Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Why Putting is Hard.

1. The putter shaft moves on a straight plane.
2. The putter head moves on a curved arc.
3. The putter head moves on a path independent of the shaft to which it is attached. ( in other words the arc is not determined by shaft angle)

This all happens in the same putting stroke.

Ignore one aspect of the motion and you are toast.    

The drawing below was submitted by one of my clients. It is a perfect representation of his stroke. The green line represents the direction the shaft moves and the directional FEEL of his stroke. The blue arc shows the actual path the putterhead follows along this plane of motion, due to the fixed length of the putter.

Before anyone starts to judge this stroke, I would ask you to go on youtube and watch Bobby Jones hit putts.

As long as the face is square at impact the ball is going to start on the intended line. The red elipse represents the shoulders and I would say they are aligned more left than the drawing suggests. But shaft plane and putter path are accurate.
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