Bryson DeChambeau's New Putting Stroke (Side-Saddle)

[metbid]

20 hours ago, mvmac said:

Yeah it's something to consider. Here's a good player from Northern Cal that's been using side-saddle for a long time.

After watching the video and hearing him repeat over and over don't let the right hand move, then stating he missed putts because it moved, makes me think there are too many moving parts.  Putting really isn't that complicated........

[mvmac]

 

[iacas]

8 minutes ago, mvmac said:

 

Watching that first stroke in particular, and Bryson may want to read a thread I'm thinking about…

Yeesh!

[VOX]

Dave Pelz says this is the best method and if he was starting golf today he would employ it.

[edhalsim]

I think I read his side saddle putter is hand-made.  Does anyone know of a manufacturer who makes something similar?  I'd love to give it a try as bad a putter as I am given how hard I work on it.  The current models I see on the market are too long, not upright enough (80 degrees) and not center shafted.

[Hategolf]

I have a really hard time lining up correctly for putting, I always feel that I can't see the line clearly. I sometimes have to open my stance to get a better view of the line and I am a lot more comfortable putting that way.

 I don't think Bryson changes things around because any other reason other than to make golf easier.  Have a hard time hitting different length irons? ...well chop them up!..

What ever it takes for him to play easier golf and compete at the highest level.  I call that innovative.

Edited December 13, 2016 by Hategolf

[nevets88]

Another view

 

[Groucho Valentine]

I thought the side saddle stroke was banned.

[krupa]

13 minutes ago, Groucho Valentine said:

I thought the side saddle stroke was banned.

croquet-style putting, with your feet astride the line, is banned.

http://www.usga.org/rules/rules-and-decisions.html#!rule-16

[dchoye]

On December 7, 2016 at 10:07 PM, mvmac said:

 

Thanks for the posts 

I like how all he has to do to flex his head up 

Tried this way but I am so use to turning my head sideways to hole , it feels weird at first , bit takes no time to get used to this style 

I stick to conventional way for now but it's interesting way to putt 

[WUTiger]

I have seen side-saddle putters before at the St. Louis Golf Expo (coming in February). A small-shop clubsmith usually brings a few to demonstrate and sell.

If he comes this year, I'll get some pix and a video clip.

[Buckeyebowman]

On 12/7/2016 at 7:07 AM, boogielicious said:

I find it comical that players at their level, who can smash a driver 300+ or stripe an 8-iron from 175 have to resort to all sorts of weird setups and grips to putt. Putting is the easiest golf swing by far. My 83 old mother can putt.

Well, it is and it isn't! It's the easiest mechanically, but one of the hardest mentally. I have no doubt your 83 year old Mother could putt, but how well? Then, she might not really give a crap and do OK!

I'm reminded of something I read in George Plimpton's "The Bogey Man". He got into some discussions about the "yips" with various players. As one pro put it, "It's not that you lose your nerve, but that you lose your nerves!  You can shoot lions in the dark, yet shake like a leaf and fall flat over a two foot putt!"

And when I read "side saddle putting" I thought "shades of Sam Snead"! These are nothing close! Just very open stances. Heck, even Nicklaus putted from a fairly open stance in his later years on tour. I read an article where he described this stroke. He said the open stance allowed him to see the line better, and his right arm and hand acted as a "piston", while the left just gripped the club.

[Cartboy]

I putt side-saddle for a very good reason . . . Decision 16-1e made Sam Snead, or "Croquet-style" illegal. 

It does not seem to be much of a leap that if one is no longer allowed to straddle the line of putt, that they would simply move the offending foot to astride the line, and still putt face-on.

I have never putted any other way.  I have never wanted to putt any other way.  Perhaps I enjoy the onslaught of poorly-informed pseudo-rules players.

It's not that I haven't tried to be normal, standing behind the ball to find the line, face-on, and then turning 90 degrees to putt, but I found I lost the line doing that.  Doesn't that seem logical, that if you find the line looking face-on, you might lose the line by turning 90 degrees?  So, I find the line face-on, like a normal person, then step up and hit the putt face-on.

When I'm on, my playing partners think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread (invented in Missouri, by the way), and when I'm not, I'm just the doofus I appear to be.

