ArmLock Putting Style

[NM Golf]

Is there anyone out there who has any experience with the armlock putting style? How did you like it. Pros and Cons? I'm considering going that direction.

I've never been a great putter, I've always relied on my length and ball striking to overcome my putting woes, but my putting has recently really started to be a glaring problem. My putting stats continue to get worse and worse with each round I play. Short putts are my main issue, I am really struggling from 3-6 feet with a make percentage well below 25% in my last 6 rounds.

I've tried claw, left hand low, heck I even tried a broomstick putter...right now I couldn't make a 4 footer if my life depended on it.

Thanks in advance!

 

[iacas]

I'm not a fan, but… I putt well the traditional way.

I don't like methods (personally) that "take the hands out of it" as that's not how we do almost anything else athletic, like throwing a ball to someone 25 feet away, etc. There's always a little play with the wrists.

[ChetlovesMer]

3 hours ago, NM Golf said:

Is there anyone out there who has any experience with the armlock putting style? How did you like it. Pros and Cons? I'm considering going that direction.

I've never been a great putter, I've always relied on my length and ball striking to overcome my putting woes, but my putting has recently really started to be a glaring problem. My putting stats continue to get worse and worse with each round I play. Short putts are my main issue, I am really struggling from 3-6 feet with a make percentage well below 25% in my last 6 rounds.

I've tried claw, left hand low, heck I even tried a broomstick putter...right now I couldn't make a 4 footer if my life depended on it.

Thanks in advance!

 

I tried it a couple of times. It wasn't my cup of tea. I think for short putts it's fine. But for anything with any sort of length, I just found it too difficult to get the distance control. 

One thing I will say is that if you are interested in trying it, you can get any number of used arm lock putters at Golf Galaxy or Play it Again Sports or your PGA Superstore. A lot of people seem to try it. Then buy an arm-lock putter and then trade it in pretty quickly. So, there are always a ton of the arm-lock putters in the used putter area. 

It seems like one of those things that in order to really get a lot out of it, you need to put a lot into it. Long term it may pay dividends, but if you are expecting a magic elixir, I think you may be setting yourself up for disappointment. 

Personally, I don't like claw, or left hand low. I just like the plain old "normal" putting style. 

Might I suggest day 15 of the COVID-19 30 day challenge? 

I think that might help you more than changing putters. But hang in there. We all go through slumps. 👍

 

[NM Golf]

1 hour ago, iacas said:

I'm not a fan, but… I putt well the traditional way.

I don't like methods (personally) that "take the hands out of it" as that's not how we do almost anything else athletic, like throwing a ball to someone 25 feet away, etc. There's always a little play with the wrists.

I haven't really putted well since the anchoring ban took affect. Before that I used a belly putter and enjoyed the best putting years of my life. So basically, I have never putted well when my hands are allowed free rein. 

 

[iacas]

2 minutes ago, NM Golf said:

I haven't really putted well since the anchoring ban took affect. Before that I used a belly putter and enjoyed the best putting years of my life. So basically, I have never putted well when my hands are allowed free rein. 

I understand that. Just saying I'm not a fan of strokes that "take the hands out of it" or whatever, because that often makes distance control more difficult.

[NM Golf]

Just now, iacas said:

I understand that. Just saying I'm not a fan of strokes that "take the hands out of it" or whatever, because that often makes distance control more difficult.

That is an issue for sure, something I have considered. Going to have to put in the work on that end. 

Really comes down to this, this is a decision based on my statistics. I am hitting it closer to the hole than I ever have. Due in part to the work I have put in with the pro at my course and a lot of range time. My proximity stats are really good this summer. I need to try and take advantage of this by improving my short range putting.

 

[ChetlovesMer]

14 minutes ago, NM Golf said:

That is an issue for sure, something I have considered. Going to have to put in the work on that end. 

Really comes down to this, this is a decision based on my statistics. I am hitting it closer to the hole than I ever have. Due in part to the work I have put in with the pro at my course and a lot of range time. My proximity stats are really good this summer. I need to try and take advantage of this by improving my short range putting.

