Putting light bulb moment

[deronsizemore]

I have a SC Studio Select Newport 2 Mid-Slant and my putting has been terrible all year. I'm talking -- not even touching the hole on some three footers -- bad.

I noticed that the Newport 2 has a slight sole relief so that when you set the putter on a hard surface, it will set backward slightly with the shaft tilting away from the target. So, I unknowingly to me, this is the way I've been setting up to the ball with this putter, with the shaft leaning away from the target and extra loft added. All year I've been able to see the face of the putter at address and it really throws me off. As a result I just feel like the putter face is never square so I try to adjust mid-stroke and then disaster strikes.

So, a couple weeks ago on the practice putting green I started forward pressing slightly which allowed me to get my shaft vertical at address (rather than leaning backward). Since I've had the shaft leaning backward so long, this felt like I was REALLY forward pressing although I wasn't. Once I got the shaft in a vertical position at address, the face all of a sudden looked more square to the hole and I could no longer see the face of the putter at address. It was like someone had turned the light switch on and all of a sudden I started making everything. The sound and feel at impact is so much different (better) it's not even funny.

The interesting thing to me is all we've heard this week after the Tour Championship was that Phil got a putting lesson from Dave Stockton who basically is a big advocate of everything that I started doing (although I didn't know it at the time). I've looked up Dave Stockton videos on YouTube and essentially everything he teaches, I'm doing now and my putting has been much better.

If only Phil had started putting great earlier in the season and everyone made a big deal of Dave Stockton then, my putting would have came around sooner.

Anyway, hopefully this will help someone with their putting. If you have a level at your house, use it to determine when your shaft is perfectly vertical. That's what I did and it seemed to help.

[billysandy]

I have been trying forward pressing on my carpet. It feels like sense but still the pushing and pulling some time. So i tried putting weight on my front foot and it's keeping me more fixed to the ground and i am not sway thru the stroke. I am gonna try that on the course on Saturday.

[kafka01]

So, a couple weeks ago on the practice putting green I started forward pressing slightly which allowed me to get my shaft vertical at address (rather than leaning backward).

Funny - havent been holing anything this year - since i started forward pressing the last couple of weeks my putting is soooo much better. I actually had my pro look at it today, and he told me, i should even forward press more. I was worried that i might deloft too much and that it has negative consequences on my putting, but it doesnt look like it.

Before doing this - i made 3!!! putts from > 12 feet in 120 attempts (or 23 rounds) - i made more this week alone, and finally putts start lipping out again instead off rolling by 1 foot...

I have been trying forward pressing on my carpet. It feels like sense but still the pushing and pulling some time. So i tried putting weight on my front foot and it's keeping me more fixed to the ground and i am not sway thru the stroke. I am gonna try that on the course on Saturday.

I putt crosshand - i´m using a very weak left hand a la Harrington (basically my left hand does nothing at all just stabilizes a bit) and my pulls (no pushes at all) became very rare with this.

[iPutt]

Good job man, don't you just love that moment?

I actually also just had a putting epiphany. I've been putting horrible as of late, like over 40 putts a round horrible. My main problem was with lag putting, but I was still missing A LOT of 3-5 footers. So last weekend on the course, after seeing how frustrated I was, the guy I was paired with gave me the simplest tip ever. The distance of the putt depends on the length of the back swing. All of a sudden it clicked. I got the tip on 16 and sank a 15 footer for par on 17. The ball has never rolled so true for me. Next round I had a career low 34 putts with only two 3 putts and a streak of 16 straight 2 or 1 putted holes. I honestly feel like a pro now where I'm leaving almost every second putt as a tap in rather than a tough 5 or 6 footer. The thing that this tip helped me with was hitting the ball cleanly. Before this I was taking the club back way past my back foot every time and trying to vary the speed going forward. This wasn't working for long putts because I had no gauge for how far I needed to hit it. It was also messing me up with short putts because trying to slow down goes against every single swing thought ever conceived.

[deronsizemore]

Funny - havent been holing anything this year - since i started forward pressing the last couple of weeks my putting is soooo much better. I actually had my pro look at it today, and he told me, i should even forward press more. I was worried that i might deloft too much and that it has negative consequences on my putting, but it doesnt look like it.