But, putting is my relatively strong point.

Oh yeah, I can guess the year of Decision 16-1e pretty close, and date myself, because Sam Snead style was allowed at least until the end of my high school competitive golf.  Like a lot of other things, that's when I peaked, and my clubs got put away for awhile.

I don't know what happened to my croquet putter, but I wish I still had it.  I'd like to be able to try it side-saddle.

The best putting style on any putt is the one where the ball goes in the cup. 

[Cartboy]

I have also noticed that when people experiment with side-saddle, that they employ a lot of different grips, most of them making them look very uncomfortable. 

Just a minute, let me go get my putter . . .

Yeah, that's what I thought . . . I have never paid attention because I just grip the putter the way that feels most comfortable, without thinking.

Actually, I reverse my grip, my right hand going from below to above.

The grip in the videos posted above look very awkward.

Just to mention a couple of things which y'all probably already know.

inadvertent straddling of the line of putt is not a violation, so you see golfers doing a nonchalant tap-in while straddling the line.

&, the line of putt is not a direct line from the ball to the cup.  If it was, on putts that break a lot, the player would almost always be straddling the line, although inadvertently.  The line of putt is the direction the putt starts out.  I believe that is Decision 16-1e/1.

 

Edited January 9, 2017 by Cartboy

[natureboy]

On 12/7/2016 at 8:02 PM, iacas said:

Wait… does Bryson's putter have an 80° lie angle or less?

http://www.usga.org/rules/rules-and-decisions.html#!rule-14323 Appendix II, 1d:

 

 

On 12/9/2016 at 4:33 PM, edhalsim said:

The current models I see on the market are too long, not upright enough (80 degrees) and not center shafted.

 

Here's a DTL pic. His putter looks to have some lie angle (not vertical).

 

And as to his possible 'science' justification / interest, I would expect he's thinking along the lines of what Sasho is talking about here:

 

[iacas]

6 hours ago, natureboy said:

And as to his possible 'science' justification / interest, I would expect he's thinking along the lines of what Sasho is talking about here:

Yeah, nobody's really gonna watch that. It's an hour and thirteen minutes long.

Maybe I'll email Sasho and ask for the summary.

I think that putting face-on to the hole is more natural, but at the same time, if the theoretical "limit" is the same, then I'm already so much further down the road toward that that there's no point trying to switch now.

And I'm not sure the theoretical limit is the same. I think distance control is more likely to be more difficult face-on.

[natureboy]

43 minutes ago, iacas said:

Yeah, nobody's really gonna watch that. It's an hour and thirteen minutes long.

Maybe I'll email Sasho and ask for the summary.

I think that putting face-on to the hole is more natural, but at the same time, if the theoretical "limit" is the same, then I'm already so much further down the road toward that that there's no point trying to switch now.

And I'm not sure the theoretical limit is the same. I think distance control is more likely to be more difficult face-on.

Yeah, it's a little dry. Should have included a summary. I assumed you or another mod had already seen it. Go to the end, there may be some summary / conclusion slides and comments.

In as much nutshell as I can muster (and recall - watched it weeks ago), he goes through a process chart to identify sources of potential error based on real-world measured ranges of deviation according to skill. These factors included centeredness of impact, face angle error, path error, etc.

I think one of these may have still been significant for less skilled golfers (just not huge), but for better players they were much smaller magnitude effects than correct read and distance control.

So for a given ability to read the green and produce your intended putt, reliably producing your intended distance comes out as the biggest expected source of error in implementing the intended line to the hole. IIRC he also cited the speed with which a short term visual impression (estimate of distance to the hole) decays as soon as you take your eyes off the target.

He said Spieth's look at the hole method makes lots of sense as the effect on the center impact, path, and face errors from not looking at impact would be significantly smaller.

So I think he'd be behind Bryson's approach if he can produce similar tight 'pro' ranges of error vs. his 'traditional' method.

Edited January 10, 2017 by natureboy

[SavvySwede]

On 12/6/2016 at 8:24 PM, David in FL said:

I'm starting to get the impression that his primary requirement for trying something is that it's different....

He needs another gimmick to get back into the news this year. In six months he'll be playing with two gloves, bare feet, and a cowboy hat.