Put a Perfect Roll on your Putts

• Posted on Grant
• in Golf Fundamentals, Putting
• on January 15, 2014
• Comments Off on Put a Perfect Roll on your Putts

To put a perfect roll on your putts, you must have correct shaft angle and ball position at address. Here’s what I look for when I check these two fundamentals:

1. Ball Placement: I put the golf ball one ball forward of center at address. This is the perfect position because I strike the ball on the upstroke. Hitting the ball on the upstroke eliminates most backspin which makes for a true roll immediately off the putter-face.

If you were to play the ball too far back in your stance, you would strike the ball while the putter-head was on the down-stroke. This would impart too much backspin, which would make the ball hop at the beginning of the the putt. It’s much harder to control distance when your putts bounce at the beginning instead of rolling smoothly.

On the other hand, if you were to play the ball too far forward in your stance, you would run the risk of “topping” the ball with your putter. (“Topping” is hitting the top of the ball with the bottom of the putter. Solid contact is hitting the center of the ball with the face of the putter.)

2. Shaft angle: I make sure that the grip-end of the putter is leaning toward the target. With the putter I currently use, I set up with the top of the grip exactly above the ball.

During the stroke, my left hand gets to the ball sooner than the putter-face because the top end of the shaft is leaning toward the target. The left hand leading the putter through impact is a major key to accelerating the club-head. If you were to send the putter-head through impact before the left hand, you would tend to mishit your putts.

These simple fundamentals are often overlooked by many golfers but I consider them to be the foundational keys of my putting stroke.

GB