 

What are your short range putting strokes gained? Do you currently work on your putting?

[iacas]

16 minutes ago, NM Golf said:

That is an issue for sure, something I have considered. Going to have to put in the work on that end. 

Really comes down to this, this is a decision based on my statistics. I am hitting it closer to the hole than I ever have. Due in part to the work I have put in with the pro at my course and a lot of range time. My proximity stats are really good this summer. I need to try and take advantage of this by improving my short range putting.

So you'll put in the work on your full swing, what about putting in work on your putting? 🙂

(If you truly have a ton of short putts and you don't have to worry about distance control as much, you'd be a) a unicorn, and b) probably within reason to just prioritize being able to hit your start line.)

Do you know how well you aim your current putter?

[NM Golf]

16 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

What are your short range putting strokes gained? Do you currently work on your putting?

 

15 minutes ago, iacas said:

So you'll put in the work on your full swing, what about putting in work on your putting? 🙂

(If you truly have a ton of short putts and you don't have to worry about distance control as much, you'd be a) a unicorn, and b) probably within reason to just prioritize being able to hit your start line.)

Do you know how well you aim your current putter?

I stick pretty close the the 65/25/10 rule as far as practicing at the course. Although I got a nice large home putting green in January that I use a great deal so I actually work on my putting more now than I ever have.

I have a laser that I use for alignment along with several drills I do with alignment sticks and a putting mirror, so I think I aim my putter fairly well. I have a yippy stroke. On the practice green I often putt very well making 20+ short putts in a row. I get in competition and it's a whole other ball game. So there is some mental stuff in there as well, which is weird because I am not that way with the full swing. I have never been one of those guys that can't take my game from the range to the course. 

It's very frustrating, it really is.

[iacas]

Yeah, well, worth a shot. Especially if you do have a lot of shorter putts.

[coachjimsc]

16 hours ago, NM Golf said:

Is there anyone out there who has any experience with the armlock putting style? How did you like it. Pros and Cons? I'm considering going that direction.

I switched over in April of this year. It has been a game changer for me. I sucked at putting, now I suck less at putt. 😁

One of the biggest differences for me was how solid I hit my longer putts which has helped with speed control. I had a few guys who I've gotten paired up with recently say how impeccable my speed was. Also face control has been better. Starting the ball online more often.

Here are my strokes gained stats for the year. Red line is pre armlock to the left, post armlock to the right.

 

I still have a black hole between 5-8 foot putts. Although that has improved with the armlock as I was over -1.00 previously. 

So I would definitely recommend you give it a try. Especially as you get older, like me. 😉

[iacas]

If you couldn't hit putts solidly before, and you can with ArmLock, that might be more than enough to offset the lessening of "feel" that you would get from the method with respect to distance control.

[Big Lex]

I'll just throw this out there...I started experimenting with different putting styles about 15 years ago. I made myself a long putter and tried that, anchoring to the chest. I tried using the long putter in a side-saddle stance. I tried regular putters with different grips (e.g., an Edel putter with a round grip, and a Fat Cat grip placed on a C-groove putter I had). I tried a couple of putters by a company called PURE, which is a unique design where you can adjust the lie angle and weight of the putter yourself; and you can swap out offset or regular shafts. I tried left hand low (for several years) and various other grip styles seeing if I could make my hands more stable or comfortable. 

Alot of this was an attempt to "take the hands out of the" stroke, make myself more consistent, whatever. 

Again, YMMV, but to me, all this effort to take my hands out of it almost made me more conscious or worried about what my hands were doing. My putting did not get better over this time period, and in fact got worse. Not only distance control, but direction. I lost confidence and began putting tentatively. 

I tried an experiment where I took a very old putter I had and messed around putting with as wristy a stroke as I could make myself do, like you see Arnold Palmer or other players from the 1950s and early 60s putt. I decided to go ahead and use my wrists as much as possible - just practicing - to see what happened, and to sort of face this demon head on. To my surprise, it seemed like I putted fine this way, certainly no worse than I was doing with all these other methods. It took away some of the tentativeness and fear on short putts. 

