one-handed, left handed, for distances less than 20 feet, I mentioned before that PGA pro Mike Hulbert putted one-handed. If it was good enough for him, couldn't it be good enough for some of those in this forum, too? If not, why not?

Watch it on television and see if you agree. Of course, a putt, depending on its length, does not have a lot of shoulder movement. Typically, the shoulders move the arms, and the arms experience little/no independent movement. The float load is described on this site.

If you've got to putt like that to make the putt go where you aim, my thought was that putter does not fit you at all, and you are full of compensations.

Feel free to experiment and ignore what the unheralded like me advise ... but as a mid-capper, I prefer to set up in a more conventional manner when I don't know what I'm doing -- I set my body up square to the line, with my eyes over the ball or just inside (depends on your aim) with the putter set up square to the line and the ball in a place where the putter makes contact with just on the uptake of the stroke (at least I believe that I stated it correctly).

I don't need to be a pioneer when others have already made a path for me.

[David in FL]

I mentioned before that PGA pro Mike Hulbert putted one-handed. If it was good enough for him, couldn't it be good enough for some of those in this forum, too?

One, very pedestrian pro putted for awhile with one hand. EVERY other pro in the history of the game putts with both hands, and you really want to use that one mediocre outlier as your argument that others should putt one handed? :doh:

[Joe Mama]

Watch it on television and see if you agree. Of course, a putt, depending on its length, does not have a lot of shoulder movement. Typically, the shoulders move the arms, and the arms experience little/no independent movement. The float load is described on this site. If you've got to putt like that to make the putt go where you aim, my thought was that putter does not fit you at all, and you are full of compensations.

Then, you would say the same about Snedeker's pop putt? His putt is the same as mine, except he has little more arm movement.

[Mr. Desmond]

Then, you would say the same about Snedeker's pop putt? His putt is the same as mine, except he has little more arm movement.

I know what Sned's looks like and his setup ... I have no idea about what you think you do and what you do.

That's not a knock on you or anyone else -- too many times, I've heard what guys think they do and when they see what they do on video ... they can't believe what they see ... me included.