Golf Tips » December 2000 – Putting, Part 2: Posture

As I mentioned in my November Golf Tip of the Month, I recently attended the “1 Putt Golf School” in Winston Salem run by Tony Piparo and Steve Kaluzne. This month’s tip features part 2 of that experience.

Tony and Steve put me into a putting posture which made sense to me immediately. It amazed me that in all my years of teaching I had not been aware of this simple but extremely effective putting motion.

First of all place a small mirror and on the ground. Put your ball on the mirror. Get into your putting posture, where you should be able to see your eyes in the mirror. If you cannot see your eyes, change your posture until you do. Your eyes have to be directly above the ball if you are going to make the proper alignment. Failing that, you can hold your putter grip with the thumb and index finger holding it up between your eyes making sure the putter shaft is directly over the ball as in picture #1.

Second, relax your low arm, (the right arm for right handed golfers if you are putting with a normal grip) but in my case the left arm, as I putt cross-handed.

#2#3

As you can see in picture #2 my arm is hanging perpendicular to the ground, perfectly relaxed and extended. Swing your arm back and forth along the target line with a perfect pendulum motion. Now take your putter and place it into the palm of this hand and grip it as I am doing in picture #3.

Place the other hand on the putter with the palm adjacent to the lower hand. Your final grip and posture should be as in picture #4.

You are now in a position to swing the putter head in a perfect pendulum without manipulating the arms or putter face in any way.

This posture along with the alignment we discussed last month should produce a repetitive good putting stroke day in and day out. Next month I will discuss some drills that will further improve your stoke, and take your putting to a new level.

Next Month – Putting, Part 3: Drills

For more information on the 1 Putt Golf School, or to order their book, click on their logo at right.