THE MECHANICS TO IMPROVE YOUR STROKE

PGA Professional Matt Ballard breaks down the fundamentals of putting to help you build or maintain a good putting stroke.

ALTHOUGH I don’t like forcing one method and aim to work with each player’s preferences and in-built characteristics like eye dominance, there are certain fundamentals I like to see in a putting stroke.

A trait that I like to see in the majority of players is a very stable lower half from the belt down (pics 1 & 2), with no movement during the stroke.

You would be surprised how many players move their hips and legs when they are hitting putts. Remember your legs are connected to your spine and torso, your torso is connected to your arms and they hold the putter. If your legs move so does the putter. A well-judged long range putt that is perfect for speed but well wide of the target can often be put down to unwanted leg movement.

To get players in a stable position, I get them to jump in the air and land as if they jumped off a one foot step. Most land with their knees pushing out and with a little bit of pelvic tuck. At that point I see how stable they are. If they are nice and braced I know they are in a nice stable positon, with evenly balanced heels and toes.

However, plenty of people will land with straighter legs and their weight back on their heels and the putter will go left as a result in their stroke, following the general mass of the body.

To understand stability, stand on the middle of an alignment stick with it running through your laces and rock on to the toes and heels then find middle. Then hit some putts from there. I will often even hold players’ pelvis’ in place doing this drill to allow them to feel any subtleties or movements at all.

Once the lower body and lower lumbar are locked in place we can move onto the movement of the upper body and thoracic.

Rather than a feeling of down and up with the upper body, which promotes too sharp an angle of attack and low strikes, I like players to feel like the thoracic is working around their spine. Once players get the thoracic working properly, the putter delivery is much better and timing improves. The ball has more energy and the putter feels like it stays lower and moves left. A good way of picturing the movement we want is a merry-go-round rather than a Ferris wheel.

My favourite drill for this feeling is to put your hands over your shoulders or hold the putter out in front like you are hitting a putt off a really high tee. Lock your lower body in place then make strokes with the thoracic turning around the spine (pics 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 & 11).

Doing this in front of a mirror is really good and it’s almost impossible to get your shoulders tilting not rotating because in this vertical stance the putter will barely move if you are tilting (versus if you are turning around your spine). There has been some good putters who tilt their shoulders but they are typically streaky putters because the putter goes back shut and comes through open. Long putts will be hit too much on the up, too low on the face and they have inconsistent putting days as opposed to the merry-go-round feeling – which makes the putter face stay squarer and follow the chest and the ball strike higher in the face.