Putting Techniques

[Seenya]

On 8/22/2019 at 2:12 AM, RussUK said:

You've not heard of Jack Nickolas, Kirklees district pitch and putt champion 1972??!!

some say he's the GOAT, others say i may have made him up

 

I hear he's a "saint" of a guy.

[Mr Puddle]

After being on the other end of a great deal of abuse, I thought I would give you all an update regarding my putting. 

I was having a pretty decent degree of success by placing the ball slightly back of centre (towards my rear foot). I felt it had straightened my putting and stopped me dragging the ball to the left. I was informed by more than one member this was simply putting a plaster on the problem. I took this to heart and spent a few weeks attempting to putt with the ball placed forward of centre. Well, my putting reached an all time low, so I reverted back to plan "A". Whilst my putting improved a little, I couldn't emulate the success I previously had, so I decided to spend some time on the practice green. As previously mentioned, I have a friend who putts one handed, and very rarely 3 putts. I attempted this for myself, and whilst I don't feel confident enough to use this technique as the norm, it was easier and better than I thought. This lead me to try something else. I now putt with the ball slightly back of centre, but only use my left hand to secure the putter, rather than to use it for directional purposes. In brief, my right hand does 90% of the work, and my left hand is there for moral support only. My putting is more consistent than it ever has been now, but I openly admit I will never be the best putter in the world

[Patch]

As they say "what ever works" is the right way to do anything. 

Putting is such an individual thing for a golfer. There is no one right way to putt "for all" golfers. 

I have a buddy who putts as well as I do. We sometimes have putting competitions just for bragging rights.

Both our styles are similar except for our grips. Mine is close to conventional, while his grip looks to be on the strange side. 

His grip, if you can imagine this picture, has his left hand extremely turned counter clock wise. His right hand is turned extremely clockwise. If you look at his grip from the front, you basically see two open palms holding the club. 

His original problem was not keeping his his putter face square to his putting line. His "double open" (?) grip solved that problem for him. He now hits very straight putts on his chosen line. . 

I tried his grip a few times to no avail. 

[iacas]

9 hours ago, Patch said:

As they say "what ever works" is the right way to do anything. 

Putting is such an individual thing for a golfer. There is no one right way to putt "for all" golfers.

There is no one right way, but there are some commonalities of good putters, and those go beyond Read, Bead, and Speed.

Also this depends highly on how you define the word "works."

@Mr Puddle, without video or something of your putting stroke, we don't know if you did the other things within reason of "common" with the more "standard" ball position.

[Mr Puddle]

8 hours ago, iacas said:

There is no one right way, but there are some commonalities of good putters, and those go beyond Read, Bead, and Speed.

Also this depends highly on how you define the word "works."

@Mr Puddle, without video or something of your putting stroke, we don't know if you did the other things within reason of "common" with the more "standard" ball position.

I played 18 holes this morning and achieved a putting average of 1.83 (33 putts). A month ago that would have been nearer 2.5. I totally agree with that what works is right

[Vinsk]

3 hours ago, Mr Puddle said:

A month ago that would have been nearer 2.5.

Or tomorrow.😉

[billchao]

On 9/21/2019 at 12:25 PM, Mr Puddle said:

I was having a pretty decent degree of success by placing the ball slightly back of centre (towards my rear foot). I felt it had straightened my putting and stopped me dragging the ball to the left. I was informed by more than one member this was simply putting a plaster on the problem. I took this to heart and spent a few weeks attempting to putt with the ball placed forward of centre.

There are reasons that a back ball position isn't ideal for the putting stroke and those include physics, body position, and the manufactured loft of most putters on the market. But if you have a funky setup, placing the ball back in your stance could actually make your putting impact conditions closer to ideal. Nobody here has seen your stroke so who knows?

7 hours ago, Mr Puddle said:

I played 18 holes this morning and achieved a putting average of 1.83 (33 putts). A month ago that would have been nearer 2.5. I totally agree with that what works is right

Putts per round by itself is not a good statistical indicator of how well you are putting.

[Mr Puddle]

16 hours ago, billchao said:

There are reasons that a back ball position isn't ideal for the putting stroke and those include physics, body position, and the manufactured loft of most putters on the market. But if you have a funky setup, placing the ball back in your stance could actually make your putting impact conditions closer to ideal. Nobody here has seen your stroke so who knows?

Putts per round by itself is not a good statistical indicator of how well you are putting.

And I suppose total strokes per round aren't either

[dennyjones]

17 hours ago, billchao said:

Putts per round by itself is not a good statistical indicator of how well you are putting.

that is not what @billchao was referencing.   I play with an older couple each Friday and we play total putts.   The senior lady has an uncanny ability to chip within a few inches of the green most of the time and only has about 1 to 2 putts at the most.   The putts from off of the green don't count as putts.   A better indicator of putting statistics for amateurs would be putts per GIR.   The pros use strokes gained for putting but unless you know the distance of each putt or at least the first putt, strokes gained / lost won't help the average amateur.  

