So we are in another lockdown......great, but on the brightside you can still improve your putting in time for the spring.
I see the same putting issues week in, week out with my clients. An inability to control clubhead speed and clubface alignment which often results in a lot of 3 putts and a major lack of conistency.
So how do we fix this? Well, below are some simple ideas that you can do from the comfort of your own home to get you rolling it pure before the spring.
So often I see golfers gripping the club like they would a 7 iron, low in the hand in the fingers. This position is great for wrist hinge and power, but for putting will create issues with excessive clubface rotation and inconsitent club head speed. This is a common setup I see with golfers who struggle with distance control.
Position the club more through the middle of the hand and feel like the shaft is more upright (from a down the line view, the shaft should look like an extension of the trail forearm). This will create a far more stable position at setup and you should find it much easier to keep the clubface online through the stroke.
Below you will see Steve Stricker (one of the best putters in the game) and notice how the shaft angle matches his trail forearm perfectly.
Another issue for golfers who suffer with poor distance control is excessive use of the wrists through impact. Exessive use of the wrists will make it difficult to keep the clubhead moving at a consistent pace through impact and will also create problems with strike (which will also effect ball speed and therefore will impact on how far the ball travels).
When you take your setup you will create a Y shape between your forearms and the club (see image below), the goal is to maintain this shape throughout the stroke, if you break your wrists, the Y shape will change, so to do this you will need to think more about the movement coming from the shoulders. Feeling like your left shoulder moves slightly down and then up is a great way to ensure the shoulders are doing the work, it will also create a slight upward strike which will apply a bit more top spin on the putt whcih helps the ball to hold its line.
Below you can see Tiger Woods maintaining the Y shape all the way through the stroke, which is one of the key reasons he has been arguably the best pressure putter of all time.
For a video demonstration, follow this link to my youTube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYj-eWvdaRg
Have a go and let me know how you get on!
