During a round of golf, the percentage of all putts made is 43. I have mentioned in my earlier articles that the putting technique should be efficient and adjusted to your mobility limitation. With increased efficiency, the amount of mishits and also the amount of time spent on your short game will decrease. An inefficient technique will give you trouble to find time to maintain your feel on the greens. It will most certainly give you trouble when the pressure is high and you are nervous. Dave Pelz mentioned in his book “Dave Pelz´s Putting Bible” concerning what should master your putt motion:

“Supplying the power, which determines how fast and how far your putts will roll, from the muscles of your wrists, hands and fingers is bad. Wrist motion (hinging) causes putter face angle variations, and hand and wrist muscles tend to tighten up and not work well under even slight pressure.”

Suppose that you already have a pretty good putting technique without too much wrist motion and an impact angle close to 0 degrees.

In this article, I want to explain what can happen when cutting or lengthening your putter and neglecting adjusting your technique to your new putter specifications. The problem concerns the conflict between the forward press and correct dynamic loft at impact.

What is the “forward press?”

The use of the “forward press” is widely used and recommended by putting gurus and professionals. The purposes of the “forward press” are several, but the majority of golfers who use it want to “kick start” the putt motion, deloft the putter or get their hands in front of the ball.

However I want to define the “forward press” like this:

When the shaft is perpendicular to the ground, the putter loft is the same as the static loft of the putter. If the golfer leans the shaft forward, the loft of the putter decreases. The distance that the golfer pushes the shaft against the target from its perpendicular position is the “forward press.” 

A golfer who uses the forward press will move his hands and the grip a certain distance before launching the putting motion. The distance will, in most cases, be the same even when the putter shaft is custom fitted to the golfers specifications. For example, a golfer who requires a 31-inch putter instead of the standard length (35 inches) most often uses the same technique concerning the distance of the forward press with the shorter putter as he/she did with the standard length putter. The degree on the putter loft will be delofted even more than with the standard length putter, however.

How much the distance of the forward press affects the putter loft depends on the length of the putter. The table below shows the degrees the static putter loft will be delofted when cutting your putter from 35 inches to 31 inches (and not adjusting your forward press distance):

As you can see, even a short forward press causes a negative dynamic loft. A 35-inch putter with 2 degrees loft and a 2-inch forward press will give the putter head a dynamic loft of -1.27 degrees.

The golfer has to compensate the negative dynamic putter loft during the putt motion with his/her putt technique. Otherwise the ball will be pushed down into the grass and probably lose its intended path and speed (it will be even worse if the grass is longer).

It is really easy to cut a putter shaft, but the “forward press” is harder to adjust so the dynamic loft at impact suits the putt technique.

Some tips on minimizing the possibility for addressing and putting the ball with negative putter loft:

• Most putter head designs are not so easy to address flat on the ground. My advice is to find a putter with wider sole and adjusted sole angle so the putter does not turn either way when you place the putter head on the ground.
• If you can use your thorax rotation without any lower body movement, then there is a possibility for more consistent putt motion with less variation of the dynamic loft at impact.
• Eliminate all wrist, hand and finger action in your putt motion.
• Buy a laser point gadget that can help you see where you aiming and if you are delofting the putter too much.

Laser Point Gadget

Laser tools for aiming are commonly used by many professional golfers and coaches. The best aspect with the laser point gadgets is the instant feedback on how you are aiming without help of some other person. Another good thing with the laser point gadget is also the possibility to verify what your dynamic loft at address is just before launching the putt motion. The best practice for this is to use the laser gadget indoors when aiming at a target on the floor mat. If you are forward pressing the putter too much at address, the laser point will be below the height of the laser point source.

A way to see your dynamic loft at impact is to use the laser point gadget and also video capture your target line and target. Then you can use the slow-motion function and easily find where the pointer appears at impact.

For more information on the laser point gadget, visit the site http://www.thesmartgolfer.com/

Conclusion

When changing the length of the putter you should also check your dynamic loft at impact to be sure that your technique can also produce the correct loft at impact with the new putter length.

If you would like to receive the chart with the loft and forward press distance, email me.