Putter Fitting Help

Where do you see it best?

In any discussion on finding the correct putter for an individual, to start I need to discover three things. As they are interrelated, there is no order of preference. We need to address your visual and aiming tendencies. This creates your optimal ball position. We need to balance your posture to that ball position. This helps your rhythm and helps eliminate reactive movements within the stroke. We also need to evaluate your grip orientation and its influence on stroke direction and putter rotation tendencies. In my fitting guideline, the goal is to show you the techniques we have used to discover the answers to these three problems.

Please note that in no way do I force a technique on any of these categories! Experience has helped me understand that forced positions are often the source of inconsistent results.

For today, let us start with the visual aspect of the process. I am a firm believer in allowing your eyes to tell you where to stand. Every visual expert I have ever consulted with ends every conversation with, “...but everyone is different.” That immediately tells me you need to have a test to discover what you need. Inaccurate perception of target is a huge contributor to missed putts. Even with a system, for aiming well, we still see a player swing in a different direction from a lack of trust.

Here is an example we have seen often. A Player tends to swing the putter inside out from a square stance. When given an accurate reference to their start line, they comment that the reference is inside or left for a righthanded player of the perceived direction chosen. We ask them to setup up with their feet together. Two things often happen. We see a small tilt of the head and their perception of accuracy is improved. We also often see an adjustment of the orientation of the trail hand. This is an article on its own but suffice to say for now there is no question there is a connection. Finally, when the perception feels correct, we ask them to set their feet while they are looking at the putter ball relationship, rather than force the feet to a parallel orientation. Rarely does this end with a parallel stance to their target line.

At this point, I want to assure you that the role of your feet in putting is for balance and stability. Not a reference to the target. Hint. If you are getting a lesson or fitting and the first thing the instructor does is change your stance alignment, that is a sure sign they are teaching their preference and not looking for what is best for you.

Finally, it is important to understand that we consider the function of aiming, a separate function of the visual process. We have found that by going through our vision to test a player’s preference for the picture they create with the ball and the putter, they are different than finding the sight lines on a putter that match well to the ball. Remember the goal is to align the putter to the start line and not aim the putter at the ball.

Next. The difference between seeing the line and aiming.