I eventually incorporated this in a limited way into my normal putting. I take the putter back more or less "one piece," but don't make any monumental effort to have everything frozen in place. I don't try to hit the putts with a primary wrist stroke, but I let the wrists move a little in the stroke if they want to, and just try to feel that the putter head doesn't pass my hands before impact. I'm not afraid of it anymore because I gained some feel for it by intentionally using the wrists. 

I think this has helped my putting alot. I'm less tentative, have better distance control, fewer mis-hit putts, and less horrific putts like missing the hole by 3 inches on a 3 footer. 

 

[NM Golf]

2 hours ago, coachjimsc said:

I switched over in April of this year. It has been a game changer for me. I sucked at putting, now I suck less at putt. 😁

One of the biggest differences for me was how solid I hit my longer putts which has helped with speed control. I had a few guys who I've gotten paired up with recently say how impeccable my speed was. Also face control has been better. Starting the ball online more often.

Here are my strokes gained stats for the year. Red line is pre armlock to the left, post armlock to the right.

 

I still have a black hole between 5-8 foot putts. Although that has improved with the armlock as I was over -1.00 previously. 

So I would definitely recommend you give it a try. Especially as you get older, like me. 😉

Thanks! I'm giving it a try, I found an armlock putter at my course and I've been working with it for about a week now. Seems much better on the short putts, but I have some work to do with feel on longer lag putts, but I am hitting them solidly. I obsess, so I will hit over 2000 putts this week easily.

Really I am like you, I just want to go back to sucking less at putting. I have no dreams of turning in Brad Faxon or Stan Utley because of this, but I would like to make the occasional 4-6 footer, and not be a complete psycho over every 3 footer.

Edited September 1, 2022 by NM Golf

[ChetlovesMer]

8 minutes ago, NM Golf said:

Thanks! I'm giving it a try, I found an armlock putter at my course and I've been working with it for about a week now. Seems much better on the short putts, but I have some work to do with feel on longer lag putts, but I am hitting them solidly. I obsess, so I will hit over 2000 putts this week easily.

Really I am like you, I just want to go back to sucking less at putting. I have no dreams of turning in Brad Faxon or Stan Utley because of this, but I would like to make the occasional 4-6 footer, and not be a complete psycho over every 3 footer.

Do you have room in your bag to carry two putters? 
One for long putts and one for short putts? 

I'm only half kidding. 👍

[NM Golf]

21 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Do you have room in your bag to carry two putters? 
One for long putts and one for short putts? 

I'm only half kidding. 👍

I've considered just about everything, I assure you. 😜

I used to play golf with Notah Begay when he was doing that switch putting thing (right breaking putts left handed/left breaking putts right handed) That was interesting to watch. He won 4 times on tour doing it, so nothing is too crazy if it works!

[coachjimsc]

32 minutes ago, NM Golf said:

Thanks! I'm giving it a try, I found an armlock putter at my course and I've been working with it for about a week now. Seems much better on the short putts, but I have some work to do with feel on longer lag putts, but I am hitting them solidly. I obsess, so I will hit over 2000 putts this week easily.

Really I am like you, I just want to go back to sucking less at putting. I have no dreams of turning in Brad Faxon or Stan Utley because of this, but I would like to make the occasional 4-6 footer, and not be a complete psycho over every 3 footer.

And don't be afraid to mess around with different grips. For instance, I use left hand low inside of about 10 feet and conventional outside of that distance. Just find what works best for you.

[NM Golf]

9 minutes ago, coachjimsc said:

And don't be afraid to mess around with different grips. For instance, I use left hand low inside of about 10 feet and conventional outside of that distance. Just find what works best for you.

Thanks!  Right now I think I feel most comfortable using the claw grip with it (Zalatoris style), but I've tried several.

Edited September 1, 2022 by NM Golf