Why is it that our putts from two feet are more relaxed and why the different stance?
Our typical process to get in a good stance:
- Aim, pick a spot two feet in front of you
- Relax, stay balanced
- Just barely grip the putter
- Get in a comfy stance
- Stand with your eye over the ball
- Keep the face square to the line
- Think about how hard to hit it
- Don't get wristy
- Put the ball forward in your stance
- Don't over think it!
Now think about your "Gimme putt". How do you stand?
- Open up your stance
- Put 90% of your weight on the front foot
- Stand upright and over the ball
- Quickly take aim
- Hit it without thinking about anything except how hard to hit it
A successful Putt boils down to two things
- Properly defining the Impact Plane Vector (Reading the green and Aiming) and
- Applying 2 force vectors that are imparted to the ball at impact.
- Aim (The direction of the force vector resulting from the Impact plane when the ball leaves the face of the putter)
- Speed (Energy transferred to the ball along the Aim and Path directions)
- Path (The force vector of the plane of impact) This usually has a very very small impact on the put as it can only introduce spin. Watch HERE
Our stance should be made to eliminate as many variables that can impact our execution in delivering the impact plane as desired (Aim) with a small dynamic path force (spin).
Left eye dominance for right hand putters - a recent article came out on Golf City discussing how the best putters are cross-eye dominate but that they are the minority.
"Similarly, cross-eye-dominant players are inherently better putters than their same-eye-dominant counterparts. Upon further investigation, one can reasonably conclude that Leonard is justified in these assertions when assessing Tony Finau’s and Will Zalatoris’ golf games. Tony and Will are notorious for their stellar ball striking while also being two of the very worst putters on Tour."