Putting, as with other parts of the game, has been studied extensively over the past decade to better understand what is happening that influences the way the ball comes off the putter. In this effort, the putting stroke has been broken down into all of it’s variables for coaches to better interpret the cause of inconsistency. Although much knowledge has been gained there has also been a tendency for a player’s approach to become too complicated and diversified.
Ultimately putting is very simple but also very subtle. I like to look at it the same way that we want to look at the full swing which is that efficiency is the goal. Efficiency equates to simplicity as there are ideally fewer moving parts which makes the stroke more repeatable. Imagine if all you had to do was hone the proper setup and then simply rotate around your spine using your core muscles. The arms and putter would then swing as a result. There would be no lower body instability complicating the motion, there would be no disconnect between arms and torso leading to inconsistency, and there would be no excessive hand or wrist motion to time through impact. This sounds repeatable, right?
Simple is not always easy in golf, in fact usually it is very hard. So getting to the point where you have a simple repeatable stroke will take hard work. Using the proper training aids such as an Eyleine Mirror and Blast Motion for feedback are an essential part of the process as well as doing your posture drill and torso rotations to get a better sense of the muscles providing the energy to the stroke which will allow for the excessive movement to quiet down.
