The damn putter…
It’s always been a bit of an issue. But, I never truly believed it until I saw my Shot Scope data for the first time. As it turns out, putts per round is a pretty poor stat when you aren’t hitting many greens. It’s easy enough to keep your total putts down when you chip on to the green rather than hitting the green from 150 yards out.
So, I decided to do some reasearch into how I could improve my putting and start Droppin’ Strokes off the handicap.
How I Used to Putt
For as long as I can remember, I have always putted with a very straight lead arm. Think Bryson, but less hunchy. I also liked to use a very short putter so I could be right on top of the ball. Being 6′ 3″ with a 30″ putter would get some comments….. A lot of Michelle Wie comments and questions about whose child I stole my putter from. But I liked to putt that way and I thought it worked well enough, so I kept doing it.
Why I Decided to Change My Stroke
Early on this season, I saw an Instagram reel that really got me to question how I putt and look at changing my stroke up. In the video, the guy had you sit on a chair and make your putting stroke with your putter held straight out in front of you. This was to take your lower body out of the stroke completely and help you to see how your stroke flows while using just the upper body, as you should. Well, I tried it and I could barely get my arm past impact. So, I knew it was probably time to change up my putting stroke if I ever wanted to see some real improvement.
The Changes
I got in contact with my swing coach and we re-built my putting stroke to be more typical. Instead of locking my arms and focusing on keeping my path as straight as possible, I’m now allowing my arms to hang naturally before I pull my upper arms back up alongside my upper body for a more connected feel. This allows for my shoulders to rock easily while keeping my lower body still. This has given my putting stroke a slight arc to it rather than the straight back and straight through stroke that I’ve always tried to force.
We also changed up my stroke length.
Like many amateurs, my follow through was longer than the backstroke. My insturctor suggested taking more of the Cameron Smith approach to putting and make my backstroke longer with a shorter followthrough. And since I’ve made that change, my speed control has been much improved.
Since I am no longer using my straight arm stroke and hunching over like Quasimodo, the putters that I had been using were now all too short. Luckily, I still had an old Never Compromise SC-1 putter in my closet that I hadn’t used in over a decade and it was a couple inches longer. So I threw on a new putter grip and started using that.
So far, the switch to the new stroke and putter seems to have worked quite well but, it is a blade putter and not the most forgiving. When I hit the ball well, it feels and sounds great. But, when I miss the centre, you can tell from the difference in the sound it makes (and the fact that the putt loses a ton of speed). So, I booked a putter fitting to try and see what kind of putter I should actually be using. I might end up throwing an extension in the Scotty Cameron so I can use it, or maybe there might be a mallet putter out there that would suit my putting style better than my 20 year-old blade putter.
Whatever ends up coming out of it, hopefully it leads to even more strokes gained when it comes to putting and I can start Droppin’ Strokes off the ol’ handicap index.
Leave a Reply