Yeah for me it was like an instant improvement. My setup and everything just feels so much better. I actually feel like I know where I'm aiming now. Contact feels so much better too where I'm making contact in the middle of the putter face rather than toward the bottom of the putter (since I was adding loft).

Hopefully I can keep the feeling I have now. Sometimes good feelings come and go quickly. :)

Good job man, don't you just love that moment?

Yeah that's a great tip. Your stroke should basically stay the same tempo, but it will get longer for a longer putt.

[kris]

I had a similar moment on the practice green a couple months ago where the ball just suddenly felt right coming off the putter, different sound, purer. It felt awesome. Went out on the course and had the same problems I always do.

I can sink like 20-30 footers all the time on the practice green but I still flat out suck on the course.

[SQ Bimmer]

I'm not sure what the teacher in the OP says, but the thing that helped me the most was initially finding a putter that was square with my putting grip, stance, and stroke. I found that many different putters simply did not square up correctly with my stance, and yes, I did have a lesson to make sure my stance is "conventional" or that there is nothing I am doing wrong with it.

So with the right putter, my stroke automatically puts the top of the putter to the ball before the bottom of the putter, just ever so slightly, so the ball rolls off the face very smoothly with no bouncing. This correct putter happened to be a Nike 20-10a blade. When I initially went shopping for putters I really wanted a mallet putter because of all the visual aids and MOI etc. After trying out at least 40 different putters on at least 10 different trips to different pro shops, I was consistently putting best with this Nike putter. I suppose having learned to putt with a blade had something to do with that.

So after making sure everything is square (club, body, feet, etc) and my alignment is good and being able to drop 5'+ putts no problem on FLAT surfaces, the only thing I have to work on is being able to read the break and the speed correctly. No putter in the world is going to help with this. :)

[bunkerputt]

Wow. I thought I was the only person on the planet bitten by the Scotty Cameron Newport sole draft angle, mine for slightly different reasons. When I got my Newport 2, I noticed that it tended to open in my hands on fast greens. It gave me the sense that I was cutting across the ball. I just couldn't get my alignment comfortable and had to alter my putting routine to prevent the putter from sliding open when I took the hand manipulation out of the setup. On slower greens (read the Golfsmith carpet), it didn't matter so much because the leading edge digs into the grass (or carpet) slightly creating enough resistance to overcome the propensity to turn.

Regarding your shaft alignment at address, I play with around 1.5 degrees of forward press. This means that I can see the three red dots on the back of the face, but just barely. It's a good indicator to me of whether I'm tending to acquire more or less lean and it keeps my hands in check.

[kafka01]

I had a similar moment on the practice green a couple months ago where the ball just suddenly felt right coming off the putter, different sound, purer. It felt awesome. Went out on the course and had the same problems I always do.

Maybe you have a different problem than technique then, if you drop them on the practice green but not on the course?

For me - i couldnt hole them on the practice green nor on the course. Now it changed - i hole them just as well on the practice green than on the course. Did you ever had somebody have a look at it when putting on the course? On the course most people are more tense or might approach the green with a wrong attitude than on the practice green. Than can make a big difference.

[kris]

Maybe you have a different problem than technique then, if you drop them on the practice green but not on the course?

Oh believe me, I totally know it's not the technique that's killing me. It's 100% mental with me and I've been battling it for quite a while.

It's just I had a similar moment like the OP did with striking it cleaner off the surface but that alone cannot cure my mental deficiencies on the green unfortunately

[deronsizemore]

Wow. I thought I was the only person on the planet bitten by the Scotty Cameron Newport sole draft angle, mine for slightly different reasons. When I got my Newport 2, I noticed that it tended to open in my hands on fast greens. It gave me the sense that I was cutting across the ball. I just couldn't get my alignment comfortable and had to alter my putting routine to prevent the putter from sliding open when I took the hand manipulation out of the setup. On slower greens (read the Golfsmith carpet), it didn't matter so much because the leading edge digs into the grass (or carpet) slightly creating enough resistance to overcome the propensity to turn.

