john ambrose

The stroke is called a PILS stroke; [PURE IN LINE STROKE], The hang of our arms off our shoulders allows for the square in line stroke. The lateral line stroke does allow for a perfect up and down the line stroke with a constant pendulum tempo. This stroke definitly does need a weighted, well balanced high MOI club and is as simple a stroke as rolling a ball.

That would seem true but it is not. The lie angle does not disturb a pendulum motion. On my website, I have made a pendulum machine with my L2 putter that has a 79 degree lie angle. The club will swing straight back and forth. But the real sense of the pendulum comes from the constant tempo no matter how large the stroke. The smaller size of a putt stroke allows for the square face motion from backstroke to follow through. David Pelz Putting Bible explains and endorses this motion and concept from cover to cover. I really appreciate the perspectives you bring out. Thanks

The stability in the wind is a good point.

It is really hard to bring a putter face back to square when the stroke is a screen door motion. The two most important parts to an accurate stroke involve contact with the sweet spot, and face direction at impact. The screen door stroke , although it may work for some, has been proven not to be as dependable as an up and down the line, pendulum motion. A lot of the square to open to square to closed motion in the screen door stroke offers a lot of oppertunity for movement in body parts that are not desirable like shoulders,wrists,hands, and arm roll. I think a light feel in a putter leaves room for the little muscles to get involved. The more intense we become in our desire for accuracy, the more these muscles become active. This is fine on the practice green, but when the adrenalin flows, it goes right to the small muscles.

There is a traditional mindset going on in the golf world that says light is better than heavy when it comes to golf clubs. While that may be true when a full swing is happening, it is not true when the putt stroke is. Everything in physics will tell you that slow, smooth, stability , [MOI],needs enough weight to be effected by gravity which is a steady state. I am no scientist, but common sense will tell you that means HEAVY. The one challenging thing that a heavy putter does do is make it difficult to feel impact. But what if you could feel impact and still have the benefit of stability that more weight gives you. A well distributed weight with a "hollow" body, produces the feel response so you know your impact feel as you stay stable through the stroke. I hear a lot of "light" putter advocates say they get no feedback for off hits with a heavy club. I would rather not have any off hits. Thats like closing the barn door after the horse gets out. We don't need a reason for why we miss, we need help with a stable stroke so we don't miss because of a miss hit.

I wondered if anyone is going down for the PGA show in January. I will be down there with the L2 to demo.

I am an airline pilot for the past 23 years

The Lateral Line system uses your natural shoulder swing to groove your stroke. In order to maintain a dependable distance controgIl, there needs to be a secure anchor point for the top of the grip so the pendulum motion has an axis to swing from. Also, the club head needs to be big and heavy in order for your shoulder and arm to feel the movement. The Side saddle - face on stroke that is getting some attention has been around for a while. There is a reason why it has not caught on and it isn't because of the direction a golfer faces. It is because we still need this tendency to lean toward the ball and get over the line. If the alignment is correct, and the stroke goeas back and forward down the aim line, direction is taken care of. Facing the hole when you putt is primarily for distance control and depth perception, not line.

I would like to tell you a little bit about me. I'M 59 years old and hav been playing golf my whole life. I played on the golf team in school and was an assistant , [early in my life] to a professional named Pat Laconti who owned several courses in my area . My life long career has been as an airline pilot for Continental airlines which I continue to do. But my passion is my creation of the L2 putter and development of the Lateral Line system of putting. I've been married for 39 years, have 3 kids and 6 grankids who keep me smiling all the time.