Putting Problems: Missing Too Many Short Ones

I was walking up to the lesson tee to meet Mike for a lesson. He is a long time student, a scratch player, and was wanting a tune up because he was preparing for a number of big qualifying events in national and state tournaments. When I got to the tee I noticed that there were 7 or 8 putters lying on the ground beside his bag. We shook hands and I asked him why he brought all the putters.

He replied, “Putting lousy. I'€™m missing too many makeable ones in the 4 to 8 foot range, especially under 6 feet. I would like to spend a little time at the end of the lesson on the putting green so you can check out my stroke.'€ I said that would be no problem. I started my analysis checking out his setup, which overall was OK but, was he was aiming a little right. His swing was too long with a little too much turn, putting him slightly in the Sacred Burial Ground. The over turn was caused by moving his left knee inward too much. I got him into the wide knee with outward pressure setup, the trademark of the PPGS setup, and this did the job of shortening up the length of his backswing and eliminating his overturn. With the setup and swing fixed, we headed to the putting green.

The first thing I asked Mike was about his misses. Were they consistently missing on one side of the hole or both? He said he missed mostly to the left. I told him to choose the putter in his collection that he liked best,;the one he really wanted to be in his bag. I had him drop a coin at 6 feet and begin stroking putts. Like the long game lesson, the first thing I check is setup. His grip, stance and ball position looked good. He had a slightly open stance, which is fine, for it allows a free and smooth follow through. His shoulders and eyes were square to his line but his putter face was not '€“ big problem!

I told Mike to setup aiming the putter dead center. When he confirmed he had it lined up, I placed my pen dead square up against the putter face. I asked Mike to look at the pen and be sure it was square and aimed dead center. He confirmed the pen was square to the target. With that '€œyes'€ answer to the putter being aimed dead center, I told him to walk back and check out the line. He then easily saw and confirmed that it was not aimed dead center but at the outside left edge. I then said that left is where his putter face is always aimed and left is where he misses most of these short putts. I added that face alignment was the problem, not his setup and stroke. I had him setup and aim 3 more times and each time he aimed his favorite putter either at the left edge or just outside the left edge of the target.

Mike'€™s favorite putter was a Ping Anser type, with what is called a plumber'€™s neck. With this style, the entire shaft is ahead of the putter face. I asked Mike to choose his next favorite putter with a different hosel type to check and see if the hosel played a role in alignment of the face. His choice was one with an S type hosel, where the shaft is about half its thickness ahead of the face. After 3 alignment checks, this putter was an improvement. He was now aiming the face inside left edge to left center of the hole. But this was not good enough because this still made the aim off 1 to 2 inches from 6 feet.

I told Mike to try the in-line shaft putter next. This is a putter where the outside edge of the shaft is in line with the outside edge of the putter face, hence the name. Bingo! All three alignment attempts had the face aimed dead center. We took it back to 10, 20, 30 and 40 feet and he consistently hit his spot. No matter how big the break, he was right on target. In-line putter shafts are the key for Mike to aim correctly. In his collection, he owned just about every basic hosel and shaft to face putter configuration. He never thought or realized, studying his stats, that the in-line shaft putter would have proven to be his best choice.

Most golfers never think that the hosel and shaft relationship to the face of a putter could affect their ability to aim the face correctly. I also never thought about or realized this concept until PGA Pro Dave Edel, who makes his own custom putters, fitted me for one at The Bay Hill Classic last year. I'€™ll tell you about that learning experience next.

The Surge!