It has been driving me nuts for a while now. So much that I even emailed Scotty Cameron about the sole of their putter to find out how it should set up and why the sole relief was there instead of it having a flat sole. Cameron (a staff member, not the man himself) emailed me back explaining how the putter was designed. It was designed with the sole relief so that when you make your backstroke, the sole will not get caught on any blades of grass. Makes sense when you think about it. He said that when you sole the putter on a hard surface it will lay back slightly and the shaft will lean backward. I just assumed that this is how the putter was designed and it was how I should be setting it up on the green and he confirmed that this is NOT how I should set the putter up on the putting green. He said the shaft should be vertical or even slightly forward. This raises the sole slightly off the ground so that the putter can do what it was designed to do.

Speaking of the three red dots, when I address the putter now, the three red dots are just barely hidden from my view. I know that if I can see them, then I've forward pressed too much, so I get my hands in a position where the red dots just disappear and I'm ready to make my stroke. It's such a good feeling to actually think I can make some putts again rather than simply hoping I get it somewhere close. lol

[bunkerputt]

It has been driving me nuts for a while now. So much that I even emailed Scotty Cameron about the sole of their putter to find out how it should set up and why the sole relief was there instead of it having a flat sole. Cameron (a staff member, not the man himself) emailed me back explaining how the putter was designed. It was designed with the sole relief so that when you make your backstroke, the sole will not get caught on any blades of grass. Makes sense when you think about it. He said that when you sole the putter on a hard surface it will lay back slightly and the shaft will lean backward. I just assumed that this is how the putter was designed and it was how I should be setting it up on the green and he confirmed that this is NOT how I should set the putter up on the putting green. He said the shaft should be vertical or even slightly forward. This raises the sole slightly off the ground so that the putter can do what it was designed to do.

Glad things are going better for you. I didn't realize how much my putting routine relied upon a flat sole preserving a square face at setup. I've just altered my routine slightly and I find I do OK. I tend to fidget, however, with a lot of hand releasing and regripping. Each time I do this, if the putter wants to open or hood, I have to keep fidgeting it back into place. One thing about the stock newport that exacerbates this problem is the red cord grip. I was using one of those squishy winn grips on my previous putter, which eliminated some of the movement of the putter in my hands and tended to tolerate my fidgetiness a bit better because my fingers could sink into it some requiring less grip pressure to maintain a square setup. With the firm grip, it feels a lot more like metal on metal, if you know what I mean and it takes quite a bit more attention to keep it square.

My putter is still at 4°, but if the loft were raised to 5 or so, it would eliminate some of the opening and keep the setup squarer by bringing the trailing edge down. I haven't had the guts to send it off and lose it for a couple of weeks having the loft adjusted. Plus, I don't know exactly how much to have it adjusted.... I had a "putter fitting" at golf galaxy which consisted of a guy looking at me hit a few putts, giving me some rough numbers of around 2 degrees of loft needed, and shelling out $20. I'd like to go to someone really professional, even if it takes paying some serious cash. Sometimes I can feel the ball skid a bit, and I'm sure that's because I don't have enough loft.

[deronsizemore]

My putter is still at 4°, but if the loft were raised to 5 or so, it would eliminate some of the opening and keep the setup squarer by bringing the trailing edge down. I haven't had the guts to send it off and lose it for a couple of weeks having the loft adjusted. Plus, I don't know exactly how much to have it adjusted.... I had a "putter fitting" at golf galaxy which consisted of a guy looking at me hit a few putts, giving me some rough numbers of around 2 degrees of loft needed, and shelling out $20. I'd like to go to someone really professional, even if it takes paying some serious cash. Sometimes I can feel the ball skid a bit, and I'm sure that's because I don't have enough loft.

Shouldn't need to send it off unless you just don't have anyone around you that can work on clubs. I've had my lie adjusted about four times now and played around with different lofts too. My suggestion is to NOT mess with the loft on your Cameron. With the sole relief of the putter, if you increase the loft, the putter face will tend to rock open at address. I you decrease the loft, the face will rock closed at address. I decreased the loft on mine to 3 degrees and hated it because it would not set square once I put it on the ground. I know a lot of Tour Pros have different lofts on their Cameron's but I'm guessing Scotty grinds theirs soles down so they lay flat with the new loft. Regular people like us don't have that luxury. You could try it though, anyone with a loft/lie machine should be able to adjust it. Just make sure they know what they're doing and take proper precautions to not mark up the neck and sole of your putter in the process because the metal is extremely soft.