==================================================== Newsletter - Issue 64 Date 08/02/08 ==================================================== ==================================================== TCT Quick Tips - Getting It Done ==================================================== To cure a sway, practice your takeaway with a golf ball under the outside of your rear foot. ==================================================== Golf Tip : Lag Line - Firm Line ==================================================== Here's an original tip that may seem to go against the grain of conventional wisdom, but it has really worked for me. A few weeks ago I was doing some analysis of my own game, looking for areas for improvement. I concluded that my medium to long range putting could use some attention. My putting has been excellent, but I want it to be better. Please note that I'm not arrogant about my putting ability, I am obliged to use the word "excellent" when describing my putting because that's what I teach my students to do, and I don't want a mutiny. "Thinking you can" helps the cause. One factor that led to my analysis was the fact that I have always made more then my share of long putts from the fringe, but not the same proportional number of long putts from on the green. Logic would dictate that the opposite should be true. I considered two factors, equipment and technique. Equipment Change On the equipment side, I had been playing a Callaway Tour ix ball, which is comparable to the Titleist Pro V1x ball. This ball is a bit harder than the Callaway Tour or the Pro V1. I had switched to gain a little bit off the tee when playing into the wind, and to minimize side spin. Those two goals were accomplished, but since I have been modifying my swing a bit the side spin doesn't really need to be as much of a consideration, and my putter face and the ball type were not an optimal matchup. What I mean by that is my putter face has a hard face as opposed to a softer face, and the optimal matchup is: hard putter face - soft ball, soft putter face - hard ball. The correct matchup gives you the best chance for a pure roll on putts, and it matters more on longer putts than on shorter putts. So I switched back to the Titleist ProV1 ball, the softer one - not the harder Pro V1x, which is designed for someone with a faster swing speed than mine anyway. I love and play Callaway clubs, but nothing rolls like a Titleist Pro V1 on the green. Technique Adjustment I use and teach a pendulum putting stroke, and part of the technique involves aligning a target line on your ball (either put there by the manufacturer or by you marking it on the ball) with the line that you want to start the putt on. The line you want to start the putt on is either the lag line or the firm line, and the stroke you put on the ball needs to match the line for that type of stroke. The lag line is the line that involves stroking the putt with just enough speed to get it near the hole, and it's usually a softer stroke than a stroke using the firm line. The firm line involves a firmer stroke allowing for less break, which means less deviation from your established target line. A lag line with a firm stroke usually misses on the high side and the putt rolls long, a firm line with a lag stroke usually misses on the low side and the ball falls short of the hole. These combinations are bad matchups. The stroke you put on the ball needs to match the line for that type of stroke. On short putts I still favor aligning the target line on the ball for a firm stroke, and using that exact target line for the putt with a firm stroke. This matchup is especially valid on public courses where inexperienced players step too close to the hole to retrieve their holed putts. Eventually a crown - or elevated doughnut - develops for about an inch circumference around the hole, which can make a putt that is dying at the hole veer off course. Putting short putts firmly every time is a bit mechanical, but learn to trust this combination because it is extremely effective and reliable. On long putts I used to align the target line with where I wanted to start the ball, allowing for break, then stroke the putt along that line. I have concluded that this method is a bit too mechanical, and it was preventing my instinctive feel for the putt. This accounts for making more long putts from the fringe than from on the green. When my ball was on the fringe I was not able to align the target line on the ball with my putting line, and my brain was allowing instinct and experience to calculate the stroke and line matchup - with excellent results most of the time. A good way to test your instinctive feel is to take a few long range putts on the practice green while looking at the hole instead of looking at the ball. If your putts are lagging close to the hole, you have a good instinctive feel for long putts. Here's how I have adjusted my own putting and my teaching method for long putts: 1) Align the target line on your ball for the center of the hole, regardless of break. This will give your brain an orientation for the general direction of the putt. 2) After you have determined the break of the putt, get your stance and position your eyes over the ball according to the target line on the ball as usual, then change the position of your putterface and your stance to play the break on the putt as you see it from this vantage point. When you now look down at the putterface and the target line on the ball, the putterface and your putter alignment markings will no longer be square to the target line on the ball, they will be angled according to your instinct to account for the break. Your brain will then calculate your stroke speed for a good matchup of stroke to line. (Another option is to not use the target line at all for long putts if you find it to be distracting. Try it both ways to see which works best for you.) This method works because it allows your brain to make last minute adjustments on line and speed which may vary from your original perception of the target line. It allows your instinct to take over the calculations, the feel of the putt is a lot less mechanical, and your medium to long range putting will be much more accurate. This technique works best with a putter that has really good alignment markings on it, like the Odyssey two ball putter, or the putters with flanges on the exterior edges or inner edges like the Rife two bar hybrids, or the Odyssey Sabre Tooth like the one Rocco Mediate used at the US Open. I'm sure that other putters will work with this method too, but prominent alignment markings help immensely. Try this technique out and see if you like it. I have been hearing the birdies chirp a lot more frequently with it lately, and I hope you do too. Enjoy, Tom