 

21 minutes ago, Mr Puddle said:

And I suppose total strokes per round aren't either

No need to be argumentative.   It would have been better to ask him to explain himself.  

[billchao]

36 minutes ago, Mr Puddle said:

And I suppose total strokes per round aren't either

Total strokes is an even worse indicator for how well you putt than putts per round.

[boogielicious]

On 9/22/2019 at 7:50 AM, Mr Puddle said:

I played 18 holes this morning and achieved a putting average of 1.83 (33 putts). A month ago that would have been nearer 2.5. I totally agree with that what works is right

32 is my average for the year. It was yours for one round. I've had 25 per 18 rounds. The band-aid will only take you so far. And I agree with others, total putts per round is not as good an indicator as putts per GIR. We often get one putts from good short game shots. My low putt rounds are often low GIR rounds too with one putts from good pitches and chips.

[iacas]

1 hour ago, billchao said:

Total strokes is an even worse indicator for how well you putt than putts per round.

Hilarious! Ha ha ha.

---

@Mr Puddle, who putts better:

• The guy who hits 18 greens in regulation and putts from about 30' on every hole, and who takes 33 putts, or
• The guy who misses all 18 greens in regulation, chips to about 3' on average, and who takes 27 putts?

If you think it's the latter, you're nuts.

[Vinsk]

On 9/22/2019 at 7:50 AM, Mr Puddle said:

played 18 holes this morning and achieved a putting average of 1.83 (33 putts).

@billchao stated how PPR isn’t a good indicator of how well you putted. Now @iacas gave you a perfectly clear example of why that’s true. Isn’t that great! It’s always cool to learn new stuff. Now you can pass it on! Thanks Erik and Bill!

[billchao]

1 hour ago, Vinsk said:

@billchao stated how PPR isn’t a good indicator of how well you putted. Now @iacas gave you a perfectly clear example of why that’s true. Isn’t that great! It’s always cool to learn new stuff. Now you can pass it on! Thanks Erik and Bill!

I got to use this twice in the same week! My daughter would be so proud of me 😎

[Mr Puddle]

Having started this thread, and receiving some stick, I thought it may interest some of you how things have progressed. If you remember I had developed a technique where I putt from the shoulders (not the arms) and place the ball back in the stance. It's not uncommon for golfers to putt from the shoulders, however it is uncommon to putt with the ball behind centre of stance. This worked for a little while, but like so many golfing techniques it all went wrong, so back to the drawing board. I am not a natural putter, and have always struggled. I spent loads of time on the putting green, and believe I have now found something that works, albeit nothing ground breaking. When hitting normal golf shots I use an overlapping grip, but was advised when I took up the sport to use a baseball grip when putting, so this is something I have always done, albeit unsuccessfully. As well as watching several YouTube videos I changed my putting to grip to the same grip I use for all my other shots, but I place both thumbs down the centre of my Superstroke putter grip. Head over the ball, ball centre of stance, and elbow tucked into ribs, whilst still putting from the shoulders. My putting has now become consistent, although I still find it hard to judge distance. I suspect this may never change. 

[boogielicious]

21 hours ago, Mr Puddle said:

Having started this thread, and receiving some stick, I thought it may interest some of you how things have progressed. If you remember I had developed a technique where I putt from the shoulders (not the arms) and place the ball back in the stance. It's not uncommon for golfers to putt from the shoulders, however it is uncommon to putt with the ball behind centre of stance. This worked for a little while, but like so many golfing techniques it all went wrong, so back to the drawing board. I am not a natural putter, and have always struggled. I spent loads of time on the putting green, and believe I have now found something that works, albeit nothing ground breaking. When hitting normal golf shots I use an overlapping grip, but was advised when I took up the sport to use a baseball grip when putting, so this is something I have always done, albeit unsuccessfully. As well as watching several YouTube videos I changed my putting to grip to the same grip I use for all my other shots, but I place both thumbs down the centre of my Superstroke putter grip. Head over the ball, ball centre of stance, and elbow tucked into ribs, whilst still putting from the shoulders. My putting has now become consistent, although I still find it hard to judge distance. I suspect this may never change. 

If you have a chance, pick up this book. Other than a couple of tweaks from my Evolvr instructors, this is the stance, setup and method I use. I am a very good putter and this stance and posture are very natural and relaxed to me. I don't think about my setup or stroke anymore, just my start line and distance.

[Mr Puddle]

1 hour ago, boogielicious said:

If you have a chance, pick up this book. Other than a couple of tweaks from my Evolvr instructors, this is the stance, setup and method I use. I am a very good putter and this stance and posture are very natural and relaxed to me. I don't think about my setup or stroke anymore, just my start line and distance.

Thanks for the advice. It amazes me though how somebody can wright an entire book on putting 

[Vinsk]

46 minutes ago, Mr Puddle said:

Thanks for the advice. It amazes me though how somebody can wright an entire book on putting 

This thread is close to being one.....